Skip to main content

Sandvik Construction look ahead with 2020 strategy

Dinggui Gao has been in post as president of Sandvik Construction since October 2013, and in that short time has travelled thousands of miles meeting customers. He and his team now have a clear idea of the company’s strategy up to 2020, a strategy that was finalised in the last quarter of last year. “To me the best value in meeting our customers is to understand their needs and understand how they operate their business,” says Gao, who is known by his initials, DG. Understood to be the first Chinese pers
January 6, 2017 Read time: 3 mins
Dinggui Gao president of Sandvik Construction
Dinggui Gao has been in post as president of 2403 Sandvik Construction since October 2013, and in that short time has travelled thousands of miles meeting customers.

He and his team now have a clear idea of the company’s strategy up to 2020, a strategy that was finalised in the last quarter of last year.

“To me the best value in meeting our customers is to understand their needs and understand how they operate their business,” says Gao, who is known by his initials, DG.

Understood to be the first Chinese person who has made it to the very top of a Western company, he was previously at MAN Group as its executive representative at one of its invested companies, Sinotruk Hong Kong. Before that he was employed by Honeywell, Eagle Ottawa and for over ten years he held progressive leading positions in the 3405 Bosch Group.

“From meeting the customer you can get an idea of how we can help them, whether it is with products, services, innovation or business models.

“We can provide value to our customers. If we can do this we will win together. This is my belief. This is the reason why we always go out to meet our customers.”

Looking at the marketplace he feels that in 2013 many operations were optimistic about the market and while in 2014 the consensus is that there will be a certain degree of growth, in the first few months he says there has been slow growth. The US and Asia has seen slow growth. Europe has been pretty strong, particularly the UK, Germany and Turkey.

“From a growth perspective and based on our knowledge I think the best opportunities will come from the US and Asia.

“I am really happy being at Conexpo and I have been in contact primarily with US customers, although I have been meeting customers from all over the world as well. Every customer is telling me stories of how they feel more confident about the market. This gives me confidence that we can grow the business together.”

He said that together with his team at Sandvik Construction the company is now focusing on five objectives to support its aim of long-term growth: services packages to offer the best value for customers; sales; operational efficiency; a competitive footprint and partnerships.

“In 2013 we launched 37 new products and in 2014 we will see more than 20 new products,” he said.

“These products have been the result of interaction with our customers and these are designed to meet the demand from our customers.

“New products and innovation have always been one of the strengths of the Sandvik group. Indeed, Sandvik has been nominated as one of the 100 most innovative companies in the world for two consecutive years.”
%$Linker: 2 Asset <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 2 49405 0 oLinkExternal www.Construction.Sandvik.com Sandvik Construction Web false /EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.aspx?alId=49405 false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • China is crucial market for Caterpillar’s long term operations
    January 6, 2017
    China has long been an important market for Caterpillar, which first began operating in the country in the early 1970s following talks between China and the US. Its first equipment in China was for generators to power a communications system supplied to China by the US following the talks. The company also worked closely with LiuGong as part of a technology transfer agreement, which highlights Caterpillar’s focus on China. The global crisis has not been an easy time for any construction equipment manufactur
  • China is crucial market for Caterpillar’s long term operations
    November 29, 2012
    China has long been an important market for Caterpillar, which first began operating in the country in the early 1970s following talks between China and the US. Its first equipment in China was for generators to power a communications system supplied to China by the US following the talks. The company also worked closely with LiuGong as part of a technology transfer agreement, which highlights Caterpillar’s focus on China. The global crisis has not been an easy time for any construction equipment manufactur
  • Attitude is key to sustainability, says Volvo CE’s Thomas Bitter
    June 27, 2018
    Whether you are in the global Volvo Ocean Race or working on-site locally, sustainability is about attitude as much as technology. David Arminas reports. Technology, sustainability and safety. We ignore these often related themes at our peril. This was the key point made by Volvo Group chief executive Martin Lundstedt during his brief opening presentation at the start of the Building Tomorrow Conference in Spain last October. The conference took place within the harbour of Alicante that was bustling wit
  • First-time exhibitor CMS Cepcor to display replacement crusher spare parts/crusher liners
    March 11, 2013
    First-time exhibitor CMS Cepcor will exhibit its range of replacement crusher spare parts and premium crusher liners at bauma 2013. Recently awarded the Queen’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in International Trade, CMS Cepcor currently exports to over 100 countries. Despite the worldwide economic recession and credit crisis, the company says its sales turnover increased by over 100% since 2010. “This growth has been achieved through a focus on optimisation of web presence together with an engineering f