Günter Albers – Farsighted Networker

It always gives me pleasure when foreign clients or colleagues welcome us with 'Moin'. This implies: Apart from our mobile space solutions, we seem to export our North German culture as well. And it's a great pleasure, for example, to call our friend in Dubai, and he answers the phone with 'Moin!'.

I'm Günter Albers, Managing Partner of the ELA Container Group, 55 years old. In our company I am responsible for the corporate strategy. Means looking ahead 5 to 10 years. To where should we develop? To a sales-driven company! It's the essential thing to me, that we are sales-driven. In the end it's like this: Sales power into the market, and the commissions will come.

I joined ELA in 1990. I previously earned my money in a shipping company, domestically and abroad. I joined in 1990, because my father and the advisory board had asked if I would like to join the company. I asked my 2 siblings if they would approve. And they did. So I joined, and of course I immediately revved up, so to say. 1994: Full signing powers, 1996: Managing Partner. We had 50 employees when I joined the company. Well, this is 32 years ago now... Considering the fact that we celebrate ELA's 50th anniversary this year, my 32 years in the company are quite a long time.

Actually, there is no typical day. Attending meetings from morning to night – ok, that's typical. But basically I'm a networker, and that's what it is about every day. And my task, I guess, is to watch and to listen. I enjoy to be with people, to look at things across the globe. That inspires me, generates ideas for our company.

I'd like to start with a quotation from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

How did the company develop? I like to talk about that because, in 2005, when we assumed 100% of the operational business from my father, it was a true generational change. Then we said: We want to grow a bit faster. An expansion course, so to say, and we really revved up, turned the company into an international player. I never had borders in my mind because I was trained by a shipping company. And I had experiences I could perfectly execute to make ELA grow: To internationalise the company, namely to scale our business model into other countries.

If you want a local company to become an international player, you can't stay at your desk; you have to be flexible. You have to be willing to travel. And I've always been. Of course your wife and your family have to back you. And I always had their support.

From a local provider to an international provider – principally it looks quite simple: Oblong containers, trucks. But it isn't that simple. Products have to match with the market. That's one point. And you need proper people in every country to establish a network. Crossing the borders, internationalising a company, that's the supreme discipline.

You will pick me up tomorrow at the airport? See you tomorrow. Bye-bye.

To establish an international company, you need a powerful team, of course. So it's always been important for us to find the right people who fit perfectly in the team. And I always loved to find the right person for the right task. The team simply is the be-all and end-all. We were really favoured by fortune in building up top teams here and abroad. Without these teams it would have been impossible to evolve into the company ELA is today.