hi everybody I'm Nicola tangan and today I'm in good company with Tuan the CEO of Worlds voice and in the fun we own 2.3% of the company totaling more than $1 billion so big welcome to fun now um when you took the job Ed wals uh you called it a burning platform why were you so dramatic in kind of your opening statement

So first of all it was an internal meeting uh I would say so this is my third transformation right we may talk about what are the right pillars I learned what pillars you want to have in place sort of in Transformations one of the pillars is very important that actually you put the mirror up because most of the organizations which requires turnaround they don't nature of it whole employee base is not anymore communicated where the company is.

I think that town hle what I did when I first came in obviously I did lots of assessment of the business before I shoved up then I got together with leadership because I want to get them on board then we had the big tunel to engage everybody else right it.

in that tunnel it was 1 and a half hours what I was doing early on put the mirror up and then talk about the vision and how we are going to get there how did people react actually internally people reacted it was they found it very energizing of course externally you found the first 15 minutes of that on the on the news which was saying burning platform.

normally when I walk to the sort of work I I put my headphone and I listen to music or podcast something like that I was actually like that in King's cross station I was sort of walking with my headphone on a lady approached me and said are you too fun next day this.

is I I said I took the headphone of I said yes she said that town hle was so energized when I read it I thought you know what he he's either going to turn it around or he's going to be out of there in a year but you still here so that's all good.

how did you prepare for the job you say you made assessments before how how does one do that before one takes job.

so I do external assessment and internal assessment so early September I actually launch an external benchmarking which took couple of months uh division by division and I created the steering committee I wasn't in the job I invited all the division leaders to be in the steering committee because if they have disagreements while we are progressing the external benchmarking they should be in the mix right so obviously CFO as well so that was the steering committee.

so between early September to November we did external benchmarking while this was happening I was meeting with the teams M to do my internal assessment.

how many meetings did you have.

many frankly many uh so I I cannot I don't count.

why is it important to meet so many people before you start.

one of the things I actually did Beyond internal assessment I talked to top investors so I actually met with them and it was very clear that there was huge frustration out there so it was very clear to me we needed to go into action this wasn't going to be a honeymoon period so therefore there is an ideal sequence of my pillars but I hardly end up with the ideal sequence in Transformations because in this case I need to get go into action very quickly.

so circumstance always sort of you need to tailor it so then you come in here gen one what you do gem one.

when I came here I came with very clear ideas then uh because we all as an ET I already met and we agreed actually late November as an executive leadership we did until late November remember they were part of the steering committee Etc we did lots of work so we knew what the agenda was.

okay we came in ET was obviously ET change executive team change quite a bit but at that time you had set the team before you came.

you had some priorities which you set pretty early one was to refine the contracts and work on pricing how do you do that.

we've done lots of things everybody sort of focuses on contract negotiations because I it is interesting for many people frankly we came up with six lever as part of that the investment we make and the risks we take we don't Ren numerate them sufficiently in our pricing second thing is what is called ltsa contracts this long-term contracts with Airlines and so on.

our pricing therefore was not good there and we had lots of big contracts with losses if you like so early on we needed to deal with it for two reasons for for performance Improvement reason because I actually again we are not talking about the pillars but normally I lead with strategy then everything comes but I was very clear that strategy was going to take six to nine months because the way I run strategy is very inclusive I don't run it with couple of people in a dark room.

and how did we go about it your question Nikolai.

I really believe we are not a supplier we are a partner and that's how I step into these conversations and most of them had operational issues with Roy Roy so these are with the engines that you supply to the Airlines.

and just uh for the listener here you supply half the engines to the world's wide body planes that that's correct that's corre.

incredible Market position yes I think our delivery is 50% yes.

there are only two players as you know in that market.

so what do you do I mean every meeting is slightly different in some sense very identical in the other sense because they all had operational issues and I said at the end I acknowledge it I'm going to make sure I'm on it and we can talk about it but I also said weak royroy can only give you that.

I'm investing 1 billion pounds in time on Wing program that's improving products our customers will benefit a lot right we are going to improve whole portfolio by 40% that means a lot less disruption for our customers I said weak rollsroyce could do only this stronger rollsroyce can be a better part partn.

but you are not negotiating with uh companies which print money right you are negotiating with Airlines which are generally not doing well so why would they want to give away a lot more money to you.

I've been actually on both sides of the equation in my career sustainable Partnerships only work and only become sustainable if they are mutually beneficial otherwise they are not I was in a very rich contract so one day after 3 years four years I don't remember ex they came and said sorry enough is enough if you want us if you want to take us to the court take us to the court we are not honoring this contract anymore I didn't do that by the way.

so my whole point was actually let's rebalance this and we did some early work and we can also find win-win Solutions I didn't actually fight the issue I said we need to rebalance it but we can if we bring the teams together find win-win Solutions so now that we made great progress I look back in every case we found win-win Solutions.

and now you approve all pricing or you look at all contracts is that right that's.

correct.

you said that uh it was impossible to change things that people didn't think was possible to change what are some of the other things that you have changed I mean in this company we change everything effectively and we renegotiated OE contracts as well.

