STOCKHOLM | SEPTEMBER 9TH -11TH
Growth + Profitability Summit Stockholm 2024
Ready to elevate your revenue, growth, and profitability to new heights? Discover how to Ascend to Prosperity amid today’s economic challenges.
We look forward to seeing you at our event!
Ascend to Prosperity
Elevate Your Business to New Heights. The economic landscape has become as unpredictable as the weather. Successful organizations need to not only navigate but also rise above challenges – and agility is key.
Navigating the path requires more than resilience – it demands a strategic ascent. You need clarity, confidence, and agility. Every business decision can either propel you forward or hold you back. The stakes are high, not only for our businesses, but for the world at large.
Join us for this year’s Growth and Profitability Summit where theory meets action. We don’t just envision higher growth, revenue, profitability, and margins— we create the steps, strategies, and tactics to get there together. We’ll master the elements of sales, pricing, rebates, AI, and data… and we won’t rest until we’ve reached the highest peaks.
Why Attend
Speakers
KEYNOTE
Andreas Ekström is a digital futurist, journalist, and author. He is one of Europe’s most sought-after futurists. As well as helping organizations to understand how the digital revolution transforms society, he offers an insight of the tech world from a truly human perspective. He has been a TED speaker, with close to two million viewers, has won several awards, amongst them the “Speaker of the year” award in his native Sweden.
Vendavo Team at the Conference
Here are the faces you’ll meet that are geaking out about all things pricing at the forum this year.
Sadiq Pumuram
Global Head of Parts Pricing & Margin Management, JLR
Sadiq Pumuram brings over 25 years of commercial experience to his role, having held various positions at prestigious organizations such as Coca-Cola, Sony, and now Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Over the past 7 years at JLR, Sadiq has excelled in several management roles, beginning as Head of Entrepreneurial Trading and advancing to his current position as the Global Head of Parts Pricing and Margin Management.
In his current role, Sadiq oversees a global team of 25 full-time employees dedicated to supporting JLR’s aftermarket parts and accessories business. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Studies from Nottingham Business School.
Outside of his professional life, Sadiq is a family man. He is married, has three children, and resides in Sutton Coldfield, UK.
Anna Gumeniuk
Head of Pricing, Sandvik Coromant
Bringing over fifteen years of expertise in pricing and discount management across the metal cutting and IT industries, Anna has a proven track record of bringing profit and revenue growth through strategic pricing management and by applying the result-driven approach in her daily work. Exceptionally proud of her diverse team, Anna enjoys leading and empowering pricing professionals of various cultures and background, working in modern virtual environment. With a strong interest in IT and innovation, Anna is also the developer of multiple internal solutions and analytics processes that enhance efficiency of price management. Outside of her professional life, Anna is a passionate musician and avid mountain hiker.
Stephan Fessner
Head of Commercial Management and Processes, Dynapac
Stephan lives in Germany and he has been working in construction equipment industry since 1998. He has been active in the road construction area for the brand Dynapac since 2009. After different roles and positions as Product Manager, Regional Aftermarket Manager for D/A/CH region and Pricing Manager, he is now acting as Head of Commercial Management and Processes. He is leading a team of three pricing and CPQ nerds, aiming to provide commercial excellence. He has detailed experience and knowledge in aftermarket affairs, sales support, pricing and commercial business tools. Dynapac belongs to the Fayat group and have 5 factories around the globe. Main products are Soil and Asphalt Rollers, Pavers, Feeders and Light Compaction Equipment.
Anders Hellman
Director Parts Pricing, Volvo
Anders Hellman, Director Parts Price Revenue Volvo Trucks
Anders Hellman have 20 years’ experience in working in automotive aftermarket business ranging from parts documentation & quality management to parts sales in international markets. Since 2015, Anders have been responsible for Volvo Trucks parts pricing department. Team consists of 7 price managers managing global price list, net pricing to markets, pricing competence development as well as driving pricing innovations.
Outside work, Anders spend time with wife & three kids with various activities depending on season.
Michael Ziegler
Global Pricing Finished Goods, STIHL
Grown up in Stuttgart, Germany, with roots in Transylvania, Michael is German by passport but European by heart. Michael is 40 years old, married and proud dad of two amazing boys. Beyond his family role, he’s a passionate sports guy and a big fan of questioning the status quo and challenging existing patterns.
