The essence of success.
The LEONHARD WEISS mission statement
It is only four sentences and a meaningful slogan. But these four sentences contain everything that LEONHARD WEISS stands for – goals, values, insights and priorities. They are the essence of the success of the family-owned company.
Experience the joy of building with LEONHARD WEISS by ...
... because we manage our enterprise efficiently and secure its future for the benefit of us all.
... because we respect one another as partners, demand what is best and encourage what is best in each and every one of us. Personal satisfaction and appreciation of each person in our workforce should evolve as a result of our own achievements.
... because we offer our business partners co-operation in fairness and mutual confidence. Our aim is to have customers who recommend us to others.
... because we respect social values, and in the course of our work, we treat people, families and the environment with a sense of responsibility.
In 1989, 500 employees developed the LEONHARD WEISS mission statement. Ulrich Weiss and Werner Schmidt-Weiss had the idea that the employees themselves should find a motto that describes what drives them. The result: 'Joy in building'. In addition, concrete guidelines were to be developed for the daily work of each individual. Little do they know that the idea they bring back from a management seminar in Bad Harzburg will change their company in many ways.
Everyone was to be involved in the development of the mission statement – from the foreman to the commercial manager, from the machine operator to the shareholder. The process began in 1986 with extensive employee surveys on values and goals in the then independent Crailsheim and Göppingen plants. The results were then discussed further in small groups and finally given their final form by a delegation of employees who retreated to a castle hotel for several days.
We all sat on the floor and wrote, everyone wanted to contribute. We wrestled with every word and worked it out together. But it fits. It still fits today.
Like a diamond, this mission statement condenses the values that have evolved over time into a precious piece of jewellery. The pride that founder Leonhard Weiss took in his life's work. The solidarity and humanity that Ottilie Weiß and Werner Schmidt sen. upheld in the darkest times of German history. The esteem and respect that Walter Weiss demonstrated every day - as an officer and as an entrepreneur. And, of course, the joy of technical innovation and new challenges, combined with a sense of responsibility, that Ulrich Weiss and Werner Schmidt-Weiss have passed on to the next generation.
Since the 1990s, this guiding principle has permeated the entire company. The active examination of the most important values changes the working atmosphere. In addition, a working group repeatedly derives concrete decisions for the daily work processes, for example to allow more co-determination. The "LEONHARD WEISS vibe" manifests itself in the sparkling clean construction site vehicles and the pride in the successful apprentices.
The mission statement also paves the way for one of the biggest steps in the company's history: the merger of Crailsheim and Göppingen in 1998. The close exchange in development and implementation welds the separately managed companies, which had maintained a productive and friendly competition for decades, back into one unit.
20 years later, in 2018, LEONHARD WEISS conducted a large-scale survey on corporate culture. The remarkable result: more than 90 percent of those surveyed stated that they identified "strongly to very strongly" with LEONHARD WEISS and the values for which the company stands. Thanks to the mission statement, these values are neither abstract nor empty phrases. They are tried and tested guidelines that all employees can follow and rely on.
To this day, the mission statement of 1989 has lost none of its relevance. Despite the growing number of employees, a generational change in the company and many political and economic upheavals. The slogan and the four sentences continue to shape our daily interactions within the LEONHARD WEISS family of companies.