He didn't hesitate and submitted his application.
With success.
Herbert Pröll has been the managing director of Hörnle-Bahn since October 1st.
Bad Kohlgrub - The topic "flashed" him when he got on the Hörnle privately at the beginning of August. In the daily newspaper he read about the resignation of the previous managing director of the suspension railway. Herbert Pröll was very ambitious. He applied for the position. As one of 16 candidates. Five made it to the final and were allowed to audition in front of the shareholders' meeting - the Bad Kohlgruber municipal council. The 58-year-old was obviously well received with his open manner. Since October 1st he has been working as the new managing director of Hörnle-Schwebebahn GmbH & Co. Schlepplift KG.
For a few weeks now, Pröll has been responsible for the economic well-being of the Nostalgie-Bahn.
He stays out of technical matters.
Operations manager Michael Hibler is responsible for this.
Pröll, who comes from Bad Kohlgrub and spent his childhood and youth there, has in mind to combine the technical and commercial aspects of the suspension railway.
“The local council recognized that too,” he emphasizes - the way to his job was clear.
At the moment with flexible working hours
Bringing different areas of a company together, exploring synergy effects, directing the business and legal issues of a company in an orderly manner - "I have built my entire career on these skills," says the trained lawyer, who once worked at Hypobank and later made his own Company founded.
Pröll takes care of accounting, marketing, revenue policy and social media - currently only 15 hours a week.
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Herbert Pröll.
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Mayor Franz Degele (Free Voters) is happy to have found a new managing director. The town hall chief considers the new man on the command bridge to be “excellently suited - commercially, personally and legally”. At the moment, the concept is that Pröll gets by with his few hours a week as part of flexible working hours. “He doesn't have to be there every day,” says Degele. As soon as other circumstances arise and the planned renovation is tackled, the manager could expect more hours.
Even his predecessor Georg Mangold had to deal with modernizing the lift.
But he said goodbye after two months in office.
The managing director job was not the right thing for him, he justified the step.
In August of this year, the local council again spoke out in favor of abandoning a new building for more than 20 million euros and instead pursuing the cheaper option of moderate renovation.
In this context, Pröll has to take into account the various parties involved in the cable car.
“Everyone has their own ideas about the renovation,” says the managing director.
In addition to the municipality as the railway owner, the interest groups are the landowners, pasture and timber use lawyers, residents, neighbors and the supervisory authorities.
We were looking for someone like that.
Mayor Franz Degele
It is clear to the new man at the top that the municipality wants to see positive operating results.
“But she doesn't necessarily want to squeeze the money off the track either,” says Pröll.
It is more important to preserve this as a symbol and as a figurehead for the place.
The community has to "keep the balance" so that on the one hand tourism is promoted and the surrounding inns are frequented.
Cooperation with local businesses is also conceivable, suggests Pröll.
On the other hand, Bad Kohlgruber's local mountain shouldn't be too crowded.
"No mass operation, no permanent overload."
With this attitude, the 58-year-old scores points at Degele.
“We were looking for someone like that.” For Pröll, father of two grown children, it is a return to his homeland.
“I learned to ski as a child on the Tannenbankerl.
Now I can do good as managing director of the Hörnle-Bahn. ”The contacts with old school friends have never been broken off, his parents still live in the village.
He compares his situation with that of a Munich man who is offered a job at Bayern Munich.
It couldn't be better.
He just had to hit it.
