# 9: Holding on to the Monkey — With Decency and Responsibility
English translation
“1. Manageable company size,
2. Job protection in favor of enhancing one’s prestige,
3. Market- and consumer-oriented production,
4. Rate of return thinking instead of a sales focus,
5. Teamwork, human dignity, and freedom in the workplace.
What did this program mean in 1975?”
Story behind the Passage
This morning I drove two hedgehog babies from the local animal shelter to a wildlife center near Frankfurt. I have been doing these “special deliveries” since the beginning of Corona this year. It was April or so when I felt this urge to help. At the time, it was not clear whether consultants or coaches would ever find clients again this year. There was 0 budget for external service provides — at least during the first weeks. So, one could only accept the situation and use one’s time wisely. I am pretty sure, you know what I am talking about…
For me this meant that I prepared my book on management narratives for publication after I had postponed that task for almost two years. But just working on this academic leftover was quite boring and unsatisfactory. The entire world was in “helping mode.” Partly, this was great because volunteers were needed, e.g., for grocery shopping for the elderly. Partly, this was not so great because there were more helpers, i.e., people who got bored or pissed off by sitting at home, than places and people who needed help. I did not want to be a superfluous helper standing in the way of people who were actually helping. I wanted to do something that made sense — to others and to me.
So, I ended up asking a friend whether she knew of a place that really needed volunteers. The first thing she said was: “Yes, go to the animal shelter, they need people.” I was a bit confused because one of the few things that were fairly clear from the beginning— among the many things that are still not clear today — was that Covid-19 was not dangerous for animals. Still, I gave it a try, sent an e-mail to the shelter and got a call a few days later: “You cannot actually take care of the animals here because only staff members are allowed on the property now,” the lady told me. “But we often have small animals that need to be brought to other shelters or special sanctuaries. If you have a car and a flexible work schedule, that would really help us.”
Sure, I had both, especially at the time, at least kind of (I did not tell her that I was driving a 1998 Mercedes that was close to falling apart!). Even though this had not really been my idea of animal welfare volunteering when first calling them, I happily accepted. It did not take long until I got the first call to action. I was quite nervous before my first courier mission. This time, I drove a baby duck that had been found by a home owner somewhere in the city. The duck and I had a great conversation during the ride on the autobahn. I had the impression that she liked the oldies radio station. I drove especially careful and watched the speed limit. After all, I really wanted to do a good job and since I had no experience with ducks yet, I had no idea whether they could suffer from motion sickness or anything else.
It turned out, my worries were unnecessary. After about an hour, I was back from the delivery mission and felt quite “proud” of myself. While the entire world was worried about intensive care capacities, toilet paper inventory, and human dignity in nursing homes, I was driving around a baby duck. Still, being of help, like anything in the world, is a matter of subjective evaluation— by the person helping and the person being helped. Had the duck been a “person,” I am sure she would have expressed her gratitude. As far as I was concerned, I was already looking forward to the next consignment.
“Geeeeee…. When the heck are you going to get to the point?! What does all this have to do with startups???” Is this what you are thinking right now, dear reader? Or did you simply get lost in the duck story without thinking about business topics anymore? See, this is what stories can achieve! No worries. I am getting there. I did not plan on writing so much about the animal shelter volunteering stuff but it looks as if this has really become an important part of my life. In any case, I am going to spare you the details about the next delivery tour I did (it was a baby magpie). The reason why I am describing all this is because in the car this morning with the two hedgehog babies in their plastic containers in the seat next to me, I started pondering over the passage that I would choose for my blog today. Since I was thinking so much about animals in the car, I wondered whether I had ever read any stories about entrepreneurs who love or even work with animals. In fact, I know that many entprepreneurs love nature and animals. But among the many people that I could probably write about in this context, the first person that popped up in my mind was: Wolfgang Grupp.
Grupp runs the t-shirt and sportswear company Trigema in the third generation. By all means, he appears to be the exact opposite of a startup founder. One testimony to this is the fact that he has been holding on to a chimpanzee as the company’s marketing “face” in TV spots since 1990! Yes, dear founders, I know that many of you were not even born by then… I hope this finally explains the link between my animal adventures and Grupp. But there are many other very unique features that have come to shape the image of this in many ways “old-fashioned” entrepreneur. This is also what you might infer from the passage above. The point is — I want to challenge that notion. I even want to suggest that startups can learn from Grupp.
My Learnings
“1. Manageable company size.” Grupp took over from his father in the 1970s. The company was not doing well at the time. It had around 1,000 employees in the 1950s. The strategic milestones Grupp defined are pretty much still in place. Today, the company is the most successful t-shirt and tennis outfit manufacturer in Germany. It has about 1,200 employees. (You can find all the other details online.) From a startup perspective you might say now: “What? Why would this guy be called ‘successful’? He managed to hire around 200 more employees in more than half a century?”
Yes, exactly, this what I am saying. I might even be wrong about saying that Grupp mostly stuck to his principles from 1975. After all, all I know about the company and him is what everyone can find online, in documentaries, and in the book entitled “Wirtschaft braucht Anstand” (“Business Needs Decency”). The fact checking is not important for what I generally want to highlight. First, employing 1,200 people means you are feeding their families as well and you are thus creating impact for the well-being of several thousand people, not even talking about the community where the company is based. Can you say that about your startup already? Second, what does size say about impact anyways? Sure, if you are startup-crazy, you are probably dreaming about being the next Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos. Apple has more than 130,000 employees globally, Amazon even more than 800,000! Great. No doubt that you can apply my philanthropist logic from above to these huge figures as well and claim that feeding millions of families is more valuable. Yes, but remember: You need to get there first and you need to stay there. In Germany, this has not happened with digital companies so far and I think there is a reason for this.
