The entrepreneur Klaus Fischer is 60 – leading the fischer group to success through internationalisation and process optimisation

Fully committed to training and against waste

Waldachtal, August 2010 – A major newspaper once described him as “Germany’s most consistent process optimiser”. The fact is, Klaus Fischer has been fighting every kind waste and squander in his business. For over thirty years the owner and CEO has been at the helm of the fischer group of companies which he has shaped into a highly efficient and global player whose processes are driven by the customers. On 17 August 2010 Professor E.h. Senator mult. E.h. Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Klaus Fischercelebrates his 60th birthday.

Born in Freudenstadt in 1950, Klaus Fischer grew up in Tumlingen where his father had set himself up in his own business two years before. Having known the company since early childhood, he decided in his youth that he would later join his father´s business. Having finished school, he studied engineering at the University of Constance. After graduating as an engineer, he joined his father´s company in 1975. He was appointed Technical Managing Director just one year later.

When, at the age of 29, Klaus Fischer took over the management from his father and company founder Professor Artur Fischer on 1 January 1980, over 30 years ago, fischerwerke already operated on a global level, but depended heavily on the German market and on plastic plugs and anchors. The fischertechnik construction toy had developed into an important division next to fixing engineering. Klaus Fischer adjusted the sales strategy, de-coupling the fischertechnik sales abroad from the national companies and entrusting the sales to importers. At the same time he intensified the more profitable fixings business and increased the product variety in this sector.

Klaus Fischer continually expanded the fixings sector. In 1993, fischer strengthened its market position with the acquisition of Upat GmbH & Co. KG (Emmendingen), in those days Germany’s second largest fixings manufacturer. Besides the traditional plastic fixings, heavy duty metal anchorings gained in importance. He also added chemical fixings to fischer’s portfolio – meanwhile the division with the strongest and most dynamic growth. The acquisition of the foam and silicon makers Rocca Chemie (Denzlingen) also contributed to this growth. Other product ranges for sanitary, heating and electrical fixings, insulation fixings, facade systems and – since the summer of 2009 – a range of wood screws followed.

In his effort to reduce the company’s dependence on Germany’s overall construction activity, Klaus Fischer also relied heavily on the internationalisation of the business. New national companies were set up. Today, fischer produces in seven countries, owns 33 national companies in 30 countries – with more planned – and sells its products in over 100 countries. Klaus Fischer also successfully pursued diversification. With the launch of the fischerCBOX music cassette storage system in 1982, Klaus Fischer made the first move into the automotive supply business. Today, fischer automotive systems, specialising in kinematic components for the car interior, is the group’s second most important division. The product range includes ventilation nozzles, cup holders, kinematic display components, tray and storage systems and glove compartments. fischer automotive manufactures in Germany (Horb am Neckar), in China and the Czech Republic as well as in the USA.

“Economic slow-down“, “tough competition“, “bad location for business“: These are words you’ll rarely hear from Professor Klaus Fischer – least of all as an excuse for unsatisfactory business results, saying instead: “No wind? Let’s row!“ In other words, not resigning to one’s fate but forcefully grasping the opportunities which are there. “If we make proper use of these opportunities, we hardly need to think about difficult economic parameters”.

At an early stage, Klaus Fischer also saw the importance of a corporate culture commitment. As early as 1980 he began to develop a mission statement together with his employees which was to be binding for everybody working for the company. After working on the concept for a number of years, the mission statement was finally introduced in 1987. It defines the corporate target of achieving an adequate return of the deployed capital in order to secure and create new jobs. And it specifies the binding corporate values: in a spirit of innovation, with a sense of responsibility for one’s own actions, and dependable. These values are further specified in seven additional guiding principles.

This meant that the people working for fischer play a crucial part. It is they who drive and design the continuous improvement which they are called on to implement. “Being open for new developments, ready for changes, staying adaptable and responding fast: that's the way towards a successful future“, says Klaus Fischer: “After all, our people know best what functions at their place of work and what doesn’t. They move our company forward by thinking every day about what can be done better today than yesterday”. Klaus Fischer also makes allowances for errors and mistakes because every mistake also has a learning effect: “But making the same mistake twice is out”. It is particularly important that everything which occurs in the business is viewed from the customer’s point of view.

