''Increase The Velocity''

Adapting Camfil’s business model to work at a faster pace was critical for the business to thrive in today’s China, according to managing director Michel Moulin.

- Anne Majumdar

NAME : Michel Moulin

COMPANY : Camfil China

POSITION : Managing Director

LOCATION : Shanghai, China

Having lived and worked all over the world, Michel Moulin has fallen in love with many great cities. But now, as Managing Director of Camfil China, his heart well and truly belongs to Shanghai.

“This city is beautiful. It’s clean and organised,” Michel tells The CEO Magazine. “The last time I came to Shanghai, maybe five or six years ago, there were lots of scooters with loud engines creating noise pollution, but now everything is electric so it’s very quiet.”

Indeed, since taking up his position at the start of 2020, he’s been on a steep learning curve getting to know modern China. “The pace is fast, the innovation is fast, construction is fast, everything is fast,” he says. “Camfil has strong brand recognition and high expertise in terms of technology, but I realised that if we wanted to get more orders, we had to speed up our processes and increase the velocity.”

The light-bulb moment saw Camfil China embark on an operational overhaul in February 2020, which looked at the processes in place as well as the creativity and commitment from the team. “We managed to reduce our lead time by 50 per cent, and we did that in just three months,” Michel shares. “And because of that, we were able to take a big order for filters to help China build a laboratory to make the vaccine for COVID-19 – something we are very proud to be a part of.”