You are new to the Manage­ment Board. What are your plans ?

Together we are pursuing two goals. Firstly, we want to achieve prof­itable growth and hit three billion in revenue. Secondly, to achieve this sustain­ably, we are aiming to take part in and benefit from the major changes in society and industry — envi­ron­mental trans­for­ma­tion, the accel­er­ated digi­tal­iza­tion of processes and value streams, and the trans­for­ma­tion of mobility. My role in this is to bring us even closer to our markets and customers. This is already one of our strengths. And we want to expand on it.

How are you going to do this ?

As part of the Manage­ment Board at St. Georgen, I have had posi­tive expe­ri­ences with the orga­ni­za­tion of the company into busi­ness units. These units are smaller, more inde­pen­dent, and are more focused on the busi­ness. This enables us to respond much more quickly and directly to the customer’s needs and “sense” the direc­tion the respec­tive markets are devel­oping in. This is a huge advan­tage, partic­u­larly in fast-changing times. The prin­ci­ples behind the busi­ness units should there­fore set a greater prece­dent for the entire company. However, this “speed­boat agility” only works if we continue to master one crucial aspect.

What crucial aspect do you mean  ?

Quality. I’ve been a passionate fan of quality since starting my career, which is why I feel so at home at ebm-papst, too. After all, the utmost quality is our goal, and this will always be the case. But sitting back and relaxing would be wrong and dangerous. We want to be proac­tive and preven­ta­tive in achieving even better quality in all areas.

“The utmost quality is our goal, and this will always be the case.”

Of course, our customers mainly link ebm-papst quality to our prod­ucts, but it also involves ordering processes, supply processes, joint delib­er­a­tion, docu­men­ta­tion, service processes, and so on. We are in the process of launching a compre­hen­sive, global, and long-term quality offen­sive.

What will customers notice from this quality offen­sive ?

Nothing.

What do you mean ?

Quality is like your health. You only notice it when there’s a problem. I do not want our customers to notice anything. Every­thing should just run perfectly when you work with ­ebm-papst. It is my role to ensure this.