Entrepreneur Prof. Klaus Fischer's 75th Birthday
Prof. Klaus Fischer in the customer centre at the companys Tumlingen site
Prof. Fischer is demanding and always ahead of his time. 50 years ago, at the age of 25, he joined the company as a graduate engineer (FH) and took over the test field. At that time, the company had around 1,000 employees and generated sales of 102 million German marks (approximately 51 million euros). Today, 4,700 people worldwide are part of the family-owned company with an annual turnover of over 1.11 billion euros in 2024.
Prof. Fischer soon became part of the management team. In 1980, he took over overall responsibility and developed his own vision. He took into account social changes, growing global competition and internal complexity while customer proximity, spirit of innovation and sustainable service have always played a central role.
New products are now being developed worldwide. Research and development are also becoming increasingly international. 'Acting entrepreneurially, focusing on the customers and leading the company strategically into the future together with our employees – that was and is my goal,' explains Prof. Fischer.
Strategic expansion of the company divisions
Prof. Fischer continuously expanded the fixing systems division. In 1993, the acquisition of Upat GmbH & Co. KG in Emmendingen (then Germanys second-largest plug manufacturer) secured his market leadership. In addition to plastic plugs, heavy-duty metal fastenings gained in importance. The integration of ROCCA Bauchemie GmbH & Co. KG (foams and silicones) in 1997 created todays successful chemical division in Denzlingen. Further expansion of the chemical division is imminent. This will further strengthen the fischer fastening technology in the long term whilst becoming aligned with the future of construction.
fischer mission statement and fischer ProcessSystem
Prof. Klaus Fischers understanding of progress is holistic. It was already in 1987 that he introduced a company mission statement. The values 'innovative', 'reliable' and 'accountable' were developed together with the employees and still apply to everyone in the company today. The group works worldwide in a results-oriented manner for the benefit of its customers. This is also achieved by avoiding waste and increasing added value. The fischer Process System was developed from the mission statement and the Japanese philosophy of KAIZEN, which stands for continuous change for the better.
Employees play a central role in this: with their experience, they recognise weak spots and know how the company can be improved. They are thus entrepreneurs within the company, take responsibility and initiate improvements on a daily basis. Mistakes are allowed, as long as they are not made twice. 'We strive to be the best, not only in our products but also in our processes – in order to create real added value for our customers.' In 2004, fischer Consulting was created from the expertise developed within the company. The internationally active process consultancy supports internal and external customers on their way to lean and efficient processes.
Fibre composite pioneer fisco
The subsidiary fisco was founded in 2015. Among other things, the fibre composite pioneer is the first company in the world to develop a non-combustible fibre composite material that is ideal for structural retrofitting. With its versatile products and solutions, fisco is represented in the construction industry, railway infrastructure, shipbuilding and vehicle equipment.
One year later, in 2016, Klaus Fischer strengthened the fischer Group of Companies' activities in the field of electronic components with the acquisition of LNT Automation GmbH. The division, in the meantime renamed fischer Electronic Solutions, develops and manufactures customised electronic solutions for industry and medicine.
Inspiring young and old alike for technology – with fischertechnik
Over the past decades, the fischertechnik division has undergone continuous development. The multi-award-winning construction kits stand for quality, durability and a playful learning experience. Prof. Fischer is particularly keen to inspire young people – especially girls – to take an interest in technology at an early age. fischertechnik learning concepts are used in schools, colleges and universities – for example in training in the MINT subjects (mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technology) or Industry 4.0. Today, fischertechnik is represented in over 60 countries worldwide.
Investments in education and health
'The greatest asset and most important factor for success in our company are the employees – not the facilities and buildings,' emphasises Prof. Fischer. Success depends largely on motivation and qualifications. That is why Prof. Fischer and his company invest heavily in training and further education. There are various talent pools. The Klaus Fischer Education Centre, the companys own training facility, has held around 1,000 free events on various topics since it was founded in 2010. In addition, all employees and pensioners have free access to the companys own fitness studio seven days a week at the company's Waldachtal site.
Professional sustainability
Sustainability is a particularly important issue for Prof. Fischer. It is managed holistically within the company, resulting in lean processes, speed and efficiency. The company passes on its knowledge and experience through the fischer Sustainability Campus and trains future sustainability managers. The company has received the German Sustainability Award in the 'Large Companies' category and numerous other awards for its commitment to sustainability.
