Gunter van Craen - CDIO at Bekaert - Innovation and sustainability in steel wire business CIONET

„Not many people know that, but Bekaert has had in many cases a lot of patents and the first space shuttle that actually went into space, had Bekaert material on it”, says Gunter van Craen, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Bekaert, a global steel wire and coating organisation.

In this #leadershipdeepdive interview Hendrik Deckers talks with Gunter about Bekaert’s strategy on innovation, digital and sustainability. Being a company that’s heavily relying on natural resources, sustainability must play an important role in Bekaert’s operations. Gunter explains how data is used to support the race to net zero. Curious to know more? Gunter was our keynote speaker at the 15th edition of CIONEXT | The Reace to Net Zero where we discussed the sustainability agenda. If you missed the event, make sure you watch not only the interview, but also the recording of the event 👉 https://youtu.be/yUPNNu28-sY

Table of contents:

01:09 | Introduction and Gunter van Craen’s background

03:50 | About Bekaert

06:09 | Main drivers of change in the steel wire industry

08:26 | Innovating in uncertain times

10:38 | Bekaert’s position in the race to net zero

15:20 | The role of digital technologies in the sustainability agenda

17:30 | Machine learning and AI

24:25 | The role of CIOs in the sustainability agenda

26:49 | Sustainable IT and infrastructure

30:08 | Is going to cloud a goal?

32:19 | Application landscape

35:37 | Security and sustainability

40:35 | Choosing suppliers

44:46 | IT organisation at Bekaert

48:14 | Challenges of leading a geographically dispersed team

51:16 | The changing role of CIO

53:53 | Gunter’s management style

57:13 | Gunter’s leadership style

01:00:00 | MBTI: the Commander

01:05:31 | Core values

01:06:53 | The most cherished gift

01:08:02 | The most brilliant failure

01:10:15 | Gunter’s passions

01:12:19 | The best and worst moments in life

01:14:17 | Personal mantra

01:15:25 | Gunter’s mentors

01:16:16 | Advice for people starting out

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