Michael has become a pricing expert working in different roles and industries for more than 8 years and it is not getting boring. Since the start of 2024 he is working with STIHL developing and implementing holistic pricing strategies for the Finished Goods assortment, where the ongoing battery transformation is evident and one of the industry’s most significant challenges. It requires a lot of passion because it means that mindsets have to change. As human beings naturally don’t like change, Michael strongly believes that trust, transparency and empathy are key to successfully manage this transformation.
Marc Abels
Consulting Partner, Deloitte
Marc Abels is a Deloitte Consulting Partner, with 20+ years of experience in sales and marketing and a deep expertise in pricing. He has worked mainly in life sciences industry (pharma, animal health and medical devices).
Marc leads the Monitor department for Deloitte Belgium and is the ‘pricing’ expert within Deloitte Europe and is a regular speaker on various pricing conferences (e.g. Professional Pricing Society and European Pricing Platform).
Michael van Elk
Head of AI Engineering, Tribe AI
Michael van Elk is the Head of AI Engineering at Tribe AI, where he leads the development of their core AI platform and oversees technical excellence for all customer engagements. Michael has extensive experience in designing and implementing AI systems for complex business problems, including implementing state-of-the-art models, developing automated model training pipelines, and constructing complex back-end services and applications. He specializes in leveraging AI techniques to optimize operations and decision-making processes.
Björn Willemsens
Managing Partner, PAGE-37
Björn is founding partner at PAGE-37 and previously an Associate within the Pricing and Profitability Management competence center of Monitor Deloitte in Belgium and Switzerland. Throughout his career, Björn is active as a consultant in the domain of Commercial Excellence. His key areas of expertise include Customer Management Strategy, Sales Force Management, Pricing and Profitability Management and Entrepreneurship.
He has demonstrated top level analytical and tactical skills which, combined with a high level of pragmatism, lead to successful process reengineering and strategy implementations. He acts as a lead member of the European Pricing and Profitability Management Community. As such, he drives the further development of pricing methodologies and market awareness. He is a regular guest speaker at conferences. Bjorn is a professional coach and trainer and has extensive experience in workshop facilitation and interviews. His mother tongue is Dutch, and he is fluent in English and French.
Eric Carrasquilla
Chief Executive Officer, Vendavo
Eric Carrasquilla brings product management expertise, deep product strategy, and a proven track record of success in the technology industry to his role as CEO of Vendavo.
Eric is a revenue management veteran with deep roots in technology, product strategy, and product management. He joins Vendavo from customer engagement, revenue management, and payment solutions provider CSG, where he served as Executive Vice President and Division President. Eric is passionate about building, selling, and delivering great software that creates awesome customer experiences. He holds an MBA from Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business as well as a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from San Jose State University.
Alex Hoff
Chief Evangelist, Vendavo
Alex Hoff has been with Vendavo since 2008 and has served in roles across pre-sales, professional services, marketing, and product management. In his current role as head of product management, Alex manages a talented team that brings innovative software solutions to market that enable B2B corporations to operationalize their commercial excellence strategies. Since 2018, Alex has led the transformation of Vendavo’s product portfolio from a first-generation on-premises software platform, to a portfolio of integrated cloud-native SaaS products.
Prior to working for Vendavo, Alex worked in various marketing and pricing roles for Fortune 500 companies in business services, retail/consumer goods, and freight transportation.
Alex earned his MBA with a Concentration in Marketing from the MJ Neeley School of Business at TCU where he also holds a B.S. in Psychology. Alex was also among the early participants in the Certified Pricing Professional program from the Professional Pricing Society in 2008.
Robert Irwin
Senior VP of Business Consulting Europe, Vendavo
Robert has worked in the area of Pricing for over 20 years and has spent the last 14 years at Vendavo helping customers to implement and automate their pricing processes, strategies and margin optimization. Before joining Vendavo, Robert was the Global Director of Pricing at a High-Tech manufacturer where he developed, built and led the Pricing Organization. He is experienced in leading sales and operations teams in the international business environment and has a proven track record of successfully leading organizations through structural and process change. Robert has an MBA from Wake Forest University and a BA (Hons) in International Business from Sheffield City Polytechnic.
