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Podcast „Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“
Episode #60 | Gerda Söhngen of KEIL Befestigungstechnik: Why succession only succeeded on the second attempt
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Podcast episode 60
Gerda Söhngen of KEIL Befestigungstechnik: Why succession only succeeded on the second attempt
Gerda Söhngen, Managing Director of KEIL Befestigungstechnik
Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Episode description
“For me, it was absolutely clear that I would never return to the family business,” says Gerda Söhngen, recalling the moment when she had just told her mother that she was giving up as successor. After that, she initially opened a fitness studio. Today, contrary to her own expectations, she is nonetheless Managing Director of the family business. “I became increasingly inauthentic because I focused more on meeting expectations and fitting into a predefined framework than on simply doing my job,” she recalls of her early days in the company.
KEIL Befestigungstechnik is based in Engelskirchen in the Bergisches Land region, employs 30 people, and manufactures fastening systems primarily for façade panels. The company was founded in 1963 by Carl and Gertrud Eischeid in their garage, where they produced drill bits. Fifteen years later, the inventor Carl Eischeid developed the so-called undercut anchor, a kind of super plug. It is barely the size of a thumbnail, yet it can hold panels weighing several tons on buildings. KEIL technology can be found in the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Wimbledon Stadium in London, and the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.
Gerda Söhngen returned to the family business in 2019 and today runs it together with a Co-Managing Director. In the podcast, she talks about what was different the second time around, the role played by business cards printed with the title “Intern” and sneakers, and her plans for the future. “I like the fact that we are continuously in a state of change. I don’t think it’s ever finished,” says the entrepreneur on the podcast “Alles Neu…? Aus dem Maschinenraum” with Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum, and Capital editor Katja Michel.
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Gerda Söhngen
Gerda Söhngen is Managing Director of KEIL Befestigungstechnik and leads the family business in its third generation together with external Co-Managing Director Christian Schmidt. After studying business administration, she consciously stepped away from the company, founded her own EMS fitness studio, and gained leadership experience as a managing director. She returned to KEIL in 2019 and took over as Managing Director at the age of 29 under newly defined structural conditions. Today, she stands for modern, authentic leadership in a traditional, male-dominated construction industry and is a strong public advocate for business succession.
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!
