In cooperation with the renowned research institute Statista, FOCUS has identified the best personnel service providers in Germany.
Matthias Zühlke, a Partner in our Hamburg office said, "We are very pleased with this award and would like to thank our clients for the trusting cooperation! It is the result of our focus on quality in personnel selection and at the same time our ambition to continue to improve in the coming year".
The study was based on a list of around 3,000 personnel service providers. Subsequently, HR managers and job seekers were interviewed.
In order to make it into focus' top personnel service provider list, Friisberg Germany had to achieve a minimum number of mentions and recommendations as well as an above-average overall grade across all evaluation dimensions.
Katja Wünschel is to pull the strings as CEO Onshore Wind and Solar Europe & Australia and she spoke with Thorsten Marquardt, Associate Partner at Friisberg, Germany, about the importance of communication in team leadership and about her personal motivation: "We want to realise every renewable energy project in Germany that is possible."
Wünschel: It puts the focus on the sun, and I think that's good. Photovoltaics play a major role in making the energy transition a success. Sun is just as important as wind and is one of our biggest growth areas. So the title reflects my focus quite well. However, the energy transformation will only work if we are successful as a team - within the company, in business, politics and society. Everyone has to work together to tackle the huge task that lies ahead of us. RWE is ready to make its contribution. We want to realise every renewable energy project in Germany that is possible.
Wünschel: First of all, we cover everything we need for the implementation of onshore and offshore, solar and battery storage. What is innovative is that we are always looking at new technologies. At the moment, for example, we are looking at floating PV - floating solar systems. We have just connected our first pilot project in the Netherlands. Or Agri-PV - a concept for the dual use of agricultural land. There are initial development fields in Germany, France and Italy. Thanks to our engineering and technology expertise, which we have built up over decades, we can test new technologies ourselves. I find Agri-PV very exciting, but we are still in an early phase. We are testing three different application areas in three countries and can check them against each other thoroughly. Where does what work best and what do we learn from it? This way we can derive the right starting point if we want to take it to a larger scale. Besides technological development, we also look at incremental development. What's new in leaves or foundations. Because of course that is also part of it.
Wünschel: I am extremely passionate or energetic. In addition, I like to work with a team. That's the only way we can be successful. I love the "go to gemba" - being on the construction site. I combine this reality check outside with the business and its demands inside. Working in the renewable sector is just crazy fun. You know very quickly where you stand with me.
Wünschel: I would talk less about hurdles and more about what has worked and what has not. It is important to always have clear goals - not a one-way street, but a kind of option space. You also have to communicate this. No one can read minds. Only if you communicate goals and plans, others can work with them. And of course a high level of commitment: you should go the extra mile. One thing I also always tell my mentees, and which I also experienced myself once: If you have a supervisor who doesn't share your development perspective and it's not foreseeable that he will share it, then you should leave. I experienced this once at the beginning of my professional development. It is often better to take the initiative yourself.
Wünschel: It is important to me that the job is fun and that I can create something. That comes together perfectly now. I have fun and can design and implement a lot. That is a luxury in this job, that I can create added value. We are actively contributing to the energy transition in Germany. By 2030, we will invest up to 15 billion euros in our green core business in this country alone.
Wünschel: I'm not the type to quit - I'm more the type to close a chapter and open a new one. Rather, the more difficult and tricky it gets, the more incentive I have to solve and tackle the issue.
Wünschel: My family and my team give me energy. When I see a problem, I exchange ideas with colleagues. And when I need to recharge my batteries, I spend time with my family and friends. I'm not the type to go for a walk alone in the forest.
Wünschel: It's a mix of different methods and approaches. I have learned a lot from Operational Excellence. Others also call it the New Way of Working. Just like good communication, which for me is a key to success. With each further stage of development, I became more aware of how important good communication is. In the sense of listening, that "go to gemba", always asking for opinions and feedback and entering into a dialogue. I communicate our goals and expectations consistently. And I always have an open office door for questions from the team.