Kamal Sabnani
Principal Product Manager, Vendavo
Kamal Sabnani is a Principal Product Manager with a background in data science and 15 years of experience applying pricing analytics and deploying enterprise pricing solutions in the B2B and B2C space. In his current capacity, Kamal leads the product vision and strategy of the optimization suite of Intelligent Cloud. Prior to Vendavo, Kamal was responsible to build AI capabilities in the CPG and financial services sector. Kamal Sabnani holds a MS degree in Operations Research from the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Darius Fekete
Director, Value Acceleration, Vendavo
Darius leads the Value Acceleration practice at Vendavo. He has 15+ years of professional experience in pricing and digital transformations across various industries including B2B manufacturing, distribution, and financial services. He is an advocate for elevating commercial excellence to strategic levels in organizations and is an expert in scaling pricing & negotiation capabilities. Before joining Vendavo Darius advised customers at other consultancies including Simon-Kucher & Partners focusing on top-line growth initiatives.
Thrudur Starradottir
Customer Success Manager, Vendavo
Thrudur Starradottir is a Customer Success Manager at Vendavo. She brings a wealth of knowledge in digital innovations within logistics and supply chain management in the construction industry. Prior to joining Vendavo, Thrudur served as a Teaching Assistant at Uppsala University and worked as an Accounting Associate at Kvika banki hf. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from University of Iceland and a Master’s degree in Industrial Management and Innovation from Uppsala University. Thrudur is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner, reflecting her dedication to driving successful organizational transformations. With her diverse background and expertise, she consistently delivers exceptional results in optimizing sales processes and enabling revenue growth for Vendavo’s clients
Craig Endicott
Senior Director EMEA Professional Services, Vendavo
Craig leads Vendavo Professional Services in EMEA. He has been driving growth through enterprise software for more than 20 years and has held roles in consulting, customer success and customer experience. Before joining Vendavo, Craig worked in several software companies guiding customers in a variety of industries to achieve their goals through the combined power of people, processes and technology. Craig has a BA Honours in Economics and Management from the University of London and is a Net Promoter Associate in Customer Loyalty.
Chris Kennedy-Sloane
Business Consultant, Vendavo
Chris is a Business Consultant with Vendavo and brings a wealth of pricing and commercial experience across a wide range of areas, including IT, pharmaceuticals, genomics, manufacturing, food, and petrochemical industries. Most recently working in industry in the private equity space for LGC group, he drives pricing acceptance and excellence in businesses through creative, realistic solutions that demonstrate real value returns. Prior to Vendavo and LGC group, he ran the Western Digital EMEA pricing function.
Karl Larsson
VP, System Solutions, Vendavo
Karl is based in Stockholm and has been working with pricing since 2006. Karl has served in roles across professional services, managing product development teams and product management. For manufacturing and automotive industries Karl has been running price optimization programs, developing and implementing value based and market driven pricing strategies and developing operational processes supporting their long-term success. He has been implementing our price management solutions for our clients. Karl is the product manager for Vendavo Pricepoint.
Karl holds a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Diana Micevic
Principal Product Manager, Vendavo
Diana is a Product Manager working on Vendavo’s Intelligence Cloud analytics portfolio. Before joining Vendavo, Diana has been working as a product manager in different IT companies, such as SAP Concur and Medallia. Working across different industries and products has allowed Diana to do what she is most passionate about – continuous learning. Outside of her professional life, Diana spends most of her time with family and friends, cycling, hiking or traveling.
Ali H. Salem
Director, Strategic Solutions, Vendavo
Ali is the strategic solutions director, responsible for formulating service delivery plans for our EMEA customers. Over the past four years, Ali has advised Vendavo’s clients on commercial excellence from strategy through implementation. With over eight years of experience in pricing and commercial excellence, his expertise is particularly strong in discrete manufacturing and automotive industries. Ali holds a Master’s degree in Industrial and Management Engineering from Luleå University of Technology.
Marek Moskor
User Experience Designer, Vendavo
Marek Moskor is a user experience designer and futurist with extensive knowledge in product design. He is passionate about the future of UX and how AI can transform product development. Marek’s interests include generative AI, ethics, and autonomous decision-making. He combines his skills in creating intuitive user interfaces with a forward-thinking approach to technology.
Lehrasib Ali
Managing Consultant, Vendavo
Lehrasib joined Vendavo as a Pricing Consultant in October 2016 and has since been promoted to Principal Consultant level. Prior to this, he worked for Shell Petroleum UK as Functional Lead, Global Deploy Lead, B2B Pricing Project Manager and then SalesForce project lead with many successful implementations and support handovers.
During his 23 years of professional career, Lehrasib has worked with B2B clients from various industries for regional & global implementations. Lehrasib is certified Prosci change management professional and has lead change management initiatives for clients with multi geographic regions. He enjoys the challenge of making sense of and delivering solutions for complex business problems in partnership with his clients.
