What a concert evening and a good controller should have in common
1. Musicians are creative, emotional and mood- and heart-driven people, and controllers are number-, reason- and brain-driven people - that's the cliché. Is there an intersection?
Prof. Gernot Schulz: The balanced being within this intersection - that is the main challenge! Just as the emotional touching of the people at a concert can only succeed, if the music is based on the analytical understanding of the work, controlling is about influencing the employees on the basis of the gained numbers, data and facts to improve results by changing their work - an interpersonal process that requires strong emotional intelligence!
2. In your presentation, you will show organizations in transition using the image "from the waterfall to the river". Which of the two states is better for an organization?
Martina Sandrock: With the increasing complexity, dynamics and volatility of our business processes, we must develop corporate cultures in which all employees work together to shape the future! So we do not need any more bosses who come into the company like the waters of Niagara Falls. Rather, we need a river of community cooperation today! We need less hierarchy and less silo thinking. We need cooperation and coordination!
3. Give us the most important insight into the day-to-day work that a controller can take home from your speech.
Martina Sandrock: Enter a new goal in your navigation system: In addition to your rational intelligence and focus on numbers, data and facts, use your emotional intelligence to actively promote cooperation within the organization. The profit: more enjoyment in common thinking and designing, a better working atmosphere and better business results.
About Martina Sandrock
Martina Sandrock, a long-time managing director and advisor to corporations and medium-sized companies, has experienced and shaped decisive change processes and different corporate cultures. Her proven strengths lie in the areas of corporate strategy, appreciative and performance-oriented leadership culture, brand reorientation and the development of new business models.
She began her career in 1984 at Unilever, where in 1999 she was the youngest and first woman to join the Management of Unilever Bestfoods GmbH. A few years later, she joined the US multinational Sara Lee, known for brands such as duschdas and Senseo, as CEO of Germany and Austria Management. Subsequently, she led the Iglo GmbH, then part of the market-leading European frozen food provider Iglo Group owned by the private equity company Permira. Eventually she became Chairman of the Executive Board of LSH AG, known for brands such as Messmer and Milford.
Today she is a businesswoman, business angel and advisor.
She lives with her husband Ferdinand in Hamburg directly on the Alster.
Her hobbies include daily jogging, marathons, hiking and mountain biking across the Alps.
About Prof. Gernot Schulz
Prof. Gernot Schulz, longtime Berliner Philharmoniker, Karajan and Bernstein funded musician and educator, is today an internationally sought-after conductor. While still a Berliner Philharmoniker and university professor in Hamburg, he started his international conducting career.
He was an assistant to Leonard Bernstein and Georg Solti, conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker at a Sony multimedia project, and recorded CDs with Wergo and Sony Classical. From the Seoul Radio Orchestra to the Brandenburg State Orchestra, from the Noord Nederlands Orchestra to the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra - Gernot Schulz is a welcome guest at numerous renowned orchestras in Europe, South America and Asia.
Because of his successful career as an orchestra musician as well as a pedagogue and conductor, Gernot Schulz is predestined to convey the importance of interactive processes between conductor and orchestra beyond music. The orchestra and its conductor are in many ways the model case of a successful company:
- Precision in cooperation
- Listening to each other
- Passion for a common goal
- Balance between individuality and unity
- these are decisive factors of success.