Anyone who believed that the fischer plug could no longer be improved was proven that it could be done, for example with the introduction of the new two-component plug DUOPOWER or greenline, the world’s only fixings range made of renewable resources. Making visions come true – that’s how Klaus Fischer defines entrepreneurship!

Prof. Klaus Fischer is an ambitious man who is always ahead of his time, and has been for over 40 years: Freshly graduated as a Dipl.-Eng. (FH), he joined the company at the age of 25 as head of the test facility. Sales in those days totalled 102 million Deutschmark (approx. 51 million Euro), generated by 1,000 members of staff. Now, more than 5,200 people worldwide work for the family-owned business from the northern Black Forest, generating annual sales totalling 887 million Euro (2019). 

Klaus Fischer soon joined the management team, 1980 saw him taking on overall responsibility and rapidly developing his own visions. He never lost sight of the new social conditions, the increasing competition in the wake of globalisation, and the growing complexity in his own business. These factors prompted him to initiate changes which made it clear that a wealth of ideas and a spirit of invention are not limited to solving problems with products. Being close to the customer and a sustained service are important to him. The international orientation of the product range follows the needs and requirements of the customers. The successful R&D department is still centred in Germany, but new products are also being developed to market maturity at other sites worldwide. “It is important to act in an entrepreneurial manner, to be involved with the markets and to take a strategic approach to guiding the company into the future. That’s what I have always done as an entrepreneur”, Prof. Fischer says.

Building up competence in the business divisions
Klaus Fischer continually expanded the fixings division, consolidating his leading position in 1993 by taking over Upat GmbH & Co. KG in Emmendingen, Germany’s second largest fixings manufacturer at the time. Next to plastic plugs, heavy-duty metal anchors gained in importance. His principal focus was on chemical fixings systems, a development driven by the purchase of the Baden-based foam and silicone maker Rocca Chemie in 1997. Today, the ProductCenter Chemie in Denzlingen is one of the company’s most outstanding success stories: From product development and the production of individual components through to the in-house manufacture of the automatic assembly machines and right through to the production of the injection resin and the cartridges including the labels, everything is “made in Germany” – a unique selling point not offered by anyone else.

Klaus Fischer also successfully drove the company’s diversification. The fischer CBOX, a storage system for music cassettes, marked the first move into the automotive supply business in 1982. Today, fischer automotive systems, specialising in kinematics systems such as ventilation outlets in car interiors, is the second most important division of the Group of Companies. Its customers include all the major manufacturers of the international automotive industry. The company’s divisions also include fischertechnik, with its renowned construction kits. 

Mission statement and fischer ProcessSystem
But Klaus Fischer’s understanding of progress and prosperity goes further. In the eighties, long before it became a fashion trend, he initiated a corporate mission statement developed over the course of an intensive process together with the workforce and executives and which echoed this way of thinking with three central values: innovation, accountability, reliability. The aim is clear: to generate profit. To him, economy, ecology and social responsibility represent the three pillars on which the company’s sustained development rests. 

Internationalisation, the fischer ProcessSystem with items such as “continuous improvement” and “avoiding waste”, “lifelong learning” and many health initiatives are just a few examples of this. The fischer Group of Companies was recently presented with the 2020 German Sustainability Award in the large businesses category for its sustainable activities. It is Europe’s most important award in this field. 

In the German economy, the fischer name has long been associated with the concept of Kaizen, the continuous improvement process. In the nineties, Prof. Klaus Fischer travelled to Japan to find out about lean production and continuous improvement. The Swabian passed on his enthusiasm about the Kaizen culture to others, also initiating the close cooperation with a very successful Japanese company. "We launched the fischer ProcessSystem 20 years ago. Based on the Japanese Kaizen philosophy, the aim is to avoid waste in all corporate divisions, to continuously improve processes, and to consistently focus all company processes on external and internal customers. Our staff and workforce play a key role in this approach. These are the people with a wealth of experience and expertise. They know precisely where the weak spots are in the processes, and they know what must be changed to improve them”, says Prof. Klaus Fischer. 