Lehrasib holds a BSc (Hons.) degree in Business Systems & Information Technology with Project Management, Change Management and Artificial Intelligence as his key subjects.
Summit Agenda
September 9
17:00 – 19:00
Come for early registration, networking drinks, and snacks! This is a great opportunity to break the ice and meet up with friends and industry peers!
Welcome Reception takes place at Mornington Hotel City.
September 10
8:00 – 9:00
Welcome to our event! Meet us for coffee, light breakfast, and networking before the first session starts.
Welcome Reception takes place at Mornington Hotel City.
9:00 – 9:10
Growth and Profitability Summit’s Master of Ceremonies, Thrudur Starradottir, welcomes to the event.
9:10 – 9:25
Introduction and welcome by Eric Carrasquilla, the new CEO of Vendavo.
9:25 – 10:10
Alex Hoff breaks down an exciting future for Vendavo’s products and customers. This session will give you a firsthand look at how our latest innovations and use of AI are designed to solve real-world challenges our customers are facing day in and day out. Get the insights and clarity you need to make confident business decisions that help you scale.
Speaker: Alex Hoff, Chief Evangelist, Vendavo
10:10 – 10:30
Pricing pressures come from many directions, whether it’s internal or external, teams need to build the right strategies for their organizations. In this session, Sadiq Pumuram of Jaguar Land Rover, shares how a global automotive parts pricing team creates and manages pricing strategies that balance the numerous “right times” necessary to hit the market and the lessons learned along the way.
Speaker: Sadiq Pumuram, Global Head of Parts Pricing & Margin Management, JLR
10:30 – 11:00
11:00 – 11:35
Join Darius Fekete, Sr. Director of Success and Value Acceleration, on an interactive session that challenges misconceptions about how hard it is to measure your impact and value with the data you have available today. Unlock ways to identify opportunities, accelerate value and revenue, and create actions to transform your business.
11:35 – 12:20
Getting pricing strategy consensus can feel like a roller coaster. Learn how to create a cohesive pricing strategy that aligns your team internally and resonates with the market externally. Get insights from seasoned leaders on building agreement within your organization and effectively communicating your pricing strategy to stakeholders.
- Build internal consensus to enhance your company’s pricing approach without alienating customers
- Clearly communicate the value of strategic changes to internal teams and external stakeholders
- Eliminate silos to ensure a unified approach to pricing that maximizes business impact
Moderator: Craig Endicott, Senior Director EMEA Professional Services, Vendavo
Panelists:
- Michael Ziegler, Global Pricing Finished Goods, STIHL
- Anders Hellman, Director Parts Price Revenue, Volvo Trucks
- Björn Willemsens, Managing Partner, PAGE-37
12:20 – 13:25
13:25 – 13:30
13:30 – 14:00
Modify how you approach Pricing as Marc Abels, Deloitte Consulting Partner, delivers insights on the future of pricing teams, including:
- Forget about segmentation, the future is clustered and micro, powered by advanced analytics
- Shifts in your value offering from product to customer and why this is the starting point
- Pricing teams are front and centre to the organization, learn why you should go for it
14:00 – 14:45
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping industries. But it’s hard to spot the difference between hype and realistic. Learn the practical applications of AI in commercial excellence strategies. Explore how it can streamline operations and enhance decision-making within organizations. Gain insights into integrating AI effectively, understanding your internal needs, and strategically innovating to leverage AI for optimal results.
- Understand how to assess and integrate AI into your pricing strategies to meet internal requirements.
- Explore practical examples of AI in action within commercial solutions, including successes and lessons learned.
- Discuss the future of AI in pricing, including tools, applications, and technologies that can scale operations and enhance efficiency.
Moderator: Chris Kennedy-Sloane, Business Consultant, Vendavo
Panelists:
- Kamal Sabnani, Principal Product Manager, Vendavo
- Michael van Elk, Head of AI Engineering, Tribe AI
- Alex Hoff, Chief Evangelist, Vendavo
14:45 – 15:15
15:15 – 15:35
Changing customer behaviors, market environment, and business approaches are currently shaping new pricing trends. These trends present challenges for pricing professionals working with traditional pricing models, and at the same time bring new potential to optimize profitability and revenue. Join Anna Gumeniuk, Head of Pricing at Sandvik Coromant in a discussion that addresses these new pricing complexities.
