Bjarne Hermannsen “The key is listening”

Pairing product innovation with intelligent industrialization

Bjarne Hermannsen
Product Manager at Danhydra and in charge of our standard tool portfolio.
His decades in the wind industry and engineering background puts him in pole position to come up with solutions that meet real demands and solves real issues in the global industry.

Product innovation in the wind industry means little without the ability to roll out the change on a greater level. Product Manager, Bjarne Hermannsen, applies this philosophy across the Danhdyra product line up to ensure the right mix between innovation and commercial impact for the customers that use the products.

As with all other initiatives in Danhydra across development, manufacturing, and service, the development of both customized solutions and the standard product line-up must benefit the industry as a whole – not just a single customer.

For Product Manager Bjarne Hermannsen, this delicate dance between innovation and commercialization is key to being able to strengthen the wind industry by bringing down costs across the board.

“We have the unique benefit of having several innovation specialists onboard who work tirelessly to enrich and develop our range of “off the shelf” standard products. My job is to ensure that our innovations are grounded in specific customer challenges and concrete feedback from the market. For our standard range products to truly be of use, they must be able to be commercialized at a greater scale. This is the prerequisite for them to become of use to the whole industry,” says Bjarne Hermannsen and continues:

“Our innovation specialists all enjoy a great sense of freedom and room for experimentation because it’s all guided towards that end goal. To create something that enables our customers to do more, with less. They are the technical experts. My role is essentially to pinpoint the right direction for their ingenuity – and point them where they need to go.”

The key is listening

As Product Manager, Bjarne Hermannsen often visits with customers. Both in white collar functions and at specific sites. Here, he gathers feedback, wishes, and looks to understand how he can take on the responsibilities that their organizations can’t themselves.

“While we work for very large international customers, they are typically specialized and extremely good at what they do. So, although we are much smaller, our impact can still be significant as we can bridge the gap between their challenges and new product solutions. Often, we will have conversations on sites that spark a roadmap for new products that end up becoming standard across the market. This way, everyone benefits. That’s what we’re all about – from development to manufacturing and service. The ability to introduce solutions that not only fit one customer, but the whole market,” Bjarne explains.

New turbines – new options

As the wind industry continues to develop, so does the turbines being introduced to the market. While legacy turbines have set restrictions, new models need new solutions. To Bjarne, this part is perhaps the most important to supporting customer profitability.

“We have ongoing conversations with all parts of our customer’s organization – from sales to procurement to the technical specialists and importantly, the operational site-experts, both during installtaion, commissioning and service, to supporting a wide range of the wind industry. We also work with other brands and competitors’ products as a global multi-brand service provider. This adds to our knowledge base and widens our ability to develop and supply next-level of products. All this input and feedback offers valuable holistic insights that we use to create what we like to call ‘1.5 solutions. Upgrades and new products that address real challenges in way that becomes relevant to everyone,” Bjarne says and continues:

“To me, that’s the key. To be able to turn innovation into real change at an industrial scale. That’s when you really bridge the gap between challenges and smarter solutions.”