I mean in this company we change everything effectively and we renegotiated OE contracts as well the big change in this and it it plays a significant role in in my pillars having a very gr strategy which Roy Ro didn't have.

so it's detailed in terms of what you want to achieve it is detailed in terms of participation and competitive strategy I where you are going to participate and you make lots of choices and how we are going to compete that is so important because it becomes alignment tool because it aligns the whole organization.

I'm a huge believer in what you are saying here and we're doing the same in the fund right these kind of broad anchoring means that when you have decided something it's easier to move but this is uh quite Scandinavian but way of doing it right where did you take it from.

I learned by doing I'm not Scandinavian so I didn't get it from there but my view I use it alignment engagement and Performance Management too so I learned it it is one of the key pillars in my Transformations.

how are you doing it.

I do four things right I obviously tailor it but four things one is put the mirror up with a Clear Vision people are very important leadership is even more important I have fundamental belief good people make difference and Leadership has a big role in transformation because they need to deliver the goods at the same time lead to change rather than only delivery.

who do you promote what what's the leadership skills you are looking for.

I look at obviously they need to be capable in leading the business I don't look at is see sort of loyal Etc I don't look at that I actually look at individual characteristics and that's then my job to create a team out of it m i put together a sheet what I expect from them I gave everybody first week.

even people need to believe in extraordinary in my previous life I was an analyst on cover rollsroyce and I met uh the person who ran it then war in East he talked about uh permafrost as being the midlevel of the company really really really difficult to change why are you managing to change it.

it's a mindset thing right it is more than mindset because I totally disagree if somebody is saying I'm going to do team exercises cultural change exercises and culture will change that's not my model you need need to put the right things in place.

so granular strategy most of the organizations don't when they have it they put it on the Shelf when I am building granular strategy I am already thinking about strategic strategy implementation we have 17 strategic initiatives which will transform this company.

17 you performance manage that.

it is embedded in the organization because of if you only want to run things with communication that's where the things stumble but if you actually get I call it Swit spot aligned organization everybody knows their roles my 17 program because strategy is that granular implementation is granular.

think about I said alignment engagement Performance Management tool let me time on win Improvement is one of them so let's say Nic you are the time on wi leader.

just explain time on wing.

it is effectively improving our products so that durability of the products we have reliability of our engines are very good we are making this1 billion Improvement and ponds actually that's one program one of the 17 I'm just giving you example right.

so now you are the leader of it here is my program now I told you the following you matter Nicola in our transformation you and your team matter it is very engaging those people tend to be mid managers because mid live I gave you something you matter and go and engage this with your team when you go to your team you are saying guys here's what we can actually contribute in this transformation that is so satisfying in big.

organizations if I am doing something in line with the culture I let it go because culture will take care of it if I am doing something against the culture and I want to change the culture i performance manage very consistently then over time that changes the culture.

what part of the culture did you need to change.

what of the most important cultural change I made CEO judgment based on year on-year Improvement on that because I want people to think strategic progress and our accelerated delivery has a lot to do with this we can talk about it Nikolai but strategic progress is one then we came up with four behaviors that we are actually rolling out as we speak right.

let me tell safety first we can talk about it uh doing the right things yeah and then making a difference I'm going to remember I keep it simple what we see often in companies and you you probably saw that in BP too right when you work in a company where parts of the organization needs to be so super safe it spills into the rest of the organization so even places where you don't have to have to be super safe you build super safe procedures.

obviously I manage business businesses with very highrisk profile yeah goes without saying that these engines need to take over and not stop me there right so it's it's imperative for everything you do absolutely.

when you have been implementing this how is it to work with the labor force and the unions and so on.

I I talked to you about 500 people were already included in strategy development therefore I never had an issue oh I have a strategy now I need to engage the or organization we were already aligned not to mention that 500 people's brains and experience actually improve the strategy sort of quality of strategy but actually you are already aligned everybody knows oh we made lots of tough decisions so an Union engagement so that whatever we do here is pretty inclusive already rather than sort of let's do the things in dark room and and then let's go and engage people no not like that.

it's incredible how fast uh this has gone right you're now one year and nine months into into your period here um how far are you on on the transformation you think from the sort of results you are.

absolutely right accelerate delivery I think we frontend loaded the delivery one day this year I was reflecting on it because results delivery how much of it how much of the performance Improvement we thought we were going to deliver was identical to two other Transformations I did that made me sort of think hold on a minute very different businesses very different starting points different people etc etc how come here's my conclusion after that reflection you change the mindset to strategic progress you have very clear programs I talk about it owned by the people and then you go with pace and intensity.

who did you learn it from did you learn it at BP.

my learning process sort of is a little bit sort of different because I'm still learning by way before I joined Mobile in the US after the school I was actually when I was doing PhD I was teaching in Ohio State University and doing research on uh micr and macroeconomics so I I had this learning part of me and when I through out my career I always whatever position I took to cut it short I read at least three books about it and then you you synthesize it those are textbooks obviously you synthesize it you implement it you learn more.

who are the best leaders you have learned from.