Prof. Klaus Fischers commitment extends far beyond the company: in 2015, he established the Klaus Fischer Foundation for Children and Youth Education. Numerous institutions – kindergartens, schools, associations – benefit from his donations, as do international projects. He has also received numerous awards for this work: in 1996, he was awarded the Baden-Wrttemberg Business Medal; in 1998, he received the Training Oscar from the Junior Chamber; in 2001, he was awarded the Cross of Merit, 1st Class; and in 2013, he received the Grashof Medal from the Association of German Engineers, VDI. He has also been made an honorary professor at Tongji University in Shanghai and an honorary senator in Vienna and Stuttgart. In 2016, he received the Global DIY Lifetime Award, and in 2020, the title 'Host of the Year' for the company restaurant in Waldachtal. This was followed in 2021 by the title of Dottore Magistrale ad honorem from the University of Padua and, in 2024, the title of Dr.-Ing. E. h. from the University of Stuttgart.
Looking ahead
Prof. Klaus Fischer has a clear vision for the future of his company. 'It is very important to me that we focus on tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and prepare our company for the future,' he says. Artificial intelligence, digitalisation and robotics have long been part of the fischer Group of Companies. The best example of this is the fischer BauBot construction robot. Already since 2020, the fischer Innovation Campus, located in the immediate vicinity of the company's Tumlingen site, has been opening up new avenues for research, technology and collaboration. The family-owned company has 50 operating companies worldwide and exports to over 120 countries. The establishment of the 51st company in Saudi Arabia is imminent. More will follow. Thus, Prof. Klaus Fischer is continuing to expand the companys internationalisation.
And what are Prof. Klaus Fischers wishes for the coming years 'To stay healthy! And that what we all started together in our company will be continued – with strength, enthusiasm and the same passion for the company that I have felt all these years.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
11 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Fatal blast at US steel's Clairton plant sparks doubts over its future
The fatal explosion last week at US Steel's Pittsburgh-area coal-processing plant has revived debate about its future just as the iconic American company was emerging from a long period of uncertainty. The fortunes of steelmaking in the US along with profits, share prices and steel prices have been buoyed by years of friendly administrations in Washington that slapped tariffs on foreign imports and bolstered the industry's anti-competitive trade cases against China. Most recently, President Donald Trump's administration postponed new hazardous air pollution requirements for the nation's roughly dozen coke plants, like Clairton, and he approved US Steel's nearly USD 15 billion acquisition by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel. Nippon Steel's promised infusion of cash has brought vows that steelmaking will continue in the Mon Valley, a river valley south of Pittsburgh long synonymous with steelmaking. We're investing money here. And we wouldn't have done the deal with Nippon Steel if we weren't absolutely sure that we were going to have an enduring future here in the Mon Valley, David Burritt, US Steel's CEO, told a news conference the day after the explosion. You can count on this facility to be around for a long, long time. Will the explosion change anything? The explosion killed two workers and hospitalised 10 with a blast so powerful that it took hours to find two missing workers beneath charred wreckage and rubble. The cause is under investigation. The plant is considered the largest coking operation in North America and, along with a blast furnace and finishing mill up the Monongahela River, is one of a handful of integrated steelmaking operations left in the US. The explosion now could test Nippon Steel's resolve in propping up the nearly 110-year-old Clairton plant, or at least force it to spend more than it had anticipated. Nippon Steel didn't respond to a question as to whether the explosion will change its approach to the plant. Rather, a spokesperson for the company said its commitment to the Mon Valley remains strong and that it sent technical experts to work with the local teams in the Clairton Plant, and to provide our full support. Meanwhile, Burritt said he had talked to top Nippon Steel officials after the explosion and that this facility and the Mon Valley are here to stay. US Steel officials maintain that safety is their top priority and that they spend USD 100 million a year on environmental compliance at Clairton alone. However, repairing Clairton could be expensive, an investigation into the explosion could turn up more problems, and an official from the United Steelworkers union said it's a constant struggle to get US Steel to invest in its plants. Besides that, production at the facility could be affected for some time. The plant has six batteries of ovens and two where the explosion occurred were damaged. Two others are on a reduced production schedule because of the explosion. There is no timeline to get the damaged batteries running again, US Steel said. Accidents are nothing new at Clairton Accidents are nothing new at Clairton, which heats coal to high temperatures to make coke, a key component in steelmaking, and produces combustible gases as byproducts. An explosion in February injured two workers. Even as Nippon Steel was closing the deal in June, a breakdown at the plant dealt three days of a rotten egg odour into the air around it from elevated hydrogen sulfide emissions, the environmental group GASP reported. The Breathe Project, a public health organisation, said US Steel has been forced to pay USD 57 million in fines and settlements since January 1, 2020 for problems at the Clairton plant. A lawsuit over a Christmas Eve fire at the Clairton plant in 2018 that saturated the area's air for weeks with sulfur dioxide produced a withering assessment of conditions