The staff and workforce have therefore evolved into entrepreneurs within the enterprise, accepting more and more responsibility and shaping the company with their daily changes. Mistakes and errors inevitably happen. But it’s important for Prof. Klaus Fischer that mistakes are allowed but are not made twice, and that lessons are learned to ensure continuous improvement. “Our aim is to be ‘best in class’ not only in terms of products but also in our processes in order to create extra benefit for our customers”, the entrepreneur states. The expertise which fischer has since gathered in process optimisation resulted in the formation of a separate corporate division called fischer Consulting in 2004. fischer Consulting now relays its bundled knowledge from production, administration and services in all industrial sectors to external and internal customers as well as to business partners.

In 2016, Klaus Fischer reinforced the activities of the Group of Companies in the field of electronic devices with the acquisition of LNT Automation GmbH. The new company division encompasses the development, production and sale of capacitive touch systems such as multi-touch solutions made of glass and the corresponding controller units. LNT Automation manufactures custom electronic solutions at its headquarters in Nellmersbach near Stuttgart, and at its production site in the Czech Republic. In future, the solutions will play an increasingly important role at fischer.

Exemplary educational initiatives 
“A company’s biggest assets are not its plants and buildings, but its people!”, Prof. Klaus Fischer states. The success of a business always depends on the people working in it. The crucial factor is how well they are motivated and trained, according to Klaus Fischer, who adds: “This is why we invest heavily in our staff training”. The Group of Companies established the Klaus Fischer BildungsZentrum in 2010 as a centre for lifelong extracurricular learning and training. It has since recorded 12,000 registrations for around 800 events. And that’s not all: The fischer fitness centre was opened at the Waldachtal headquarters (Freudenstadt district) in 2015, which the company’s employees and retirees can use free of charge almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

Prof. Klaus Fischer’s exceptional commitment to education is by no means limited to his own company. In early 2015, he set up the Klaus Fischer Foundation for Furthering the Education of Children and Young People. Often it is only the people directly involved who are aware of his generous financial commitment. There hasn’t been much publicity about the one million Euro donation for the “Im Himmelreich” children’s house, which was completed in late 2014 in Tumlingen. But kindergartens, schools and daycare centres in the rural district also benefit from Prof. Klaus Fischer’s generosity, as do clubs and organisations dedicated to supporting children and young people. The entrepreneur regularly donates to international causes, which include support for sick children or for the restoration of historical buildings as well as art in Italy.

Over the years, Klaus Fischer has received multiple awards for his commitment to education: In 1996, the Business Medal of the German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg, in 1999, the Education Oscar of the German Business Juniors, in 2007, the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class, in 2013, the Grashof Memorial Medal, the highest honour conferred by the Association of German Engineers (VDI). The Tongji University in Shanghai honoured his entrepreneurial achievements with an honorary professorship, and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and the University of Stuttgart awarded him an honorary senatorship. He was presented with a Global DIY Lifetime Award in 2016, the most important award of the global DIY industry.

The future is here and now
Customers, business partners and employees alike appreciate Klaus Fischer’s foresight, in the best sense of the word (“We think in terms of generations, not quarterly figures”), someone who first asks about the future and develops visions and innovations. It goes without saying that he also prepared his company for the future at an early stage. The most important issues – digitalisation and e-commerce – have long been present at fischer. Added to this was the inauguration of the fischer InnovationCampus at the headquarters in Tumlingen this spring, where several fischer’s startups are located. More of these new ventures are expected to follow. 

Two new subsidiaries were established within the first two months of the current year 2020 – a fischer fixings system subsidiary in Vietnam and a fischer automotive site in Serbia. fischer will be opening new production sites in both countries over the coming months, which means the family firm is now represented by 49 subsidiaries in 37 countries and exports into over 100 countries. There will also be additional subsidiaries in future. Prof. Klaus Fischer is therefore continuing the company’s internationalisation in times of the coronavirus crisis. 

Over the coming years, Prof. Klaus Fischer plans to focus even more on the future and visit his overseas subsidiaries more often. “But I won’t be involved as much in the operative business, which I have already stopped doing. If I notice anything then I approach my successor, Mr Marc-Sven Mengis, with whom I have an excellent working relationship”. Klaus Fischer’s clear objective is to “work much, much less”.

Ultimately, there will be more time for all things visionary, because Prof. Klaus Fischer enjoys being an entrepreneur and, as someone who has accomplished extraordinary things with commitment and love of his work, he still has big plans.