I don't think there was one leader that I can actually say but a little bit of sort of me completing the puzzle for myself if you like rather other than copying one person I say what I think uh and and that authentic bit is not about copying it is me creating but learning from every occasion frankly I'm still learning I actually tell the team I learn a lot I mean authenticity I think is key if you we see the people who burn out are the people who are not authentic the people who try to be somebody else.

very very important how important is the board in this process.

oh very important coming in and making an impact on a company like this is very special that's why I'm here ah in that board is a big role because turnarounds don't happen by incremental actions when you are making non-incremental actions not everybody's happy internally or externally by the way you talk about burning platform Etc board should be prepared to support you in the turnaround because you are going to be doing some of the things which will bring big change and that mean not everybody will like it at the beginning.

I actually believe this is a transformation which will benefit all the stakeholders but it's not about me how it lands with them early on may be very different.

is it lonely to be the CEO.

yeah but I mean it is part of the job right I mean that's how I see it.

do you think uh being the COO is tougher now than it was 5 years ago generally across companies.

yeah probably because.

why what what what is making it tougher to be the COO these days.

all the stakeholders understanding frankly and their awareness improved over years so you need not only about sort of employees and investors when you are running a company you need to think about all the stakeholders and not in this sense of like zeros you need to embrace it in a way therefore I said it early on transformation is holistic this is not restructuring by the way M this is transformation I Define both of them very differently and it will benefit all the stakeholders.

world is actually rapidly changing I'm not sure it was that rapidly changing in the past if I say two big trends I see in the world energy transition and digital transformation neither of them were at the level that they are right now 10 years ago but the speed of change is different and the impact not only impact on your business but how much opportunity they create also how you are going to is one and stakeholders awareness improved on the other hand so.

uh the energy transition and the digitalization how does that impact your uh largest division the Civil Aerospace.

next 20 years on energy transition in commercial planes I should say will be about really more efficiency I fuel efficiency and 100% saf compatible that's sustainable aviation fuel right.

that's sustainable aviation fuel.

we are the only company actually can say all of our engines compatible with 100% sustainable Aviation field you can I know regulations don't do that don't require it right now but they are ready world needs to incentivize saaf especially what I call synthetic fuels why because today saf most of the people are talking about is biobased but there isn't enough of it to decarbonize the whole aviation industry therefore we need to incentivize synthetic fuel.

I from Green hydrogen you go to with a conversion technology you go to effectively saf.

how fast is this transition going.

not very fast right now because it needs to be incentivized I mean reality is these Technologies by definition especially early on more expensive even biofuels is more expensive as you know many airlines therefore unless it is mandated it it they don't use it because it creates competitive disadvantage for them right and synthetic fuels is even a little bit more expensive uh but the benefit of it you can scale up so I'm not sure without policy support they will actually scale up significantly hence my point about policy support.

talking about another change here what what are your plans for the narrow body Market.

first of all that market is an interesting Market obviously huge right it is Big growing white body is also growing but here are two things in strategy presentation last year in we called it CMD effectively I call talk about we want to participate with with a partnership why do we believe what are we bringing to the table so.

thing about first of of all Next Generation uh engine will be more fuel efficient and saf compatible as I said ultrafan is exactly that which is your technology.

this is our technology.

that we are working on uh it is it is 10% more efficient than the most efficient engine is out there and we believe with that and what you can do in the whole air aircraft new aircraft you can take that 10% to 15% which is significant and it is 100% saf compatible so that's one thing.

second thing is are IPS on it this is a geared structure and one thing Nikolai I don't think there's any controversy around that in the industry next generation will be geared dine because of this efficiency requirement if you like and our IPS and how long they are are position us positions us really well and then the third thing is we really have some capability in this space that respected by others.

so those three things we I believe we bring us to the table.

talking about the table so we are now seeing boing struggling with quality we are seeing Airbus uh kind of struggling with producing enough volumes when will we have a third credible player here.

it may take a while uh but.

and who is it going to be you think.

I mean comak is working on it as you know that's a Chinese company.

yes Chinese company uh when do you think they'll have a good plane.

