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

Siblings Anna Weber and Jan Weischer lead Germany’s largest baby product retail chain: BabyOne. The family business based in Münster was founded by their parents. Gabriele and Wilhelm Weischer were pioneers in the trade of pacifiers, strollers, and baby car seats. Today, 100 specialty stores are spread across the country, BabyOne employs around 1,400 people, and generated over 240 million euros in revenue in 2023. In the podcast, Anna Weber talks about succession in a family business, working with her brother, and the downsides of remote work.

“It was a gradual decision,” says Anna Weber about her choice to take on the responsibility of the family business together with her brother. “We both went our own ways first.” It wasn’t until they became parents themselves that the siblings felt drawn back into the family company. When asked how the sibling dynamic influences the leadership of BabyOne, Weber, who is 18 months older than her brother, responds: “That’s what defines a family business—that you bring part of yourself and your relationships into the company. I believe that anyone who says they’re completely different at work than in the family is lying.” She’s a big fan of constructive conflict when it comes to business matters. “The worst thing is this blanket of harmony that covers everything—both in the family and in the company,” says Weber.

After the pandemic, the motto at BabyOne headquarters was initially “Work from anywhere.” No one had to come into the office. “But we realized that our culture really suffered when people were no longer here in person,” Weber says. Now, there is a rule of three in-office days per week.

Anna Weber also talks about the changes she and her brother have initiated and how they are developing the in-house brand Elsa & Emil—in the podcast “Alles Neu…? Aus dem Maschinenraum” with Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum, and Capital editor Katja Michel.

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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