Companies with women in the management board are different
Horsch, managing director of HORSCH France and head of the HORSCH marketing department talks about the topic „Women in the company”
In Cornelia Horsch’s opinion women and men complement each other perfectly with regard to their skills and abilities. Her professional career has always been in line with family and private life. She has always been fully supported by her husband.
See differences as a chance
Normally women are more sensitive, interact with employees in a different way and also think more about the families. Men, however, mostly are much more matter-of-fact. In professional life, women should not try to conform themselves to their male colleagues, but on the contrary see these differences as a chance.
Female perseverance pays off
In 2002 the associates wanted to close down HORSCH France because of financial losses. As Cornelia Horsch was not ready to go along and be responsible for this decision, she decided to move to France with her husband and her children to set up the French market in person. In the end, the success proved her right. Today France is one of the most important export markets and HORSCH still profits from the developments that have been initiated due to the experiences made during this time.
Well-adjusted employees are important for a company
As Cornelia Horsch wants to know how the families of the employees are, but cannot talk to everyone herself, she is insistent that every executive employee takes care of his “people” and their problems. She is convinced that only those who feel comfortable in their working environment and who have a stable home are good at their job.
Already for many years the HORSCH employees have been offered special training courses to get to know their personality and to learn to deal with their own weak and strong points as well as with those of others.The result was that tensions between the employees decreased considerably for the benefit of the work climate.
Flexible working time schemes for the future
After initial resentments from the employer’s side towards part time employment, particularly women who return to work after the parental leave consider this possibility as very positive. The job strengthens their self-confidence and they are more balanced as it is a change to the household duties. Moreover, in the future more women have to be won over for technical professions. At HORSCH women do not only work traditionally in offices, but also in the after-sales service and in the production department.
No women’s quota
Cornelia Horsch sees the vigorously discussed women’s quota as a humiliating and embarrasing concept. But the change must be made in the heads of the decision-makers, as already in 2007 McKinsey showed that companies with women in the management board achieved a twice as high profit.