Transformation in and through the crisis – WEBER-HYDRAULIK succeeds in cultural change
Corporate culture and mission statement
Güglingen, March 25, 2024. In 2017, Christine Grotz, Managing Partner of WEBER-HYDRAULIK, took over the management of the company, which her grandfather founded in 1939, in an unplanned move. Mismanagement by non-family managing directors had brought the hydraulics specialist into serious difficulties. At the same time as the economic restructuring, Christine Grotz initiated a cultural change that continues to this day.
“When I joined the active management of the company, I found an extremely patriarchal structure: Strict hierarchies, shadow organizations, a lack of transparency in processes and a general top-down culture had caused extreme uncertainty,” recalls Christine Grotz of her start in the family business. “There was therefore no question that a sustainable restructuring of the company could only succeed if we also tackled the culture.” The aim of the transformation was to create a structure characterized by self-managing teams and personal responsibility on the part of our employees.
Together with Rainer Windisch, an external consultant for organizational development, and a cross-location and cross-departmental change team, Christine Grotz tackled the cultural change. Four elements were the focus of this process from the outset: the people, the departments, the self-managing teams and the company itself. The first and key element was the company’s employees and managers: numerous workshops laid the foundation. “At this point, it became clear how strongly the previous patriarchal structures had affected the self-perception and personal responsibility of our employees and managers,” says Grotz.
The transformation process culminated in the development and formulation of an adaptive mission statement. This was developed with the participation of more than 200 employees and coordinated with various stakeholders in the organization in numerous feedback loops and has formed the framework for daily actions and activities at WEBER-HYDRAULIK since the start of implementation in 2023. It is based on the existing WEBER values of WE, RESPONSIBILITY, RESPONSIBILITY, ETHICS and RESPECT, which the company has identified and lived by for many years. For Christine Grotz, the change is not over yet: “We are constantly working on filling our mission statement with life and adapting the individual fields of action to new circumstances. I am particularly proud of our employees, who have made it clear in recent years that they have the will and the ability to transform in order to make the company fit for the future.”