there. An engineer for the environmental groups that sued wrote that he found no indication that US Steel has an effective, comprehensive maintenance programme for the Clairton plant. The Clairton plant, he wrote, is inherently dangerous because of the combination of its deficient maintenance and its defective design. US Steel settled, agreeing to spend millions on upgrades. Matthew Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Project, said US Steel has shown more willingness to spend money on fines, lobbying the government and buying back shares to reward shareholders than making its plants safe. Will Clairton be modernised? It's not clear whether Nippon Steel will change Clairton. Central to Trump's approval of the acquisition was Nippon Steel's promises to invest USD 11 billion into US Steel's aging plants and to give the federal government a say in decisions involving domestic steel production, including plant closings. But much of the USD 2.2 billion that Nippon Steel has earmarked for the Mon Valley plants is expected to go toward upgrading the finishing mill, or building a new one. For years before the acquisition, US Steel had signalled that the Mon Valley was on the chopping block. That left workers there uncertain whether they'd have jobs in a couple years and whispering that US Steel couldn't fill openings because nobody believed the jobs would exist much longer. Relics of steelmaking's past In many ways, US Steel's Mon Valley plants are relics of steelmaking's past. In the early 1970s, US steel production led the world and was at an all-time high, thanks to 62 coke plants that fed 141 blast furnaces. Nobody in the US has built a blast furnace since then, as foreign competition devastated the American steel industry and coal fell out of favour. Now, China is dominant in steel and heavily invested in coal-based steelmaking. In the US, there are barely a dozen coke plants and blast furnaces left, as the country's steelmaking has shifted to cheaper electric arc furnaces that use electricity, not coal. Blast furnaces won't entirely go away, analysts say, since they produce metals that are preferred by automakers, appliance makers and oil and gas exploration firms. Still, Christopher Briem, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh's Centre for Social and Urban Research, questioned whether the Clairton plant really will survive much longer, given its age and condition. It could be particularly vulnerable if the economy slides into recession or the fundamentals of the American steel market shift, he said. I'm not quite sure it's all set in stone as people believe, Briem said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
Fatal explosion at U.S. Steels plant raises questions about its future, despite heavy investment
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The fatal explosion last week at U.S. Steel's Pittsburgh-area coal-processing plant has revived debate about its future just as the iconic American company was emerging from a long period of uncertainty. The fortunes of steelmaking in the U.S. — along with profits, share prices and steel prices — have been buoyed by years of friendly administrations in Washington that slapped tariffs on foreign imports and bolstered the industry's anti-competitive trade cases against China. Most recently, President Donald Trump's administration postponed new hazardous air pollution requirements for the nation's roughly dozen coke plants, like Clairton, and he approved U.S. Steel's nearly $15 billion acquisition by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel. Nippon Steel's promised infusion of cash has brought vows that steelmaking will continue in the Mon Valley, a river valley south of Pittsburgh long synonymous with steelmaking. 'We're investing money here. And we wouldn't have done the deal with Nippon Steel if we weren't absolutely sure that we were going to have an enduring future here in the Mon Valley," David Burritt, U.S. Steel's CEO, told a news conference the day after the explosion. 'You can count on this facility to be around for a long, long time.' The explosion killed two workers and hospitalized 10 with a blast so powerful that it took hours to find two missing workers beneath charred wreckage and rubble. The cause is under investigation. The plant is considered the largest coking operation in North America and, along with a blast furnace and finishing mill up the Monongahela River, is one of a handful of integrated steelmaking operations left in the U.S. The explosion now could test Nippon Steel's resolve in propping up the nearly 110-year-old Clairton plant, or at least force it to spend more than it had anticipated. Nippon Steel didn't respond to a question as to whether the explosion will change its approach to the plant. Rather, a spokesperson for the company said its 'commitment to the Mon Valley remains strong' and that it sent 'technical experts to work with the local teams in the Clairton Plant, and to provide our full support.' Meanwhile, Burritt said he had talked to top Nippon Steel officials after the explosion and that 'this facility and the Mon Valley are here to stay.' U.S. Steel officials maintain that safety is their top priority and that they spend $100 million a year on environmental compliance at Clairton alone. However, repairing Clairton could be expensive, an investigation into the explosion could turn up more problems, and an official from the United Steelworkers union said it's a constant struggle to get U.S. Steel to invest in its plants. Besides that, production at the facility could be affected for some time. The plant has six batteries of ovens and two — where the explosion occurred — were damaged. Two others are on a reduced production schedule because of the explosion. There is no timeline to get the damaged batteries running again, U.S. Steel said. Accidents are nothing new at Clairton, which heats coal to high temperatures to make coke, a key component in steelmaking, and produces combustible gases as byproducts. An explosion in February injured two workers. Even as Nippon Steel was closing the deal in June, a breakdown at the plant dealt three days of a rotten egg odor into