How impor­tant is Team­work for success in your busi­ness?

Johannes Pfeffer: Our inter­ac­tion with key customers is getting increas­ingly versa­tile and complex. While we offered a rela­tively fixed product port­folio in the past, we nowa­days provide advice to our clients on specific designs, options and vari­a­tions, tailor-made to the appli­ca­tion needs of our clients. We are now talking about solu­tions. In order to success­fully develop, sell and produce a solu­tion, we obvi­ously need indi­vidual contri­bu­tions from different func­tions, with different capa­bil­i­ties and skill sets – often coming from different loca­tions. Only if these contri­bu­tions merge harmo­niously together to one seam­less value stream, a busi­ness can be successful. Or said differ­ently: Team­work is not only one factor, it’s the factor for success in our busi­ness.

“Team­work is not only one factor, it’s the factor for success in our busi­ness.”

Johannes Pfeffer, Spokesman of the Manage­ment Board at ebm papst St. Georgen

Toto Wolff: Team work is also absolutely vital to succeed in Formula One^TM. In such an intense sport, even when tech­nology might seem the prime factor to success, we would not be able to win without our people. At Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motor­sport, we put a lot of effort into recruiting, retaining and devel­oping the vast numbers of highly intel­li­gent people that work at our two facto­ries in Brackley and Brix­worth.

How do you manage to orga­nize collab­o­ra­tion in your teams?

Toto Wolff: Managing a team of this size is all about effec­tive commu­ni­ca­tion. We can have well over one hundred people trav­el­ling round the globe at any one time, plus nearly 1500 working away at the facto­ries, so you have to make sure everyone is in the loop and commu­ni­cating with each other. We have daily debriefs from the track back to the factory and always get all of the staff together to talk through each race as soon as we are back in the factory, regard­less of the result.

“We have daily debriefs from the track back to the factory and always get all of the staff together to talk through each race as soon as we are back in the factory, regard­less of the result.”

Toto Wolff, Team Prin­cipal & CEO of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motor­sport

Johannes Pfeffer: I perfectly agree with Toto. It’s all about commu­ni­ca­tion. Effec­tively leading large teams means above all to ensure commu­ni­ca­tion. It starts with the staffing process in which the often referred to ‘soft-skills’ are getting higher atten­tion than tech­nical skills. It also means that exec­u­tives need to spend a substan­tial amount of time to talk to their teams, to explain the goals and direc­tions for each indi­vidual person but also for the team.

I real­ized in my role that the one thing I need to do right is commu­ni­ca­tion. Effec­tive leaders know that they need to perma­nently review frequency, style and content of their team commu­ni­ca­tion, they need coaching and prac­tice. My personal ‘contin­uous improve­ment process’, CIP, is a contin­uous commu­ni­ca­tion process, CCP. From CIP to CCP so to say.

How do you focus many indi­vid­uals to one goal?

Toto Wolff: Bringing hundreds of people together to work towards one aim over a sustained period is not an easy task but we take an open and proac­tive approach to manage­ment, with regular staff debriefs, an open door policy, empow­ering our people, and of course, trying to lead by example.

Johannes Pfeffer: In this context I’m a bit envious at Toto. I think it’s much easier for a Formula One^TM team to define their goals. All team members under­stand that there is one goal – it is simple and clear: The team wants to win the race and jump on the winner´s podium!

In the corpo­rate sector it isn’t so easy and obvious to clearly define this one goal. We often limit ourselves to formu­lating figures, data and facts as a goal. I frequently observed that in the commu­ni­ca­tion about targets and goals we pay too much atten­tion to the company’s key finan­cial figures. To compare again with the Formula One^TM world: Imagine a situ­a­tion where during the ongoing race, the pit crew decides to send the following message to the driver on the team radio: “Team budget exceeded by 10 %”. Guess how irri­tated the driver will be!

“The task of commu­ni­cating a goal to a large team is not diffi­cult, the chal­lenge is to define and set it in a truly inspiring way!”

Johannes Pfeffer, Spokesman of the Manage­ment Board at ebm papst St. Georgen

I think we should take the Formula One^TM example as a role model and set simpler, clearer and more tangible goals. We should set goals which create this ‘winner feeling’ for every­body involved and we have to ensure that every­body under­stands and accepts them as a contri­bu­tion to some­thing great. So, what I want to say is that the task of commu­ni­cating a goal to a large team is not diffi­cult, the chal­lenge is to define and set it in a truly inspiring way!