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Reinhold Würth: "Arrogance is the most disgusting quality an entrepreneur can have"

2022-12-09T03:57:03.245Z


Reinhold Würth: "Arrogance is the most disgusting quality an entrepreneur can have" Created: 2022-12-09 04:45 By: Sina Alonso Garcia Reinhold Würth can look back on a successful career. He made the screw manufacturer Würth the world market leader and relied on down-to-earthness. Künzelsau - He is one of the mysterious billionaires in Baden-Württemberg and had an unprecedented career: At the ag


Reinhold Würth: "Arrogance is the most disgusting quality an entrepreneur can have"

Created: 2022-12-09 04:45

By: Sina Alonso Garcia

Reinhold Würth can look back on a successful career.

He made the screw manufacturer Würth the world market leader and relied on down-to-earthness.

Künzelsau - He is one of the mysterious billionaires in Baden-Württemberg and had an unprecedented career: At the age of just 19, Reinhold Würth took over his late father's company in 1954.

In the years that followed, he developed the screw manufacturer based in Künzelsau (Hohenlohe district) into the international market leader in fastening and assembly technology.

Würth started with two employees, today there are more than 84,000 employees worldwide.

Reinhold Würth: Promotions make employees more arrogant

"Right from the start, Reinhold Würth has shaped a corporate culture based on respect for employees and their achievements," says a report on the company's website.

As Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Würth Group, he is still closely associated with the company, while his daughter Bettina Würth continues his tradition as Chairman of the Advisory Board and the Executive Board.

In all his creative years, the now 87-year-old entrepreneur from Baden-Württemberg has learned that if you do not communicate at eye level, you will cause dissatisfaction among employees.

“We have an incredibly solid company with very low turnover - less than five percent of all employees per year.

That means: The employees feel comfortable with us," he told

WirtschaftsWoche

.

"I've never asked for anything I wouldn't be willing to do myself.

To me, arrogance is the most disgusting trait an entrepreneur can have.”

Decency is very important to Reinhold Würth.

According to him, this is also shown by wearing ties at appointments.

© imago images / Manfred Siebinger

He himself has often experienced that employees who receive a promotion become arrogant.

“Most of the time there is no ill will behind it.

Quite the opposite: people grow with their tasks, get a promotion, are successful and then often unnoticed become arrogant.

It is also out of insecurity that they then lean on their power and let others feel it.” In his remarks, Würth goes even further: “Arrogance is like the blood of a hunting dog that picks up a trail.

He forgets everything else off the track.

People are so deeply involved in a task that they don't even notice how their language changes.”

Entrepreneur Reinhold Würth knows what it means to get by on little money

As he explained in an interview with

WirtschaftsWoche

, Reinhold Würth sees it as his major task to keep arrogance away from companies.

"That's why I often have one-to-one talks with a manager to bring them back down to earth.

They are often grateful for that.”

Würth himself learned early on what it means to get by on little money.

When he was young, he would turn off the engine when driving down the mountain.

It still annoys him when a light is burning somewhere that "doesn't have to be on".

It is not easy to make the following generations understand “what it means to have ten euros”.

Nevertheless, it is particularly important to him that his family stays down to earth despite their wealth.

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Not only for Reinhold Würth, arrogance is a characteristic of people that he deeply rejects.

Other well-known entrepreneurs do not like to see arrogance either.

For example, the head of technology at Daimler revealed that arrogance was a knock-out criterion for him when selecting applicants.

Reinhold Würth: Ties stand for respect and decency

As Reinhold Würth also made clear in an interview with Die Zeit, decency is very important to him.

This is shown, among other things, by wearing ties at important appointments.

“I would find it improper to go to an appointment without a tie and with my shirt half-open.

The tie stands for respect.” Würth describes the fact that Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz does not wear a tie from time to time as a “strange phenomenon of the times”.

Editor's note: This text has already appeared in the past.

He was of particular interest to many readers.

That's why we're offering it again.

He also noticed that nowadays the "superficiality" has increased among younger people.

In Würth's youth, freedom was never a matter of course, which is why "you had to do more and could do less".

At the present time, the conditions for young people are far better and give them more creative freedom.

"But that shouldn't go to your head," says Würth.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-12-09

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