Podcast „Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“

Succession is one of the biggest problems for many family businesses. Sometimes the heirs don't want to, sometimes they can't. In the case of ROWE, a lubricant manufacturer founded in 1995, they simply created facts: Founder Michael Zehe had already designated his daughter Alexandra Kohlmann to succeed the company. The now 34-year-old had barely finished her studies when she joined ROWE and learned the pitfalls of management from the ground up. "I was delighted when they said, 'Please come,'" Kohlmann says in the podcast „Alles Neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum." The successor stresses that a handover is a long-term process that, in the case of a family, starts very early. "It basically starts with the entrepreneur or business owner having children. That's where early childhood imprinting comes in." Alexandra's job at ROWE is to transition the company in the medium term – as fewer lubricants are expected to be needed as electric cars become more common. But she also says, "We are convinced that the internal combustion engine will remain relevant for quite some time." Alexandra talks about her company's research activities, her childhood racing karts and why she needs acrylic paints. In the podcast – with Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum and Capital editor Nils Kreimeier.

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.

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