Wünschel: At RWE in 2021, we looked at the renewables business together across all technologies and country borders. The growth potential is huge, but we also have to take into account the differences in technologies and countries. This is how the division into different business areas came about: on the one hand, offshore with its huge and very complex projects, and on the other hand, onshore wind, solar and battery storage - in the USA, Chile and Mexico as well as in Europe and Australia. This division makes sense, because in Europe we have a lot of projects that, with an average of 20 to 25 MW, are much smaller than those in the USA. This requires different processes, ways of working and a different mindset. Thanks to our more than 20 years of experience in developing, building and operating renewable plants, we have an excellent position in Europe and Australia. We use this and set up our teams country-specifically and very locally. Our goal is clear: we are setting the pace for expansion.
Wünschel: You can't communicate too little. You have to focus strongly on the team and what is happening there. At the same time, you must not lose sight of your goals.
Wünschel: I have always said in the past that we have to turbo-charge. It is a Herculean task that we have before us in Germany and in Europe. We can only achieve decarbonisation or the energy transition together. Economy, politics and society must pull together. With the Easter Package, the government is continuing what it announced in the coalition agreement. Even if there is still a need for adjustments, it is a step in the right direction. Now it is a matter of using the momentum to achieve the goal of an independent and green energy supply.
(Image: Andre Laaks/RWE AG)
Thorsten Marquardt, Associate Partner, Germany
As part of the series "Shapers of the Energy World 4.0" for energate.
We are delighted to welcome Natasha to Friisberg & Partners International.
She joins us as a Senior Associate with an impressive background in Executive Search and Management Consulting.
With 17 years’ experience, Natasha has carved a formidable reputation of outstanding service delivery and excellence with her clients. She is a passionate Head-Hunter who enjoys imparting specialised knowledge and headhunting skills to fellow colleagues and new employees. Natasha is extremely adept at sourcing, attracting and placing hard to find skills specifically, but not limited to, Financial Services.
Zoltan Petho, Chair of Friisberg, said, "Natasha has extensive experience in Executive Search, and the strength of her client relationships, combined with her people-focused skills means that she is a valued addition to our team."
In her spare time, Natasha enjoys all sorts of indoor and outdoor activities and also loves cats - especially her beloved pet Katniss.
She is delighted to be joining Friisberg, South Africa and is looking forward to working closely with the firm’s clients and Partners.
With 350 delegates from 50 countries meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland to consider and discuss developments in foreign direct investment, Friisberg was honoured to contribute.
Lorri Lowe, our UK Managing Partner, was invited to moderate the keynote panel discussion of the conference on Workforce Development & Global Competition for Talent. Her panel comprised experts from Lockheed Martin, IBM, Silicon Valley and and Auticon, a neurodiversity international social enterprise.
Andrew Guy, another UK Partner, was a panellist on the subject of Healthcare Infrastructure and Health Tech.
It was evident that the overriding consideration for investment promotion agencies throughout the world is the location availability and access to talent. Friisberg's representatives fielded numerous questions from the forum which was a cross section of the FDI community responsible for over $1.56trillion of cross border investment worldwide every year.
With over 45 years of as one of the preeminent international search firms, Friisberg is ideally placed to inform and support major investment with clients ranging from Fortune 500s to innovative tech start ups and scale ups.
In addition to mapping the personal, managerial and professional characteristics of candidates throughout the Search process, we can often be asked:
Recent scientific studies suggest that leadership is 30% genetic and 70% learned. These findings propose that leaders are made, not born. The conclusion of such studies is that both hold true: a person can be born with natural leadership abilities, and someone can learn how to be a good leader at work.
Are theory and practice the same? In reality, they are not. So why is it important, how does it work, which roles require which type of leadership and what is the added value in assessing an existing management team?
Driving a RV bus on a F1 circuit is as inefficient as going on a 3 week-long camping road trip with your family in a v16 GT Roadster. Choosing the right vehicle is essential and can determine your result in the race. The analogy applies when choosing between natural or learned leadership.
As I discussed the replacement of the CEO with one of my clients, the owner stated, “You know us, our values, our business. We simply want the best from the market. We want a Natural Born Leader.”.
I know my client well enough to have a clear picture of his autocratic view of leadership and weariness of critical questions about the role.
I’ve seen so many owners and C level managers make disastrous decisions - and all of them because there was not a single person on their team that dared question their strategy.
In my view, we must build the kind of relationship with our clients where we can have the courage to oppugn and articulate our opinion.
We must never be afraid to challenge our clients honestly and openly.
Bence Berkó
Senior Consultant, Budapest
On April 28-30th in Madrid, Partners convened for Friisberg's 116th Global Conference.
