Timmerberg, Helge
17 highlights · 11 concepts · 10 entities · 2 cornerstones · 4 signatures
German industrialist who transformed his father's two-person screw wholesale shop into the Würth Group, one of the world's largest fastener and assembly technology companies, through relentless personal selling and visionary expansion.
German industrialist who transformed his father's two-person screw wholesale shop into the Würth Group, one of the world's largest fastener and assembly technology companies, through relentless personal selling and visionary expansion.
“"Everyone needs screws", was Adolf Würth's business idea after the end of the war. "The whole world needs screws", said his son in the fifties.”
“Good salespeople are entertaining chatterboxes. Very good salespeople are engaging conversationalists. And genius salespeople talk like a friend. Nobody barges in with the screw and the door in hand. The non-committal communication about everything possible, except the actual occasion of the visit, is a) a commandment of politeness, b) a loosening exercise, and c) a sleuthing for the subsequent sales conversation.”
“Visions are less than strategic planning, but more than mere dreams.”
Reinhold Würth on the nature of entrepreneurial vision and how it differs from both planning and fantasy.
“Everyone needs screws.”
Adolf Würth's original business thesis after WWII, which his son Reinhold expanded to 'The whole world needs screws.'
“Do right and fear no one.”
Reinhold Würth's guiding principle for employees and personal conduct.
“The whole world needs screws.”
Reinhold Würth in the 1950s, expanding his father's local vision into a global ambition.
Buying cheaply creates margins, but without disciplined payment collection the profit advantage evaporates — the only real problem in post-war commodity trading was getting paid.
Why linked: Shares father.
“Because profits, it's clear, are easiest to make when buying. The only problems were with payment.”
“His criteria: intelligent, free of arrogance, a certain, quite likable cunning, and above all, the professional understanding: work must be fun. Good salesmen are people who love to talk, love to travel, love to earn money, as much as they are willing to achieve. Their fixed salary only covered their basic needs, the commission was their golden gate. 5 percent on their sales, and if they exceeded 10,000 marks a month, another 5 percent on the difference.”
“Reinhold Würth will often speak later in his life about how he sees himself as a link in the chain of his ancestors. And his primal trust in the family was never broken. Even the worldwide success of his screws began with his grandfather, because it was he who sent his father to apprentice with a screw wholesaler, and now also advised on how to set up his own shop – which Reinhold Würth would take over ten years later.”
“Every person is unique. There are similarities here and there, sometimes one even believes one has found a twin in another person, but that's not true. No one is like the other, each one is a unique piece. Therefore, there must be a partner somewhere in the world for everyone, who fits them better than all the other seven billion people. That doesn't mean he will be a perfect fit - that might not exist or rarely exists - but it means that, in any case, with a hundred percent certainty, that there exists a person who is the least imperfect for us. This is not esotericism. This is mathematics. So the truth.”
“those who practice early also become billionaires later. Reinhold Würth started at the age of ten.”
“Once God and the world are discussed, the non-binding pre-sales conversation aims at private information. When is the customer's birthday, when is his wedding anniversary, and - almost even more important - when is his wife's birthday? What you shouldn't ask him, however, is whether he has beautiful daughters. And the salesman should also not talk more than the customer. Not even the same amount. The more he lets the customer talk, the more he learns about him. Keyword: dragnet investigation. If the salesman knows how the customer ticks, he can offer him what the customer wants to hear. If he is a frugal type, he saves time and energy with a screw supplier like Würth; if he responds to prestige, you sell him quality.”
“"Everyone needs screws", was Adolf Würth's business idea after the end of the war. "The whole world needs screws", said his son in the fifties.”
“A beginning always follows an end. And every beginning presents an opportunity, a screw that helps us rebuild Hohenlohe. This was more or less Alma Würth's argument. All we needed were screws, more screws and more screws - nothing else, except perhaps a little courage, because what better time to step into a new independent entrepreneurial life than the days when nobody has anything and everyone is starting over?”
“Good salespeople are entertaining chatterboxes. Very good salespeople are engaging conversationalists. And genius salespeople talk like a friend. Nobody barges in with the screw and the door in hand. The non-committal communication about everything possible, except the actual occasion of the visit, is a) a commandment of politeness, b) a loosening exercise, and c) a sleuthing for the subsequent sales conversation.”
“"Visions are less than strategic planning, but more than mere dreams," he once said. And where do visions come to one? Whilst driving. The meditation of the nomads. The synchronicity of wheels and thoughts when both are rolling. The road flows with the breath, the next customer is near, meanwhile the gross domestic product was humming in the fifties like a giant awakening from sleep. And what if this would continue this way forever?”
“employee. "Do right and fear no one”
“Reinhold Würth discovered the passion of his life on these tours. Or rather, he discovered two things. Selling and traveling. And happy is he who never forgets that the two go together.”
“Adolf Würth without a cigar was hard to imagine. It seemed as if he was born with it. There is no picture of him without a cigar, he even took it with him to the bathroom, and he kept it between his lips while swimming. His cigar was to him what the Kaiser Wilhelm mustache was to his grandfather. Not attached, only sucked on, it balanced profits and losses, cold waves and famine, life and death. So long as I smoke, I exist. There was no Adolf Würth without a cigar, and it suited him very well.”
“. And the screws were always rolling too. Sheet metal screws, chrome-plated threaded screws made of brass, license plate screws and brass rosettes were now needed.”
“Nevertheless, he found a few VW dealers who gave him enough orders for license plate screws for their beetles and bullis to be able to return home proudly.”
“Perhaps Reinhold Würth loved his father so much also because his heart condition had protected him from being drafted to the front. He had not, like so many other fathers, returned from the war a broken man. His soul was not a heap of rubble, he could remain a role model, father, friend and brother in one.”
“good salesperson is a good analyst, a very good salesperson is a prophet, and a brilliant salesperson is one who just wants to help.”