15:35 – 15:55
Whether you’re connecting internal teams or software solutions to enhance your processes, there are many similarities to upgrading your commercial strategies. Join Stephan Fessner, Head of Commercial Management and Processes, as he shares how integrating multiple tasks and data sources with Vendavo Pricepoint and CPQ for a critical business process has elevated the status of his pricing team across Dynapac’s organization.
Speaker: Stephan Fessner, Head of Commercial Management and Processes, Dynapac
15:55 – 16:55
As human pioneers writing the ‘digital constitution,’ we must think beyond conventional tech solutions and embrace continued research, development, and a deep, humanistic approach to technology. Andreas Ekström, a noted futurist, will share a set of ideas, questions, and hands-on tools to help you understand how AI can enhance, rather than replace, the unique strengths of human intelligence.
- Understand “Organic Intelligence” and its significance in the AI revolution
- Explore the intersection of human experience, values, and technology
- Navigate the ethical and collaborative dimensions necessary for maximizing human potential
- Engage in a broader, more profound learning process about AI’s role in enhancing human capabilities
Speaker: Andreas Ekström, Journalist, author and digital futurist
16:55
As human pioneers writing the ‘digital constitution,’ we must think beyond conventional tech solutions and embrace continued research, development, and a deep, humanistic approach to technology. Andreas Ekström, a noted futurist, will share a set of ideas, questions, and hands-on tools to help you understand how AI can enhance, rather than replace, the unique strengths of human intelligence.
- Understand “Organic Intelligence” and its significance in the AI revolution
- Explore the intersection of human experience, values, and technology
- Navigate the ethical and collaborative dimensions necessary for maximizing human potential
- Engage in a broader, more profound learning process about AI’s role in enhancing human capabilities
Speaker: Andreas Ekström, Journalist, author and digital futurist
17:15 – 21:30
Dinner will take place at the beautiful Gamla Riksarkivet (Old National Archives). With a history dating back to 1887, Gamla Riksarkivet is today one of Stockholm’s most prestigious buildings.
It is about 1,8 km walk from the event venue to Gamla Riksarkivet and we will walk there together. We will be guided by a Stockholm guide and we will make a few interesting stops a long the way.
September 11
8:45 – 9:00
Start the day with a coffee together with us
9:00 – 9:45
Karl Larsson, VP of Pricing Solutions, is your guide to everything Vendavo Pricepoint. We’ll cover everything from best practices to new features and AI developments. Discover how professionals like you are using Vendavo Pricepoint to shape their commercial strategies and uncover hidden gems within the product that you might not know about.
9:00 – 9:45
Improving any commercial process is not for the faint of heart. These initiatives demand sharp focus, dedication, and collaboration. As seasoned leaders, you’ve battled challenges and surprises head-on. Join this breakout to hear prescriptive methods for getting your projects approved and trending positively. Plus, hear from industry peers as they highlight their successes and failures.
Speaker: Ali H. Salem, Director, Strategic Solutions, Vendavo
9:45 – 10:15
10:15 – 11:00
Plug the profit drain with Diana Micevic, Principal Product Manager at Vendavo. Discover how to spot, track, and stop margin leakage. Take actions with insights and strategies to boost revenue, profits, and margins using Vendavo’s latest innovations. Plus, learn about how Vendavo’s newest product, Action Adviser can help you grow profitably.
10:15 – 11:00
Undebated is that pricing is changing to meet the times and customer expectations. What does this future look like? Connect with other industry leaders to explore how dynamic pricing and the B2B environment is reshaping and how to pave the way for success. The roundtable offers a candid conversation on the realities of what works, what doesn’t, the role AI plays, how likely B2C behavior in B2B is, and the valuable insights gained from longer-term strategies. This will be a lively discussion that promises practical takeaways and a deeper understanding of best practices through the lens of experience.
Moderator: Robert Irwin, Senior VP of Business Consulting Europe, Vendavo
11:10 – 11:55
This in-depth session with our Services team will guide you through preparing for your implementation effectively and extracting maximum value from every engagement with Vendavo. Plus, whether you have questions on data strategy or team collaboration, the team is here to answer your questions.
Speaker: Lehrasib Ali, Managing Consultant, Vendavo
11:10 – 11:55
Artificial Intelligence is transforming nearly every field with significant impacts on User Experience. Join our UX team for a candid roundtable discussion. You will have the opportunity to share your experiences, learn from peers, and hear from experts at Vendavo.
Moderator: Marek Moskor, User Experience Designer, Vendavo
12:00 – 13:00
Standing networking lunch.
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