The role Klaus Fischer sees for himself is that of a driving force and a giver of impulses. Seeing that continuous improvement is the key to success made him develop his own strategy – the fischer ProcessSystem or fPS for short. In the nineties Klaus Fischer told his executives: “If we want to safeguard our international competitiveness and secure our locations, we must make some drastic changes to our corporate structures”. He found the model and impulse for this in Japan.

Almost ten years ago, fischer began to develop its own philosophy adapted to the company: the principle of the lean company which avoids waste and enhances added value. This principle has meanwhile also become part of the mission statement, focusing at its core on the avoidance of any waste. Klaus Fischer firmly believes: “The customer doesn’t pay us for waste. So we try to eliminate everything which doesn’t give added value to the customer”.

In fischer’s everyday life this means that each and every process is placed on the test bench every day and, if necessary improved and adapted – not only in production, but also in administration, logistics and in each national company. This approach reflects an understanding of innovation which goes far beyond the development of new products. “Innovation in the sense of permanent renewal means much more than the sum of our patents”, stresses the CEO. Every process, he says, is realigned and reassessed with a view to responding quickly and flexibly to the customers’ needs and requirements. “Our aim is to be ‘best in class’ not only with our products but also with our processes in order to create additional benefits for our customers”, says Klaus Fischer. The expertise which fischer has meanwhile accumulated in process optimisation led to the establishment of a new division in 2004. Known as fischer consulting, this division meanwhile transmits this bundled knowledge to internal and external customers and business partners.

Naturally, this entrepreneurial self-conception needs qualified people working and acting in their own responsibility. This is why training, education and in-house seminars have top priority for Klaus Fischer. For many years, fischer has trained people well beyond headcount requirements. The company’s employees have a wealth of training and qualification options to choose from. The promotion pool, set up almost a year ago, has been designed to prepare young people for future managerial tasks. Since June this year fischer employees can also train at company expense in the new Klaus Fischer Training Centre – beyond company requirements. Opportunities include 16 different general training courses, including several language courses, seminars on presentation techniques and rhetoric as well as memory training.“Our people must be enabled to fulfil their tasks, and they must be given the opportunity to qualify for these tasks”, says Klaus Fischer.

But Klaus Fischer’s extraordinary educational commitment is not limited to his own firm. With many projects in nurseries and schools, fischer promotes the talents of children and their understanding of technology, engineering and the world of business. fischer is also among the founder members of the “Knowledge Factory – Businesses for Germany”, an organisation not only dedicated to early childhood education but also to helping business start-ups. As a committee member of the German Founder’s Award, Klaus Fischer offers young entrepreneurs his support on the way to independence.

Klaus Fischer has received numerous awards and prizes for his educational commitment: In 1999 the Training Oscar of the German Business Juniors, in 2007 the Federal Cross of Merit 1^st Class. For his entrepreneurial merits he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon, an honorary professorship by the Tongji University in Shanghai and the title of honorary senator of the University for Soil Culture in Vienna and of the University of Stuttgart. In Padua, home town of fischer Italia, he was given the Grand Seal of the City, the highest award the university town has to give.

In spite of the powerful internationalisation, Klaus Fisher and his company have remained loyal to Germany and the company’s headquarters in Waldachtal. Although around 75 percent of sales are meanwhile generated abroad, production has largely stayed at home. Also, almost half of the around 3,800 people working for fischer work in Germany. Until today, fischer has remained a family-owned business – and will remain in family ownership. In 1990 he acquired the majority of the corporate shares, since 2001 holding 98 percent and his sons one percent each. Jörg Klaus Fischer has also joined the company meanwhile. As his father´s deputy, he has operative responsibility for the entire fixings sector. “This allows us to plan our own long-term strategy. And we have short decision-making channels. This is a clear advantage when it comes to responding quickly and to adapting to changes”.