MENSCHEN INTERVIEW The
MENSCHEN INTERVIEW The Krone Holding Advisory Board NAVIGATING THE FU For more than a year now, Philip Freiherr von dem Bussche has been chairman of the Krone advisory board. We’ve speak with him here over the tasks of this committee and about the challenges of successfully navigating an ownermanaged family firm into the next century. » Krone’s genetic code lies very near to the customers’ DNA. « Philip von dem Bussche 18
TURE Farmer, entrepreneur, DLG president, director of KWS Saat AG – from his professional career Philip Freiherr von dem Bussche brings not only an enormous treasure-trove of experience to tasks as chairman of the Krone advisory board, but also a worldwide network of contacts. XtraBlatt: Herr von dem Bussche, with numerous duties in responsible positions you have had to set important goals in your professional career and have achieved a great deal. In this respect, does the role of chairman of an advisory board not tend to be rather boring? Philip Freiherr von dem Bussche: Absolutely not! On the contrary, thanks to the experience that I have been able to collect during my professional activities, I can now continue to help creatively and apply the knowledge I have, while remaining detached from the operative business. This is a very exciting challenge in as much as I can carry it out together with professional colleagues in the advisory board and with Krone’s highly competent management force. Perhaps “advisory board” sounds for outsiders rather less than exciting in the first instance. But if a business, and its advisory board, take a cooperation seriously and do not simply meet just for a cup of coffee, then such a committee assumes a great deal of importance! Optimally, an advisory board comprises a group of people with very different competences and experience that exists to support the owner of a firm and the active management from a certain critical distance through constructive collaboration. Hereby, the focus is less on questions of daily operative business but more on the general direction of the enterprise for the future. In this sense, the circle of advisors has an important corrective role as well as a visionary one and acts as a sparring partner in the discussion on company values. XtraBlatt: That sounds philosophical ... At the beginning of 2015, Dr. E.h. Bernard Krone (r.) handed over the chair to Philip von dem Bussche. von dem Bussche: … but that it’s definitely not. Or only in part. True, it applies to practical target setting, sometimes certainly even short-term. But above all for the medium and long-term. 70 to 80 % of the work of such committees is strategic, i.e. of a long-term nature. Krone is a company with over 100 years of development and imbued with definite and very clear values of the owning family. Nevertheless, the members of every new generation have to put themselves and their fundamental beliefs on the test stand, quasi redefine themselves, come to terms with the developments in the market and in society, in order to continue to remain successful. This is exactly what the family Krone had in mind, and has achieved, through the establishment of its advisory board. In particular with the Krone example can one recognize the great economical relevance of a value-based company management. XtraBlatt: What is involved in the work of the committee? von dem Bussche: As chairman, I am in the company premises once a month. There is a “jour fix”, a definite day, on which I discuss with the company management the outstanding questions, be they legal changes or, for example, the merging with the Brüggen Group in the commercial vehicle sector 2015. Here, we also prepare the themes that the board discuss in their three-monthly meetings. At such times the focus, as already said, is on strategic questions, but also questions on economic viability, personnel themes or upcoming investments. From this approach arises a lively argumentative culture, that is not only desired by the owner family but also practiced by them. Under these conditions, the view from outside can have a very effective influence within the company. 19