This conference had a particular focus on "Energy and Infrastructure" which involved dynamic presentations and discussions that addressed the future of the sector.
Our guest speakers, Rosa Mª Sanz García, Andreas Nauen, Florian Klein and Alberto Martín Rivals led a discussion on how the world of Energy has changed significantly during the last one to two decades including the “5-D” set of trends:
These already appear as the new normal in the objectives of the Executive levels in regional as well as global energy organizations.
It was especially useful to hear from a client in renewables, with operations in dozens of countries around the world, and discuss strategies for securing the specialist leadership talent they need.
We understand that today's shifting business climate commands constant growth and innovation. To face all the challenges, we must encourage our clients to INNOVATE and for this, the most important ingredient is PEOPLE.
Whilst the conference itself gave us the opportunity to extend our knowledge, it is always a great pleasure to meet with colleagues and friends from different countries.
When Jorgen Friisberg established our firm in 1977, he set the standard for a profession that always seeks to discover that rare talent - talent capable of launching businesses to new heights; talent that conditions future leaders for high endurance decision making, and talent to activate organizations to accelerate ahead of the competition.
We would like to thank everyone who attended our conference, and for our Spanish office who organised such a great event.
If you decide to recruit Board members on your own instead of turning to a professional executive firm, it will result in lost opportunities and lower turnover.
Furthermore, it is not enough simply to elect Board members and a Chair, based solely on their professional competences. It is often overlooked, but far more important, can be the personal competencies that the headhunter puts into sharp focus.
An analysis from the Centre for Corporate Governance at Copenhagen Business School indicates that companies can increase revenue by between 25-40% by having a diverse and professional Board. However, about half of the Boards in Denmark are occupied by family members - and that is an issue. The human nature of the owners is governed by the power of habit and the aspect that it is difficult to replace oneself or a family member. That is why we see Boards that are characterized by:
In recent years, we, Friisberg & Partners International Denmark, have experienced a greater interest from companies, who acknowledged that a professional Board can be a competent and strategic tool to increase the growth and development of a firm. The increased interest is supported, among others, by external advisors such as EY, who through their workshops and dialogues assure the owners about the advantages of having non-familial members on the Board.
When an owner has decided to strengthen the Board or when a current Board member quits, we are contacted to ensure the circle of potential candidates becomes wider and more diverse. The owner has often given some consideration to which professional competencies the company should have replaced in the Board of Directors. Typically, these competencies reflect the stand of the current situation of the company and partly the qualities and competencies the outgoing Board member possessed, and which are now to be replaced.
Having the Board’s professional competencies described is one of the prerequisites for any successful Board recruitment. The Board’s competence descriptions contribute positively to an overview of which competencies the Board possesses and which are desired in the future. However, this alone is not enough to achieve the successful recruitment of a new Chair or a new Board member. There are many different perceptions of what it takes for a Board to create value and therefore it is important to clarify what kind of value creation is needed – and in addition to this, to understand the human side of Board work.
We are of the opinion that effective Board work takes place in the interaction between different people. It is simply not just the interaction in the Boardroom that is significant. The dialogue with management, employees, local business partners, authorities, costumers, and suppliers etc. further contributes to the positive dialogue and the value creation. So, one is the professional skills such as financial literacy – another is the personal competencies which are most often overruled in the recruitment for a new Board member.
We work with six key competencies that the Board Chair or member must have to create value. Often, a Chair of the Board is elected from the existing Board, therefore the Chair's competencies are advantageous for all members of the Board.
The prerequisite for a good working relationship requires that one can speak the language and appreciate the concerns of management that every CEO faces. Moreover, having a sharp business judgement, deep understanding of the company’s strategy, how it operates and the human issues.
Many members are very adamant in their opinions, and it requires a special competence to be able to listen, understand and read between the lines when other members argue their positions. In addition, to be able to listen to, understand and support a CEO when the person expresses a reservation towards the Board’s decisions.
We have seen Boards where there are many strong personalities = alpha males/females (it can be both men and women), who are used to being top manager and thereby take their “director” behaviour into the boardroom. It inhibits the good, constructive, and idea-generating dialogue. Therefore, it is an important competence to hold back and to support that everyone around the table has their say.