I mean they already have narrow body as you know they have a plane and narrow body uh today with G engine so that is already out there and they are scaling up so in a way they are already in the market uh in that sense.

you are one of the leading companies in small modular reactors yes which is kind of a new way to harvest the nuclear yeah Power what what do you think this could be.

if world is genuinely sincere about net Z especially Europe because us has few other options M doesn't work without nuclear that's simple this is not about my opinion versus another expert if you believe in mathematics you have to believe that okay.

so therefore Europe needs to embrace nuclear then you have two choices big or small big or small oh we know all all the advantages and disadvantages of the big because world has good good bad and ugly experience with that.

what is the advantage here.

first of all this cost and derion risk it is small you dilute but it's not all this is 85% of it manufacturing process so it is not a big EPC project big nuclear plants every time you start from zero how you want to mass produce them 85% marginally you produce and you learn like many manufacturing learning process.

so why is it so uh financially risky why are people so uncertain about the cost of making these I mean it financially they are much less risky than the big plant but new.

I mean it financially they are much less risky than the big plant but new technology it's not new technology in this s that we have been doing this technology 60 years in UK submarines but commercializing new technology early early plans are always risky.

so when will you have your first PL up and running you think you.

when we have the hopefully orders from uh gbn and few other countries we are working with uh I am hoping next year if orders come then frankly you need to build the supply chain Etc then 2030 2031 around that.

where are you technology wise compared to let's say the The Venture which is backed by Bill Gates.

so I think ours is most Advance especially in Europe This is not me talking there is a regulatory process which says three-phase process right which actually assesses your technology and then you get the sort of approval I.E you have viable technology and safe to deploy we are the only company actually a effectively in phase two.

so in in your mind is this like a no-brainer type of technology to take in use for Supply security and Net Zero for Europe.

yes especially for Europe right right right because Europe doesn't have many choices.

defense we are not going to talk about geopolitics but how is the world CH changing the way you run your defense business.

we are not in weapons production so people have misunderstanding that they now our performance is good people think ah it is Ukraine more and so on it has nothing to do Ur engines Ukraine more didn't impact at all our defense business right we so therefore there is a misunderstanding our defense business Improvement so far is all underlying performance Improvement if you look at what we call midterm i 27 targets it's going to be mostly about underlying performance Improvement in the business.

after that we have big programs like B52 uh Flora program in the US and gap program and and obviously submarine iocus growth here they are all coming we have significant growth coming because of the Winds we had so far but it has nothing to do with Ukraine war and so on.

what's driving you.

it's lots of things I talk about coming here and creating a legacy I mean lot transformation strategic goals all obviously you want to achieve and so on so forth.

what's your driving force what makes you wake up early in the morning what makes you work late at night.

I'm about making a difference when I took a job I seen that as a I I wasn't obviously CEO to start the career I I whatever job I always told the following they pick me I need to make a difference that nobody else can.

so how how does that show up right because otherwise they could have put somebody else if if I'm as good as the next guy how much do you work actually.

I I'm not smarter I should say Nikolai how much I used to work probably was too much but I actually manag it better right now.

how do you do that.

uh it's prioritization I dynamically prioritize and encourage my team dynamically prioritized.

how do you relax.

I go to gym every morning I need to play competitive tennis every weekend so I I do that uh sort of Saturday Sunday and sometimes nights sort of but not every time.

what do you read.

uh I read history books these days I read Ai and history books because I I want to improve myself Frank.

and what part of History are you fascinated by.

History of the World by Andra Mar I actually like his style I read the history of modern Britain by him again.

is art and culture important in your life culture is.

definitely very important uh I'm not that artsy sort of guy but obviously given how many countries I lived in that made me think about cultures because when you live my first 11 years I changed eight countries M it wasn't by Design Nikolai it happened.

talking about young age what is your advice to young people.

three things if I can say one thing is is learning actually it is learning to improve your own value if it makes sense your value as an individual then money and career progression will come I actually rejected this is true story big promotion accepted a horizontal move because my view was actually that is going to make me more effective later on.

so one thing is learning they need to think about how they learn people learn differently whatever works for them I'm not saying there is one way but they should focus on themselves and making a higher value individual.

number two power of belief I tell people did you achieve anything difficult that you didn't believe in but people that I talk about you need to believe in extraordinary I believe in extraordinary but it doesn't happen without the Deep belief it is possible.

but is this has this got to do with optimism and delusional optimism.

I'm not an optimist by the way right it's character I would go to what's not working rather than what is working first okay.

which gives me some recognition challenge sometimes with the organization that I work on okay but and what's the third point.

it is Passion whatever they are intending to do they should go in with two feet in sometimes people hedge themselves um this is high risk go with your passion go with two feet in then you can make things happen.

mhm do uh you clearly have gone with both your feet into this turnaround situation uh you're still standing it looks uh really good and also having heard how you uh prioritize we are really pleased that you have dynamically prioritized these podcasts big thank you okay thank you ni.

okay thank you ni.