the air around it from elevated hydrogen sulfide emissions, the environmental group GASP reported. The Breathe Project, a public health organization, said U.S. Steel has been forced to pay $57 million in fines and settlements since Jan. 1, 2020, for problems at the Clairton plant. A lawsuit over a Christmas Eve fire at the Clairton plant in 2018 that saturated the area's air for weeks with sulfur dioxide produced a withering assessment of conditions there. An engineer for the environmental groups that sued wrote that he 'found no indication that U.S. Steel has an effective, comprehensive maintenance program for the Clairton plant.' The Clairton plant, he wrote, is "inherently dangerous because of the combination of its deficient maintenance and its defective design." U.S. Steel settled, agreeing to spend millions on upgrades. Matthew Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Project, said U.S. Steel has shown more willingness to spend money on fines, lobbying the government and buying back shares to reward shareholders than making its plants safe. It's not clear whether Nippon Steel will change Clairton. Central to Trump's approval of the acquisition was Nippon Steel's promises to invest $11 billion into U.S. Steel's aging plants and to give the federal government a say in decisions involving domestic steel production, including plant closings. But much of the $2.2 billion that Nippon Steel has earmarked for the Mon Valley plants is expected to go toward upgrading the finishing mill, or building a new one. For years before the acquisition, U.S. Steel had signaled that the Mon Valley was on the chopping block. That left workers there uncertain whether they'd have jobs in a couple years and whispering that U.S. Steel couldn't fill openings because nobody believed the jobs would exist much longer. In many ways, U.S. Steel's Mon Valley plants are relics of steelmaking's past. In the early 1970s, U.S. steel production led the world and was at an all-time high, thanks to 62 coke plants that fed 141 blast furnaces. Nobody in the U.S. has built a blast furnace since then, as foreign competition devastated the American steel industry and coal fell out of favor. Now, China is dominant in steel and heavily invested in coal-based steelmaking. In the U.S., there are barely a dozen coke plants and blast furnaces left, as the country's steelmaking has shifted to cheaper electric arc furnaces that use electricity, not coal. Blast furnaces won't entirely go away, analysts say, since they produce metals that are preferred by automakers, appliance makers and oil and gas exploration firms. Still, Christopher Briem, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research, questioned whether the Clairton plant really will survive much longer, given its age and condition. It could be particularly vulnerable if the economy slides into recession or the fundamentals of the American steel market shift, he said. 'I'm not quite sure it's all set in stone as people believe,' Briem said. 'If the market does not bode well for U.S. Steel, for American steel, is Nippon Steel really going to keep these things?'
India.com
4 hours ago
- India.com
Samsung, which is now worth Rs 29450786400000, once used to sell fish and noodles, once burnt crores of phones due to...
New Delhi: Today, Samsung is a big name in the world of gadgets, especially smartphones. Samsung Galaxy smartphones are very popular with consumers. In the year 2024, this company sold more than 22.3 crore phones. Apart from phones, this company has proved its mettle in appliances like TVs, LED, chips, cameras, laptops, and home appliances. The valuation of Samsung is 336 billion dollars, i.e. about 2,94,50,78,64,00,000 rupees. How big is Samsung's empire? But Samsung did not have such a great start. Samsung, which is today among the topmost brands in the electronics market, has dozens of offices all over the world and has lakhs of employees. Samsung started as a grocery store, where its owner used to sell flour, rice, noodles, and fish. Today, this company has become so big that if it incurs a loss, the economy of the whole country is shaken. Samsung's revenue dominates the GDP of the entire South Korea and has a 17% share in the country's GDP. From grocery shop to tech czar South Korean company Samsung started from a small rental store. In 1938, Lee Byung-chul of South Korea opened a small grocery shop on his street. He used to sell fish, flour, sugar, and noodles in the shop. Lee Byung-chul had understood that he would not be able to do much with this. Along with selling flour and rice, he started selling insurance to the customers who came there for shopping. Exported fish and noodles Byung-chul started exporting fish and noodles. He also started exporting noodle-making material and dry fish to other countries. Byung expanded the grocery shop to insurance, export-import, and textile business by 1950. Byung understood that if he wanted to do something big, he would have to enter the technology sector. In 1969, Byung Chul started expanding his foot in the technology sector. How did Samsung start? Byung adopted technology and started expanding his foot in the technology sector. He entered this sector under the name of Samsung Electronics. In 1970, he launched a black and white TV in collaboration with a Japanese company. When he achieved success in TV, he started making mobile phones in 1980. After years of hard work, he launched Samsung mobile in the market for the first time in 1988. The first Samsung phone came to the market with the name SGH-100, but there was a problem with it. Crores of Samsung phones were burnt Samsung came into the market, launched a phone, but people did not like their first phone as they found many flaws in it. When this complaint reached Byung Chul, he set fire to crores of Samsung phones kept in the factory. He immediately issued an order to improve those phones and apologised to the people. After the death of Lee Byung-chul, his son Lee Kun took over the reins of Samsung. Byung had understood the importance of semiconductors in that era, so before his death, he had ordered the merger of Samsung Electronics and Samsung Semiconductor.
