"Germany is a Jack-in-the-box"

"I am clearly more saddened," responds Kai Peppmeier, Managing Director of TMC Turnaround Management Consult GmbH, when asked about the dilemma associated with his company's market position. Given the challenging economic situation in Germany, his restructuring consultancy is currently in high demand across all industry sectors. He fears that this might continue for a longer period: "Many companies unfortunately no longer have any substance – and when the economic upswing comes after some time, they will struggle to find financiers for pre-financing. Even during the financial crisis of 2008, the major wave of insolvencies followed only a few years later." Nonetheless, he is optimistic about the future in the long term, based on the strongly grown entrepreneurial spirit and the large pool of skilled workers: "Germany keeps getting up – but we need to rid ourselves of certain burdens. This particularly affects owner-managed companies, who often continue business divisions out of a market-averse conviction, with which they have irrevocably lost touch." His role as a turnaround manager then includes pointing out these fundamental problems ruthlessly and fact-based – while also remaining empathetic: "Our success depends on bringing people along: the management, the workforce, and especially the works council. Often the relationships among the stakeholders are completely broken at the beginning of a restructuring process. But as soon as we have worked out and laid the fundamental facts transparently on the table, the logjam often breaks. When it comes to the survival of the company, everyone is in the same boat. Then, works councils are often willing to support even the hardest cuts, such as partial plant shutdowns, simply because they have become unavoidable."

Focus on Digitalization and Internationalization

The strength of the mid-sized sector is also Kai Peppmeier's personal motivation: "Owner-managed companies are passionate about their ideas and products: This unleashes a tremendous dynamic, even in a turnaround process, where you can achieve an incredible amount – it succeeds much more often than it fails." Nevertheless, there are important future topics that have not yet been prominently addressed in the mid-sized sector: creating a reliable base of numbers and facts, digitalization, and sustainable internationalization, also in the form of cooperations and partnerships: "Those who successfully embark on these paths can build on a strong business foundation in the long term," Kai Peppmeier is convinced.