Maximilian Heindl, what does your brother joining Progroup’s Executive Board mean for you?

Maximilian Heindl: It’s an expression of our clear commitment to Progroup’s long-term standing as a family company. We want to expand our role as a technology and innovation leader in the industry, continue to set ambitious growth and sustainability targets, and thus make ourselves even more competitive. Our father always described this with the phrase “Making Progroup future-proof”. A motto that explains very concisely what all our decisions will continue to be based on in the future.

Vinzenz Heindl, to what extent does your appointment as Chief Sales Officer (CSO) also send a signal to customers?

Vinzenz Heindl: The continued development of relationships with our customers is very strategically important to us. We’re aware that we can only grow successfully together with our customers. To do this, we need to exploit the “Power of Cooperation” as much as possible. The expansion of the Executive Board to include the position of Chief Sales Officer and the associated establishment of a customer-focused area of expertise is therefore just a logical step. In addition, my appointment to the Executive Board also sends another signal indicating that the family stands reliably behind the company, its strategy, its values and its culture. This is important because many of our customer relationships have existed for years or decades and are characterised by a close personal connection.

Looking to the future, is family-to-family really still a viable business model?

VH: Yes, definitely. The level of dedication and commitment and the close ties with the company are unique in a family-run business. This applies not just to the members of the family who own the business, but also to the employees. Of course, the general conditions on both sides change over time. This also applies to many of our customers who are also about to go through a changing of the generations, for example. However, the basic idea behind the family-to-family approach remains unchanged and is firmly established in the DNA of these companies. It’s about close personal connections, a cooperative relationship between equal partners and reliability and commitment in business relationships. We want to build on this foundation and continue to develop the family-to-family business.

MH: We’ll also achieve this by working together. We’ve both known the opportunities and challenges of a family business from an early age. As Managing Director of the Professionals Academy, Vinzenz has developed a very good knowledge of the industry and a comprehensive understanding of the market. He has been and still is in constant dialogue with the representatives of other families of entrepreneurs in our industry, whatever generation they belong to. From his constant engagement with them, he is very well aware of the challenges they face and the wishes they have. And it is precisely this customer perspective that he will bring to our work on the Board. We’re benefiting from this already. In addition, Vinzenz has the ability to shape relationships with customers with real vision and depth. He can also draw on his interdisciplinary training in the fields of philosophy and psychology to help him do this.

Vinzenz, what goals have you set yourself for your first year on the Progroup Board?

VH: In the short and medium term, I will work with my sales colleagues to examine our sales structures, sales activities and management systems. What’s worked and what can we do better? There’s sure to be plenty of valuable insights. These will help us identify new business opportunities and sales methods that we can use to continue to shape the market successfully in the future. In the medium and long term, my goal is to establish a real culture of innovation in sales. To do this, we’ll need to try out new sales approaches and methods, but also constantly review our customer structure and our product portfolio and adapt them to reflect the current requirements.

That sounds like a reconfiguration of sales?

MH: Not at all. It’s simply an evolution of our previous sales activities that we’ve been talking about within the management team and with our sales colleagues for a long time and is something we started some time ago. With the appointment of Vinzenz, this process is now getting an extra boost.

What impact will this realignment have on you?

MH: I can only see benefits. Firstly, I can now concentrate more on my core task as CEO. This is very clearly the company’s strategic and technological development. Secondly, we will also step up our already in-depth interaction at an operational level. This will lead to better integration of strategy, technology and sales. And thirdly, the involvement of Vinzenz will ensure that we as the family that runs the business are even more involved in contacts with customers. This will strengthen the bond with customers and help to reinforce our family-to-family approach. In short, Vinzenz’s appointment to the Board means we can now champion our visions even better and more effectively.

What are these visions and goals?

MH: On the one hand, accelerating the start-up of the new plants because they’re the foundation for further growth. On the other, we want to improve the digitisation and networking of the different areas of the company. This will enable us to work even more productively and efficiently. And let’s not forget that we want to champion the circular economy at all our sites. We want to continue to enhance sustainable performance and we plan to do this by consistently embracing innovations and state-of-the-art technologies.

What role will customers and business partners play in achieving these goals?

VH: An absolutely crucial role. As we don’t produce any packaging ourselves and therefore don’t compete with our customers, Progroup’s success is always directly related to how successful our customers are. We therefore regard them not “only” as buyers of our products, but as important stakeholders that help shape the market. Our goal has been and still is to cooperate with them virtually. Getting this “Power of Cooperation” up and running as well as possible is our most important task for the future.

What do you understand the “Power of Cooperation” to mean?

VH: For me, “Power of Cooperation” is not just a trendy phrase or concept that you write down on a piece of paper. For me, it’s an aspiration to live up to. In our specific case, this means we engage closely with our customers and trust each other. We work with them to develop marketable and competitive solutions right along the entire value chain. To implement this form of “co-creation”, you need as much valid data as possible. For example, detailed production and market data that we provide. Or valuable market insights along with the specific demands of end customers that our business partners can contribute. If we share this data and the know-how of all parties involved, draw the right conclusions from it and develop the appropriate products, then we can all continue to compete on an equal footing with the integrated corrugated board producers in the future.

MH: Incidentally, in the places where we operate a packaging park with our customers, this cooperation already works well. That’s why we’ll continue to promote this concept in the future.

In addition to the goals for the company, you must also have personal goals or things that particularly motivate you. What are they?

VH: The company is part of our family and our identity. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, but I don’t just want to be satisfied with this. That’s why I’m looking to the future. The key thing is to keep developing what we’ve built and work on this every single day with great enthusiasm and motivation – and do so together with our employees, customers and business partners.

MH: It’s also important to me that there are good prospects for future generations too. I personally have always regarded it as a privilege to be able to implement my own ideas and take responsibility. This is still what drives me today and I want to enable my children to do this as well. There’s nothing more rewarding than motivating people to believe in their own abilities and goals, helping them to develop their skills and achieve their goals.

VH: Yes, precisely. For me, it is really important to take joy and pride in our company’s success and share it with the employees. Winston Churchill put it very aptly: ‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.’ Success has to be earned anew every single day. It is produced through hard work, the courage to pursue your goals with the irrepressible will to win. And that’s precisely why it’s so important to celebrate this success together. For our history tells us that it’s the people who make this path possible with their passion and desire to perform.