Podcast „Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“
Episode #18: Richard Grohe
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Podcast Folge 18
Richard Grohe: From family entrepreneur to entrepreneurial family
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Episode Description
Family businesses with a long tradition are almost always faced with a momentous decision at some point: Should the company, which often bears one's own name, be continued operationally by the heirs themselves? Do they prefer to hand over the business to a manager from outside? Or will the company even be sold and the family's involvement come to an end? Hansgrohe, the sanitation manufacturer from the Black Forest, has opted for a fourth path. The majority of Hansgrohe is held by a U.S. company, but the family-owned Syngroh still owns almost a third. This company is now acting as an investor itself and is trying to build up its own investment portfolio in medium-sized companies. "We want to make the operational experience we have available to other companies," says Syngroh Capital managing director Richard Grohe in the podcast "Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum." The goal, he says, is to "participate in one or two investments" and "maybe go from being an entrepreneur to an investor family." The idea is not to work toward quick resales but to invest for the long term. "What we don't look at in the beginning is the numbers," Grohe says. "You can't be an entrepreneur and a financier at the same time." The investor, a former board member at Hansgrohe, believes his own background gives him easier access in medium-sized companies. Grohe talks about where things go wrong in the German Mittelstand, what he always looks at first in a company and what he would talk about with Warren Buffet. In the podcast - with Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum and Capital editor Nils Kreimeier.
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Richard Grohe
Richard Grohe joined the family company Hansgrohe in 1987. From 1995, he built up the Hansgrohe plant in Wasselonne (France), which he managed until 2002. In 2003, he took over the management of the Hansgrohe brand, which he held for 12 years, from 2006 also as a member of the Executive Board with further responsibility for the Hansgrohe Strategic Business Area and Key Customer Management. From 2008 until his departure in 2016, Richard Grohe was Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Hansgrohe SE with responsibility for Research, Development & Products and the Europe region.
At Syngroh, Richard Grohe contributes the experience in process and organizational development he gained during his time on the Executive Board and thus supports the growth processes and the establishment of structures in the portfolio companies.
About the Podcast
How can the origin and future of Mittelstand companies be courageously united? What are the challenges facing family businesses and what experiences do they gather in digital transformation? These questions are answered by "Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum", the interview podcast for German Mittelstand*. Once a month, Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum, and Nils Kreimeier, Senior Editor of the business magazine Capital, talk to thought leaders and makers from the heart of the German economy and focus on the personalities and their motivation.
*The podcast is in German.
For more episodes of "Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum" please click here!
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