Mr. Schulten took the time to talk to the MBA students about Cultural Transformation in general and specifically for Homag. The MBA students learned how it is small things, many of which are unwritten, that make culture. Small things such as: How do people dress? How do people deal with mistakes? How do teams support each other? All of these many facets truly make up a culture at a company and as Mr. Schulten said, “culture is therefore evolving, variable and can be shaped.” Mr. Schulten went on to talk about the major shift in the labor market over the past  years and how there has been a shift away from a Labor Market to an Employee Market, where employees have more autonomy and choice than ever before. 

Some of the MBA students asked how Homag creates credibility for a large change program they are currently implementing and received some interesting insights into Homag’s strategy. Homag started by creating credibility internally by doing the change management without the help of external consultants or other support. They have utilized internal readiness indexes and kept track of changes over the team to help develop a winning mindset. Homag is also transitioning to English as a working language to enhance communication across the organization worldwide and to better deal with globalization challenges regarding talent, communication and more. As Mr. Schulten wrapped up the conversation he left the MBA students with his final insight for the day: “Balancing change is hard. But necessary.” The following Q&A session went well over time and the MBA students were very happy to have Mr. Schulten share his insights and opportunities that Homag has to offer.

text: Rupert Rivera III, class of 2020

photo: MBA