Startup, according to the original US definition (Paul Graham), means one thing: growth. I have been witnessing this again and again in German startup circles. You chase growth as if there were no tomorrow. Today a team of 10, next month 50, in three months 200, and… in 6 months: 0! You know what I am talking about? Of course, there are startups that manage to scale quickly and stay at the top. And we also have some in Germany. But these super-large companies are exceptions. While most startup activists and investors are pushing this dogma of scalability, I am arguing that the image of the unicorn does not fit into the entrepreneurial narrative and mindset of Germany and even Europe.
No matter if you agree with this or not — and on purpose, I am not getting into more details today — I recommend you at least reflect on Grupp’s milestone: manageable size. Nobody prevents you from thinking big. I just think that there needs to be some sort of middle path and the somewhat blind focus on growth to me simply does not reflect the type of entrepreneurship that will make Germany and Europe more prosperous in the long run. And by “prosperous” I do not just mean money. I mean the type of prosperity that ensures human well-being and survival. Having fun for one year by scaling up a company from 10 people to 1,000 might be an incentive for you and your ego. Firing all these people again might be a reason to think about decency and dignity.
“5. Teamwork, human dignity and freedom in the workplace. Since most of the other points on Grupp’s agenda are connected to the growth theme which I have discussed above, I just want to take up the last point. Remember, this strategy is from 1975. “Teamwork” was not as ‘dogmatic’ as it is today — at least as far as today’s connotation of the concept and the cultural implications are concerned. The same holds true for the “freedom in the workplace” theme. This has become extremely important only fairly recently in the context of the New Work debate, digitalization, and now with Covid-19. Again, this was not so common to think about 45 years ago, especially not in a manufacturing business. But I am not going through all these points to start a chorus of praise. As I mentioned above, I have no idea what this really looked like for the employees. I am just pointing out that certain concepts might or might not change their meaning over time. There is one concept that does not: HUMAN DIGNITY.
If there is one thing that Grupp represents with every pore of his public persona, it is what the title of the book promises: decency (German “Anstand”). You might argue that he sometimes pushes that image to the limits (I personally do not think so), but what he authentically conveys is that dignity is not just a marketing slogan for him. The reason why I am picking this up is because I often miss this in the startup context. Again, you can take the big players as the prime examples. Apple, Amazon, and many others — these are the “rockets” in the startup sky but these are also the companies that frequently make headlines with compliance violations — to say the least. Sure, this holds true for other large and small corporates from the pre-digital era as well. However, let us just stick to startups for a moment and be honest: Is human dignity as the ultimate norm of executive decision making really being implemented in daily operations?
I know, you might go crazy now. How can I ever say something like this about startups who are the game changers that are trying to make the world a better place with their technologies? Yes, I understand that. But all these visions are worth nothing if they are not turned into action in daily management and leadership. And this is where all the other traits that Grupp — as an archetype of this traditional SME-entrepreneur that Germany is famous for — embodies: responsibility, discipline, strict rules, modesty, frugality, clear communication, even autocratic leadership in some ways. You can call all these things outdated. The point is: No matter how much you might dislike these aspects; they ensure that the rules of the game are clear and that someone watches them and takes personal responsibility if they are violated. Can you say this about startups? Can you say this about your own leadership practice?
I am realizing, I am getting too far into this. There is a lot more I could say. As you can tell based on my thoughts in previous posts, leadership is a topic I am constantly thinking about. In any institution, it is the key to ensuring dignity — for anybody involved. This might be a huge word but I do think it has never lost any of its relevance — and never will (think of its significance in the German Basic Law). And I have to admit, I miss the sincere and seemingly old-fashioned debates about big topics like this one in the discourse about startups and in the founder environment. Implicitly, dignity seems to be so present in any cool and hip founder vision that explicitly, founders forget to ensure it on an everyday level for their staff. Have you never met any (ex-)startup employees who lost their jobs from one day to the other without warning? If your answer is “yes,” think again. Well, this is what startup life is like, you might argue. If you think so…
If there is one thing that the Trigema chimpanzee stands for, it is: stability. You make a decision and you have the balls to stick to it, no matter how much others might ridicule you for this. At a certain point, if you have the discipline, capabilities, and determination to even get to this point, what seemed ridiculous before can turn into one of the beacons of your brand. And it will represent the values that you stand for — not the technology and not whatever fancy office you might have built. We are in the middle of a huge value transformation these days with internationalization and digitalization being the drivers. But let’s not fool ourselves: We are always in a value transformation — if we notice it or not. This is what life and progress is all about. That was true for the 1970s and it will be true for the 2030s. If we have the decency and responsibility to stick to our own entrepreneurial principles over many decades, we will be able to tell right from wrong. And hopefully, this will help us find a balance between the U.S.-imported ultra-growth startup mindset with all its negative side effects and the, at times, ultra-conservative mindset of SME patriarchs. Maybe the monkey can teach us more than we think…
Reflection Questions
1) Do you have any entrepreneurial “role models” from before the startup age?
2) The chimpanzee TV ads stand for low-cost marketing. How much do you invest in marketing — both financially and in your strategy prioritization?
3) What does the concept of “responsibility” mean to you personally?
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