Participation and the courage to change

Wait and see what happens.” That was the hesitant response of the two head members of the works council in summer 2005, after it was announced that two financial investors were to become the owners of the company that employed them. Yes, there were concerns among the staff, says Bernhard Holland, chair of the council. Not to mention the usual fears that ‘corporate raiders’ were about to descend to ‘strip’ the company, adds vice chair Andrea Bräunig. “Deutsche Beteiligungs AG was an unknown quantity for us. We didn’t know what to make of them.”

As investors, we endeavour to consider the interests of all stakeholders in our portfolio companies. Our capital provides the scope for the management and staff at our enterprises to bring their concepts to bear. Through their dedicated efforts, they create a company that is able to successfully market its products and services – which, in turn, secures jobs.

That has changed. “In retrospect, I’d say it was a good deal,” Bernhard Holland concedes four years later. His assessment is undoubtedly well-founded, since he looks back on more than two decades of service to the company, giving him a solid vantage point for judging the impact the change of ownership had and, linked to that, the changes in the way the company was managed. “First we were provided with all manner of facts and figures,” he says. “After that a completely new style of communication was introduced within the company. Since then we know where we stand.”

Building trust and motivating
employees – through
transparency, teamwork and
shared rewards

The new momentum proved to be contagious. Suddenly, training courses and professional qualification gained a new importance, says Andrea Bräunig, who also organises workshops as part of the Lewa-FIT project, in addition to her duties on the works council. With more than 20 years of service, she has spent most of her professional life at Lewa. The company’s employee suggestion scheme, she adds, was basically in hibernation for years. Under the new aegis, however, ideas submitted by the staff were systematically integrated into development, production and marketing activities. “That’s a big plus for the company,” she says.

Bernhard Holland and Andrea Bräunig, members
of the works council at Lewa

“Our people can now contribute to improving processes,” Holland emphasises. And Lewa of course benefits when its employees acquire a feeling for the big picture and get to know each other across departmental lines – at one of the company’s many workshops, for example.

Yet when he talks about the “detailed and ambitious annual targets” that were set in 2006 for the first time, a bit of the uneasiness surfaces that he felt back then. For long-standing employees, the shift from a family business to a portfolio company held by financial investors required a new mindset. The initial uneasiness, however, was followed by changes – positive ones. Today, Holland sees the annual targets as ‘incentives’. Contributing towards that were bonuses that everybody received after targets were reached in the boom years of 2007 and 2008. Those years not only saw excellent performance, they also fostered the company’s sustainable development.

‘Corporate raider’ is not a concept that Bernhard Holland and Andrea Bräunig would associate with their employer. “We never encountered that type of mentality here,” they report.