It is incredibly important to have the ability to establish relationships and to be able to work with the DNA that the specific Board and management have. It should be easy and safe for the CEO to approach the Chair of the Board and have a confidential conversation.
The candidates of the Board of Directors must be in a place in life where they are in balance. That is where they have or have been successful in their careers and where they have no need to become No.1 or feel that they have yet to achieve a top position - that is, not dreaming of taking over the CEO’s office or longing for operational control. It is a high sense of self-worth, a “commitment” for the good of the company, without a trace of a personal agenda, which is something we especially ask about during the recruitment.
It is necessary to uncover how much time the Board member is ready to spend on Board work. It is far from certain that it is “merely” four meetings a year. There can easily be situations where the meeting frequency will be much greater, and you must be ready to spend the necessary time between meetings. Emergency situations can always arise where a Chair of the Board or the entire Board of Directors must step in at short notice. It can be crisis situations, and in such times, it is the personal perseverance and drive to overcome a crisis that is essential. All things considered, it is especially the ability to confront these stressful situations and to avoid the organization becoming paralyzed, if they occur, that is central.
Susanne Becker Mikkelsen,
Partner Denmark
The talent pool in some markets is highly competitive, with candidates receiving multiple offers simultaneously. This is, in part, related to the “Great Resignation”, where approximately 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021 while there were still more than 10 million job openings.
A survey run from Linkedin in 2021 on more than 2,000 adults in the U.S. found that 47% said the coronavirus pandemic changed how they feel about their careers.
While the Great Resignation was mostly driven by mid-career employees, Executives have also been seeking new opportunities at faster than usual rates.
Europe appears to be experiencing a different type of crunch, driven by long-term demographic trends. Each year, the number of executives in the Baby Boomer generation are retiring at greater rates, while the next generation is considerably smaller. In fact, the pandemic has likely sped up this trend, with many Baby Boomers either being forced out of the workforce or leaving voluntarily in order to maximize their quality of life.
There is a shift in generations in the labour force, including the leadership roles.
Voluntary resignation trend in Italy 2017-2021 (Labour Statistics Office)
With new challenges and rapidly changing market conditions, organizations need to redefine leadership roles in their organization. That can range from areas of responsibilities and structure, but it is as much about the soft skills a leader brings to the table as it is about their industry knowledge and expertise.
Former Best Buy CEO, Hubert Joly , interviewed by an MIT Research in January 2021, observes, “All of us have to rewire ourselves for a new way of leading. What’s the purpose of work? I’ve been CEO for 15 years, and the initial part of my time as CEO was much easier because it was purely about the business. But now it’s broader”
The same research reports that the 72% of respondents of more than 4,000 managers and executives interviewed , strongly agreed that it is very important to them to work for an organization with a purpose they believe in, but only 49% strongly agreed that they believed in their organization’s purpose.
They require a new executive’s mind set and leadership style:
| Profit | Purpose & Values |
| Hierarchical Pyramids | Network of Teams |
| Business knowledge | Digital & Business Disruption |
| Directive Leadership | Supportive Leadership |
| Rules & Control | Trust and Self Control |
| Business Hours at office | No boundaries home/work |
Donatella Paschina
Associate Partner, Milan
Once upon a time there was great pride in telling the truth, but a reality of our current political climate is the prevalence of lies and misleading statements from some of our world leaders. We have descended in many of our communications to a level where the truth might, or might not, be included in what is being said about any given topic.
When Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War two thousand years ago, he was overtly opposed to telling the truth. He basically said telling the truth was a bad and dangerous thing to do relative to your enemies. He advocated deceit and skilful deception, and his strategies very intentionally used multiple layers of misinformation with the goal of defeating the enemy.
Creating a culture of deception can be extremely dangerous. I guess some leaders might think that they have the right (even a duty?) to distort the truth if it benefits the organisation because experience teaches us that the truth brings risks, but leaders who habitually lie run the risk of normalizing that behaviour and creating a toxic culture. Credibility is all and lying destroys a team’s trust for their leader - people simply don’t like being lied to.
Lies can be innocuous or they can be critically important. It can be difficult to get a straight answer to the most basic questions - for example, ‘How are you?’ Virtually no one expects to hear anything but, ‘Fine, thanks. And you?’ Withholding information has become normal. As children we are told many tales about the merits of telling the truth, but science says we learn to deceive as toddlers. Adages such as ‘Honesty is the best policy’ continue to influence our adult lives, but we often tell little white lies to make others feel better.
