Once, getting off the highway for gas meant a quick detour, with maybe a stop at a convenience store with hot dogs of dubious provenance and facilities that weren’t all that sanitary. But that side-of-the-road experience has changed in recent years. Convenience store chains like Wawa, Sheetz, and Buc-ee’s have garnered cult followings with made-to-order food, branded merchandise, and, yes, super-clean restrooms. Car washes are suddenly everywhere, and many of them offer subscriptions. And gas pumps now share the same stretch of asphalt with EV chargers.
Anshooman Aga, CFO of Fortune 500 company Vontier, told CFO Brew that his company is well positioned to capitalize on these trends. The subsidiaries under its umbrella address many different aspects of what’s called the “mobility ecosystem,” he said, and Vontier’s people and processes give it a leg up as well.
A multifaceted view on the mobility space: You might not recognize the name Vontier, but if you drive, you’ve very likely encountered the hardware and software it manufactures and supports. Its subsidiaries include gas pump manufacturer Gilbarco Veeder-Root; car repair tools maker Matco Tools; EV charging station business EVolve; car wash software provider DRB; and Invenco, which produces point-of-sale systems and software for convenience stores. They have a broad reach: Vontier technology is used at some 250,000 fueling sites, 65,000 convenience stores, and 17,000 car washes.
Having a foothold in so many different parts of the industry gives Vontier an advantage, Aga believes.
“All our businesses are tied together by the mobility ecosystem, and what we’re doing is driving productivity and automation in this space,” he said.
The company’s solutions can address one of the biggest “pain points” convenience store owners face: a lack of integrated payments, Aga said. For instance, a customer who stops to fuel their vehicle and then also gets a car wash and buys a snack from the convenience store will make three separate transactions. “That’s not a great consumer experience,” he noted. The business will also be charged swipe fees three separate times. But if a client has set up Vontier devices and software, customers can finalize payments at any location or terminal, inside or outside the store. The tech can also draw on data to incentivize customers to buy more with coupons, discounts, and product recommendations, Aga said.
Vontier’s software, and the wealth of data it has accumulated, is helping it solve another pressing issue in the mobility space: EV charger downtime. Its Driivz EV charging and energy management software uses an “AI-based self-healing algorithm” that can diagnose and resolve many EV charger problems remotely, Aga said.
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A system for success: You can’t spend much time with Vontier executives without hearing about the Vontier Business System. The system takes much of its inspiration from Japanese “Kaizen” lean manufacturing principles, but it’s also a “mindset” around how the company solves problems and tracks performance, Aga said.
Aga was intrigued by the Vontier Business System even before he joined the company as its CFO in 2022.
“The VBS is something that had always fascinated me,” he said. “When I was at other companies, I tried to replicate it. So being part of the original was something that was very appealing.”
To address problems, Vontier staff attend Kaizen events, in which cross-functional teams, often representing all levels of the organization, come together for a week of intense brainstorming. The Kaizens allow teams to “experiment quickly,” Aga said. “And within a week, not only have you understood why you’re having an issue,” he said, “but you’ve also experimented on solutions.”
One Kaizen helped change a production methodology, he said by way of example. “And by the end of the week [the teams] had the production line re-set up, and they already had a solution that was implemented and tested,” he said. The process also works for non-manufacturing problems, he said, noting that he’s used it to improve finance processes as well.
The human factor: Time and again, Aga emphasizes the importance of having good relationships with your coworkers. “When you spend a significant part of your work week…with a bunch of people, you want to enjoy the people,” he said. The company encourages hybrid work, and Aga says he’s usually in the office whenever he isn’t traveling. “It’s hard to build culture remotely,” he said, “especially when you have bigger teams.”
The friendships built upon things like sharing space and getting lunch with coworkers matter, he said. After earnings calls or SEC filings, his team has a tradition of walking to a bar near company headquarters and having a drink together before going home. “It’s become so popular that one quarter, we forgot to schedule it and we got multiple reminders!” he said.
The camaraderie “also helps with retention,” Aga said. “When you feel part of your team, you think twice before you pick up a recruiter’s call,” he noted.