"The company is like a family member."
Interview with Astrid Blumenbecker About family and family business
What does family business mean to you?
"The company is like a member of the family, it is always taken into account when family decisions are made. Decisions in the business often have an impact on the family and vice versa. Today, family business means to me that we can make our own decisions as a company independently - without the dependence on investors. We can only implement these decisions if we work together with our employees, customers and suppliers as individual partners. I very much hope that people will realise that Blumenbecker is not a corporation, but a family business. "
Your father and aunt have expanded the business. Please describe them.
"My father was absolutely against waste. Late at night, he would go through the offices to switch off the lights. But he was also generous. If overtime had to be worked in the workshop, he often drove by Höpker - the Beckum snack bar - and got sausages for everyone who had to work. He even got flowers for the employees' wives on Mother's Day."
"My Aunt Marianne was very determined and enthusiastic. If she was enthusiastic about something, everyone had to immediately participate in her new idea, she then only reluctantly listened to reservations or objections. As a young woman, she had to fight her way through a lot of opposition from all sides, and that certainly left its mark on her."
How did your role in the company come about?
"When my aunt and father were approaching retirement age, I was much too young to take over. The task of managing the operational business, which had grown significantly, was far too big and impossible to fulfil. We finally decided together to look for non-family experts for the key operational positions and to return to the shareholder role as a family. Today, the Marianne-Blumenbecker-Stiftung and myself as a shareholder stand for the family. Both, the foundation board members and my family and I, are working to successfully continue the Blumenbecker company as an independent family business in the spirit of my father and aunt."
Anecdote:
49 visits
When Marianne Blumenbecker wants to acquire a larger local company, she can't get past the gatekeeper; the managing director always lets himself be denied.
On her sixth visit there, she finally learns that the man would leave the building at a certain time on Friday. So she waits and intercepts him. She tells him this is the seventh time she has been there, and he replies, "If you've been there seven times seven, I'll buy from you."
Marianne Blumenbecker then goes to the doorman 42 more times and gets it stamped each time - and finally gets the order.
