Executive Summary

METZEN stands for premium engineering, consistent customer focus and technical excellence. In this interview, CSO Lars Netzel speaks about productivity in consulting, prioritisation, deal flow, customer value, digitalisation, AI initiatives, sustainability and the unique strength of METZEN’s teams.

“Technology creates speed. Expertise builds trust. People make the difference.”

PART 1 – PRODUCTIVITY IN CONSULTING

 Focus on what truly matters

Question: How do you define productivity in the consulting process?

Lars Netzel: Productivity means achieving more with the same time resources – more customer interactions, more projects, more results. It is not about doing more things, but about doing the right things. Productive consultants plan consciously, set clear priorities and generate significantly higher output from the same input. Focus directly improves consulting quality.

The right customers, not too many customers

Question: What role does customer selection play?

Lars Netzel: Customers differ in their strategic and economic value. Success comes from focusing energy on customers who are both relevant and profitable. Quality over quantity is our principle. This is how we ensure real value for our customers. At the same time, only those who are active have the freedom to choose. Sales quality therefore emerges from quantity. Put simply: those who have many options can select the best ones. This applies not only to us, but equally to our customers when choosing solution providers.

Consulting quality equals deal flow

Question: What does consulting quality mean to you?

Lars Netzel: A professionally managed consulting process is fast, structured and efficient. We call this deal flow. The smoother the process, the more orders per unit of time and the higher the productivity. The greatest and fastest growth potential lies in structuring consulting processes, for both our customers and our company. Shortening the consulting process while maintaining the same high quality excites the customer. The desired outcome, or the potential process optimisation, is implemented faster, and the improved earnings situation on the customer side takes effect earlier.

PART 2 – STRUCTURE, SELF-MANAGEMENT & CHALLENGES

Self-management as a success factor

Question: How important is self-management?

Lars Netzel: Strong self-management ensures that our Senior Engineers operate in their optimal performance range, neither underchallenged nor overloaded. This creates focus on value creation. Of course, there are peak workloads. What matters is recognising these temporary phases and returning to a productive flow state. Do we always succeed? No. But our open and transparent communication helps us identify issues early and respond together as teams.

Challenges in technical sales

Question: Where do you see the greatest challenges?

Lars Netzel: Our projects are technically complex, sometimes time-critical, and often involve customised or one-off solutions. This is exactly where our strength lies: we deliver when it matters. Calmness, experience, mental presence and the ability to guide customers through different scenarios, even during ongoing projects, are key strengths of our Premium+ consulting approach. These are core challenges in technical sales. “They can do it,” our customers say about us, and I say the same about our teams. Another major challenge is the often practised principle of “One Face to the Customer.” We always consult individually, either through a single contact or via team selling. Our consulting model is consistently aligned with customer needs, whether that requires one specific Senior Engineer or a team of Senior Engineers with complementary expertise.

PART 3 – CUSTOMER LOYALTY & CASE STUDIES

Customer loyalty through results

Question: How do you build sustainable customer loyalty?

Lars Netzel: Through transparent, measurable success. Our case studies show real challenges and concrete solutions. Transparency is the foundation of respectful and long-term collaboration. My fellow Managing Director, Andreas Groth, described this perfectly in his blog: long-term success requires trust, and trust only grows through honesty and transparency. I fully agree. This is also the working environment we cultivate within our teams. Our METZEN Code clearly and concisely describes this model of success.

PART 4 – THE FUTURE: STRATEGY, SUSTAINABILITY & DIGITALISATION

Future strategy

Question: Where is METZEN heading?

Lars Netzel: We clearly focus on high-value engineering: demanding projects, premium systems and sustainable solutions. This allows us to use our consulting expertise to create tangible value for our customers. For us, consulting expertise also means optimising existing premium customer installations or fine-tuning established solutions.

Let me illustrate this with a real customer requirement. One of our long-standing customers in the food industry produces mochis, traditional Japanese rice cakes. The customer uses a production line from a Japanese premium manufacturer that is well established in the bakery industry. The product quality is excellent, but the output per hour needs to be increased. The limiting factor is the sorting process before product placement. These are exactly the challenges we address with our individual Premium+ solutions. This is our Senior Engineering DNA and a core element of our future strategy.

The third pillar of our future strategy is the co-creation approach. In short, solution quality improves when our customers and our teams co-create on equal terms. We intend to strengthen this approach further. METZEN continues to evolve. In the current financial year, we successfully integrated GERWIN as a METZEN brand. The value lies, among other things, in the Senior Engineering expertise within this unit. By combining this experience with our existing Senior Engineering teams and approaching new projects across business units, we create Premium+ solutions for our customers. We call this Co-Creation 2.0.

Sustainability

Question: What role does sustainability play?

Lars Netzel: Sustainability means durable solutions, energy-efficient systems and resource-saving technology. We build systems designed for the future. Our customers want efficient solutions, and efficiency ultimately equals sustainability. For us, sustainability is also closely linked to modern ways of working and modern tools. Sometimes it starts with small things. Personally, I have not printed a single document in this financial year.

PART 5 – DIGITALISATION & AI INITIATIVE 2026

AI as an accelerator

Question: How do you use AI?

Lars Netzel: In 2026, we will launch a comprehensive AI training initiative. AI enables faster processing, greater precision, automated pre-analyses, validated data and optimised processes. At the same time, we are deliberately broadening our capabilities as a company. We invest in employees with strong AI expertise and follow a clear AI roadmap that we are already implementing consistently over two financial years. A logical step was the creation of the role of AI & Analytics Engineer. I am particularly pleased that we were able to fill this position with a woman.

What matters most is that digitalisation liberates sales. It frees our consultants from administrative tasks and creates more time for customers. The core task of our sales organisation remains unchanged: turning contacts into opportunities and opportunities into sustainable customer solutions.

Artificial intelligence is already part of METZEN’s daily work. I invite you to read my white paper on this transformation process, which will be published in the METZEN blog at the beginning of 2026.

PART 6 – THE HEART OF METZEN: OUR COMMUNITY

The expertise of our Senior Engineers

Question: With all this progress, what remains the most important factor?

Lars Netzel: Personally, I find the term “resource” outdated. Batteries may be power resources, and incidentally, this is a business area we equip with Premium+ solutions. We will report on a very exciting project implementation in the coming financial year.

The heart of METZEN is our community – our people, who fully identify with our brand promise: METZEN is your partner for solving complex challenges in industrial plant and machinery engineering. We deliver results, from analysis to implementation. We are building the industry of the future. We design and manufacture individual solutions to make our customers’ processes more efficient and more sustainable. Precise, fast and decisive.

Closing statement from the CSO

“We deliver Premium+ solutions with speed, precision and a genuine passion for consulting depth. A great customer experience is never accidental. It is the objective of our consulting. And that is why we are the partner you can rely on when it really matters.”