Page 404 - Operations Strategy

®
case study 3 • carglass : Building and sustaining a customer-centric organisation
Case study
3 carglass : Building and sustaining
®
a customer-centric organisation

Kurt Verweire

Wim Buekens

Hasselt (Belgium), end of January 2010. Jean-Paul Teyssen was surprised to find out that
his colleagues of the Executive Team had organised a little party to celebrate his 10th
anniversary as CEO of Carglass® Belgium/Luxembourg (Carglass® Belux). During the
party, they presented the major achievements of the company over the last ten years.
Everyone agreed they were impressive. Carglass® Belux had by far exceeded the goals
set by the corporate parent, Belron® Corporation. Customer and employee satisfaction
scores were at an all-time high. Revenues almost tripled over the period 2000–09, while
operational profits had quadrupled.
Nevertheless, as Jean-Paul Teyssen contemplated the future, he foresaw some signifi-
cant challenges for his company. He had built a very successful organisation on the
basis of continuous improvement and had achieved performance that nobody thought
was possible. His motto was always: ‘Dream big – even in more difficult times’. But with
employee and customer satisfaction scores of 96 per cent and more, what was there to
be improved? And more importantly, how should he fight a culture of complacency?

Company background

Carglass® Belux is a subsidiary of Belron®, the world’s largest automotive glass repair
and replacement corporation. Belron® operates in over 30 countries and more than
25,000 employees serve approximately 11 million customers per year. Founded in 1897
in Cape Town, South Africa, it has since grown into a global company specialised in fix-
ing damaged vehicle glass across the world. At the heart of the service is the company’s
repair story: “If we can repair a windscreen before replacing it, we will.” Consisting of
multiple business units operating under different names, such as Carglass®, Autoglass®,
Safelite®, O’Brien®, among others, each responds to the local needs, with the support
of operations standardised across the group. The corporation focuses on achieving a
high level of customer service in all the countries in which they are present. (For more
information on Belron® refer to Exhibit 1.)

This case was written by Kurt Verweire and Wim Buekens at Vlerick Business School. It is intended to be
used as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an
administrative situation. The case was compiled from field research.
Copyright © 2013 Vlerick Business School, Belgium. No part of this publication may be copied, stored,
transmitted, reproduced or distributed in any form or medium whatsoever without the permission of the
copyright owner.

Z03 Operations Strategy 62492.indd 379 03/03/2017 16:04