Former professional handball player, Gabor Bognar is now taking up a different challenge as Lubmarine’s Regional Zone Manager for the Company’s SEMEIA region (Southern Europe, Middle East, India and Africa).
Here he tells us how he is able to draw upon his experiences in sport and business to work with his team to help drive the Lubmarine business forward.
Can you tell us how you came to be in your current role within Lubmarine?
After my professional sports career in Hungary I began my commercial life as a salesman in the automotive industry, and continued as a sales manager, managing different sized teams of up to 150 people. I finished my career in this sector as the sales and marketing director for Hungary’s biggest new car retailer, representing more than 15 car brands.
I came to TotalEnergies in 2011 as lubricants director for the Hungarian affiliate. In 2017 I became responsible for the automotive lubricants department of the CE HUB responsible for Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
And then in 2020 I joined Lubmarine. Whilst it is lubricants, it is a completely different type of industry and dimension in terms of complexity, geography and size of business.
What does your role in Lubmarine entail?
I am based in our Nanterre offices in France, I oversee the Lubmarine sales activity for Southern Europe, Africa, Middle East and India including Greece, the biggest shipping market in the world in terms of ship ownership.
I am responsible for a team of 13 people based in France, Greece, Italy, Turkey and The United Arab Emirates. I was very lucky as when I arrived in my role in 2020, I inherited a really well trained and experienced team, which has since grown further.
My role is in developing and driving sales across the territory and supporting the supply, logistics and customer service operations. As a whole, the Lubmarine territory covers in excess of 100 countries with very diverse business cultures. We operate either directly through our TotalEnergies affiliates or through our network of trusted partners who we work closely with to support our customers.
It is also a very challenging zone in terms of logistics. We have more than 20 blending plants in the territory, producing marine lubricants with deliveries to over 300 ports.
Lubmarine is a very dynamic business operating a 24/7 service. The key to our success is the teamwork between supply, customer service, sales, technical, marketing, and back offices. We must ensure the availability of the right products at the right time across 1,000 ports around the world. It requires a very well-established logistics system and a very dynamic and effective daily supply and logistics activity.
You have highlighted the importance of teamwork - can you tell us about the team you work with and how you see your role in working with them?
I have a fantastic group of people under my management, coming from different nationalities and business cultures. They have been invaluable in helping me shape decisions through their experiences and perspectives. I am very grateful for their support. I try to spend as much time as I can, listening to them and supporting their daily work. The teamwork is very efficient and supportive, and the communication is very smooth within the team members and we all share the same values.
Fortunately, from the beginning of 2022 I was able to start to travel more and visit my team and our customers. For me it is vital to be close to my team, the markets, and our customers. It is important to hear the needs of our customers and teams directly so we can make decisions that will contribute a positive difference to their business operations.
I certainly learned a lot from professional sport and seek to use these lessons in my work life - notably the importance of teamwork, how to motivate people, being target oriented, always striving to win, never giving up, reacting quickly, being one step ahead of your competitors, being courageous and adapting yourself to new situations.
Aligned with that, humility and respect are very important values for me. Admitting mistakes and being transparent are also important elements I highly value.
My working system is human centric, understanding the power of individuals in the team and their collective cohesion. I believe in the quality of people, their individual added values, and the quality of their personal relationships.
My main role as a manager is in supporting my team, establishing resources, and being available when they need advice or help. My objective is creating and maintaining a positive, supported working environment for my team, where they can work efficiently, positively and happily.
I have the four “R” rule I established for myself. Resources, Responsibilities, Requirements and Results, which I believe, must always be in balance. Difficult to execute, but important.
What types of customers are you and the team working with across the territories you manage?
Given the sheer size of the territory, we are working with all types of shipping customers with ship owners, ship managers, alliances, partners, resellers and even power plants.
It is important that we stay close to the stakeholders on both the technical and purchase side, as part of our customer proximity focus. In Lubmarine we have an excellent team of marine lubricant engineers who are working in the field directly with the customers and in turn, working hand in hand with our sales force.
The business performance is proportional to the quality of relationship gained between our team and customers.
Through the travel restrictions imposed by Covid we worked hard to keep in close contact, both as a team and also with our customers, but I really cannot understate the importance of working with the team personally and meeting our customers face to face also.
I believe this is a significant point of difference to how we operate in the market.
What is your experience of working within Lubmarine?
Lubmarine is a very colorful and versatile business and I feel lucky to be part of such an interesting department of TotalEnergies Lubrifiants. We are currently celebrating our 70th anniversary, which shows the long history of this business but we keep our organization and strategy extremely modern, dynamic, and well adapted to the volatile and highly demanding shipping market.
As one of world’s leading marine lubricants suppliers we have the ambition to further grow and strengthen our position. Our organizational set up, network, products and services give us a very good base to achieve this. But the key is in the people working within Lubmarine. Their talent, ambitions and dynamism, which makes me confident we have a very bright future ahead.
We have a very strong company behind us, and a well-established background and expertise given by TotalEnergies Lubrifiants.
Customer Proximity is one of the biggest strengths of our Company and a real differentiator for us in the market I believe.
As part of TotalEnergies I feel very lucky given our ambitions regarding energy transition and reducing our environmental footprint through it. Our Company is the most integrated energy company, also one of the biggest investors worldwide in renewable energy production and projects, which I really value.
How is Lubmarine supporting shipping’s transition to decarbonization?
The biggest challenge in the industry at the moment is in continuing to contribute to the international directives and climate ambitions as part of shipping’s transition towards decarbonization.
2020 marked a big step when the marine fuel Sulfur cap was set at 0.5%, requiring strict collaboration from the ship operators, and we are now supporting and enabling the move to further reduce GreenHouse Gas emissions.
The change of the fuel types - from LNG today to the development of a range of future fuel solutions (biofuel, hydrogen, ammonia, methanol) are also affecting the lubrication of marine engines so we are entering a challenging and opportunistic time in the industry.
As a global leader in marine lubrication we have existing lubrication solutions for LNG and dual fuel engines – including MAN ES Cat II cylinder lubricants with the development of Talusia HD 40. Further innovations include the development of fuel economy lubricants, which significantly contribute to the fuel saving of a vessel thus indirectly supporting further emissions reductions.
We have been working on different digital tools and new upgraded services, to improve the customer experience. Preventive lubrication management combined with digital tools is the future of our industry. We can contribute to the decision making of the, engineers on board, fleet managers, superintendents, or owners of the vessels. Helping them ensure the safety and steady operation, improving their effectiveness, and decreasing their operational costs is something we are actively contributing to.
What do you do when you are not busy with work?
Family is very important to me and I try to spend as much time as I can with my wife, our 12 and 15-year -old sons. I am very lucky to have a very supportive and loving family. We go walking a lot with our dog, like traveling and going out. I like to experience as many nice and beautiful things as I can; people, places, cultures, music, foods, clothes.
Sport has played an important role in my life and I exercise every day to keep my body and mind in the right condition.
I am proud to represent the TotalEnergies brand in the best way in each moment both in my professional and personal life. If you are not proud of your brand and company, you cannot be authentic in front of your colleagues and customers but even your friends or family members.