No investment, no growth! After years of investing in education and expertise, two SHB alumni, Anja and Johannes Glatzle, made this their motto as they embarked on self-employment. Called “Die Fitmacher” (The keep-fitters), their business consultancy focuses on project and change management and is aimed at companies seeking extra support with change management. The first step in the Glatzle’s bold move into self-employment: the MBA program at the School of International Business and Entrepreneurship (SIBE) at SHB.
The focus on “project competence” of the Steinbeis degree gave the pair excellent hands-on experience; Johannes Glatzle worked as a project and change manager at Daimler, while Anja Glatzle held a position at Dekra Consulting. These jobs also equipped them with the tools they need to succeed as consultants – complete with management methods learned in the classroom, which are now second nature.
Having envisioned what they want to achieve and how, the Glatzles made their first investments and spent considerable time planning the road ahead at the start of 2011. Their work has already paid off: the pair has just landed a major contract for workplace health management at a German “hidden champion”. Their task is to reduce sick-leave in the long term while boosting employee satisfaction. By 2014, productivity should be 20% higher per employee versus today. What do these entrepreneurs see as their recipe for success? Part of it is down to the link between theory and practice – a hallmark of Steinbeis University Berlin. In laying the foundation for their project work, the alumni also draw on two tools from their time in the classroom: the Six Loop Concept® and the principle behind the Management- Competence-Test (MKT®).
Anja and Johannes Glatzle can already point to successful ventures with SMEs and public bodies that value accomplishment and motivated employees. Over the course of their studies, the pair learned to structure tasks as professionals, adopt a hands-on approach and work out feasible, real-life solutions.
Patricia Mezger
Steinbeis School of International Business and Entrepreneurship at Steinbeis University Berlin (SHB, Berlin/Herrenberg)
su1249@stw.de
Anja and Johannes Glatzle