If you lie about the small things, people distrust you with the big things. Even worse, if you lie consistently, people may begin to instinctively distrust everything you say, just as the boy who cried wolf.
Communication, and with it the threads that connect us to each other, simply breaks down.
I maintain that truth is the most powerful trait shared by great leaders.
A leader’s words carry great power. Words can determine whether a business thrives or fails. Truthful words, a close grasp on reality and the willingness to follow through on actions are necessary tools for running and leading a business. All leaders should work towards developing a culture that supports truth-telling.
Great leaders build strong relationships founded on honesty, which in turn builds inspiring organisations.
We may never be perfect, but some of us can be a lot better than we are now.
Thank you very much. Of course, it was a big change both for me and for our two companies in Poland at this time.
I am afraid, I won’t say anything revolutionary: always in such a situation, the first task is to build a team. Experience, knowledge and belief tell me that if you have a good team, you can achieve any goal. The beginning was not easy. Relatively quickly I found people with great potential and knowledge, but also with an appropriate value system. The challenges were in all possible areas, from relations with business partners, through improperly selected products, lack of communication with consumers, to the profitability of both companies.
Together, we defined who we want to be and what we want to achieve. We developed a new business model and then the perfect execution of the plan became the key to success.
Simultaneously, we were working on the changes in the structure and merger of the companies, developing new methods of operation on the consumer and client side. Today, we know a lot about our consumers, that enables us to communicate effectively with them. I gives me great satisfaction and joy that as a team we have created a friendly and stimulating workplace. We have a unique culture which translates into commitment, constant development and searching for new ideas how to develop a business.
In the current situation our action plan is twofold. First, Ukraine - our main task there is to evacuate our employees and ensure their safety. We are also in constant contact with our clients. Some of them are active and we help them whenever possible.
The Baltic countries, on the other hand, have some similarities and differences compared to the Polish market. Modern retail chains operate similarly to the best players in Poland. The preferences and expectations of consumers when it comes to household appliances are slightly different. At this stage, I cannot reveal too much, but we have an idea and we see great opportunities to develop our business in all three countries. We certainly have a lot to offer consumers as well as distributors.
I think that today nobody has any doubts that the future belongs to modern digital solutions, thanks to which we simply live more comfortably. All our new devices can be connected to the hOn app and use functions that make our daily activities easier. Artificial intelligence makes our equipment quickly adapt to the consumer's lifestyle, making it easier to wash, cook and store food. At the same time, we put great emphasis on pro-ecological solutions. For instance, our washing machines are certified with the highest energy class at affordable prices. Candy RapidO offers comfortable and quick washing with very low energy consumption. Exactly what consumers expect today. To this you need to add aesthetics and design as household appliances have become an element of interior design today.
Our goal is to improve the quality of life of consumers. To make daily activities easier or even take them off customers’ hands. That is why we focus not only on modern solutions based on artificial intelligence, but also create an ecosystem together with various partners. As a result, we will provide consumers with a comprehensive solution in a modern way that makes life easier. Even today, using our wine cooler, you can easily check what we have in stock and order your favourite wine through the aforementioned hOn application.
This is a very good question, especially in the context of Haier's values. Since the day the company was established, its culture has been built on three pillars: entrepreneurship, close communication and cooperation with consumers, referred to in our company as Zero-Distance-To-Consumer, and the construction of the aforementioned ecosystem.
At Haier, we act as company owners. This is also the most sought-after feature in potential candidates for our team. I used to work in a company with a "highly corporate culture”, focused on internal goals. We always look at the reality around us through the eyes of the consumer. Therefore, when creating the ecosystem, we do it based on local partners. Thanks to this, we support the local community but also better respond to the needs of consumers.
This is a kind of logic puzzle. People are the most important. A properly built team with a wide range of experiences and skills is able to create and implement ambitious plans. Naturally, under the right conditions. My role is to build this team and create the right conditions. We promised each other two years ago that we would create together a workplace where we will be able to pursue not only corporate goals but also our own goals, especially those related to development. In order for the team to function efficiently, it must have the right conditions. The combination of these two elements gives you a chance for success.
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