Dr. Elzen­heimer, you became Managing Director of Axito GmbH in Laupheim together with Alexander Schöll­horn just over a year ago and are CEO of Axito in Wroclaw. What attracted you to the posi­tion?

Before joining Axito, I worked at Knorr-Bremse in Munich for six years where I also held a posi­tion in the manu­fac­turing depart­ment but with more strategic respon­si­bil­i­ties. After that, I wanted to return to having oper­a­tional respon­si­bility. Plus, I have always enjoyed working in a medium-sized company – like Uhlmann. With its strong growth and holding struc­ture, Uhlmann is a real heavy­weight in the industry, but still has the short commu­ni­ca­tion lines of a mid-size enter­prise. And that’s some­thing I really value.

Looking back over the past year at Axito and the Uhlmann Group, what kind of recep­tion did you get?

I was given a really warm welcome both by Axito, as well as the manage­ment and the Group Compa­nies, and was quickly accepted into the team. Everyone was very open, very friendly and highly coop­er­a­tive. So I quickly found my way around the company.

And what kind of chal­lenges did you face?

The chal­lenging thing about it was that Axito is a brand-new member of the Group family. And our job now is to put the strategic objec­tive behind Axito’s foun­da­tion in 2019 into prac­tice. In the past, for example, every­thing worked virtu­ally on demand because it was all one company. Axito’s inde­pen­dence has opened up inter­faces that reveal poten­tial for improving work­flows. We are focusing on these inter­faces in order to make the process run smoothly. The second chal­lenge was – and still is – that employees who were “Uhlman­ners” are now working at Axito and thus in a different company. This means that we belong to the Uhlmann Group, but we still have to find our own iden­tity. The chal­lenge here is to find the right balance.

So how do you go about turning Uhlman­ners into Axitoans?

Shaping our iden­tity starts with simple things, like having our own logo on our work clothes. But above all, it is impor­tant that the manage­ment team and plant employees jointly develop and define a target image: What are we aiming for? Who are we, the Axito team, and who are we not? These are the issues we addressed and formu­lated in a strategy process last year. Now we have to put the whole thing into prac­tice and bring these approaches to life. Being able to meet again in person – whether at the plant or at joint team- building events – is defi­nitely a benefit. Mutual under­standing is also enhanced by the fact that employees from Germany are frequently in Poland for longer periods of time or colleagues from Poland travel to other sites and to Group compa­nies.

My moti­va­tion is having the feeling at the end of the day that some­thing has improved, and that I have helped some­where, solved prob­lems, or supported someone.

Dr. Jens Elzen­heimer, CEO Axito

You your­self are in Wroclaw about every three weeks. What does a typical day look like for you?

I wouldn’t say I have a “typical” day. But that’s one of the fasci­nating things about it: I like waking up in the morning and not knowing exactly what the day will bring – except that my calendar is usually pretty full. There are regular appoint­ments that I always try to attend, because it’s impor­tant to me to be close to the team and to find out what’s going on. But other­wise, I try to address issues as flex­ibly and as fast as I can.

What moti­vates you?

My moti­va­tion is having the feeling at the end of the day that some­thing has improved, and that I have helped some­where, solved prob­lems, or supported someone. But I also like to see sustain­able devel­op­ments. After all, you’re moving on a path forward – even if it means taking a detour or a few steps back­ward every now and then. I also like to gain new insights. You can only gain expe­ri­ence and use it for future chal­lenges if you keep dealing with new issues and taking on new tasks.

What’s your most impor­tant tool in your work?

That’s my brain. For thinking, and also for seeing and commu­ni­cating.

And how do you manage to switch off some­times?

I mostly unwind by spending time with my wife and two chil­dren. I usually only see them on week­ends, as they live near Aschaf­fen­burg. That’s why I try to keep things strictly sepa­rate: Weekend means weekend, and that belongs to the family. I also go running, do larger laps with the dog, or hop onto my moun­tain bike and cycle through the Oden­wald or Spes­sart. Travel is also impor­tant to us, espe­cially city trips where you get to know the country and its people.

How do you like Wroclaw?

Wroclaw is really beau­tiful – and such a modern, open and young city: Of the 650,000 inhab­i­tants, 120,000 are students, and that is very evident. It’s also very scenic and has some beau­tiful archi­tec­ture. I can strongly recom­mend everyone to check it out and spend a few days in Wroclaw!

Thank you very much for talking to us, Dr. Elzen­heimer!