263 - How a CEO Builds Trust in a Family Business | Karlheinz Wex

Now, many people might not know about Plan C. I mean, it's very, by the way, it's a big company.

It's very specialized in what you do, but not necessarily everybody knows it.

So tell us a little bit more about that, looking through the lens of the ownership, because Plan C is owned by the Schwarzkopf family.

And you lead without being part of the family.

There are many, many CEOs in the audience today.

They are CEOs of family businesses.

Small, large, doesn't really matter to some extent.

And for some of them, it's how can I play a role inside the family, inside of... a very consolidated, traditional, rooted company where the family, they started, maybe they developed it, and now they're handed over part of their leadership responsibility, which is never easy if we put ourselves in their shoes.

What was for you working for Plan C?

So first of all, a little bit about Planze.

It's a company, meanwhile, 105 years old.

It was founded here in Reutte.

And it's focused on two very special materials, tungsten and molybdenum.

And we really have a leading market position in 80% of everything that we are doing.

So we are really in niche markets.

And we have 11,000 people working worldwide for that group.

And the turnover is about 2.3 billion euros a year.

This was the last fiscal year.

So that's just a little bit about the size.

It's still private owned, as you mentioned, still in the ownership of the Schwarzkopf family.

And I had the opportunity when I joined the executive board.

Mr. Schwarzkopf was the CEO.

He is Schwarzkopf in the third generation.

Meanwhile, he has changed to the supervisory board.

So no one of the Schwarzkopf family, meanwhile, is working for operations and for the daily business.

Now, many people might not know about Plan C. I mean, it's very, by the way, it's a big company.

It's very specialized in what you do, but not necessarily everybody knows it.

So tell us a little bit more about that, looking through the lens of the ownership, because Plan C is owned by the Schwarzkopf family.

And you lead without being part of the family.

There are many, many CEOs in the audience today.

They are CEOs of family businesses.

Small, large, doesn't really matter to some extent.

And for some of them, it's how can I play a role inside the family, inside of... a very consolidated, traditional, rooted company where the family, they started, maybe they developed it, and now they're handed over part of their leadership responsibility, which is never easy if we put ourselves in their shoes.

What was for you working for Plan C?

So first of all, a little bit about Planze.

It's a company, meanwhile, 105 years old.

It was founded here in Reutte.

And it's focused on two very special materials, tungsten and molybdenum.

And we really have a leading market position in 80% of everything that we are doing.

So we are really in niche markets.

And we have 11,000 people working worldwide for that group.

And the turnover is about 2.3 billion euros a year.

This was the last fiscal year.

So that's just a little bit about the size.

It's still private owned, as you mentioned, still in the ownership of the Schwarzkopf family.

And I had the opportunity when I joined the executive board.

Mr. Schwarzkopf was the CEO.

He is Schwarzkopf in the third generation.

Meanwhile, he has changed to the supervisory board.

So no one of the Schwarzkopf family, meanwhile, is working for operations and for the daily business.