The next generation
Christian Scholz took the corporate helm faster than anybody had thought. His company, LTB Lasertechnik Berlin GmbH, is a leading capacity in the field of short pulse lasers for medicinal analysis, laser based measuring systems and high resolution spectrometers. His father founded it in 1990. Sören Schmahl does not consider himself second generation. Together with his father Wolfgang he started the Institute of Facility Management.
Until 2008 LTB had five partners. When four business shares were offered for sale from mid 2007 father and son did not want to see the company fall into the hands of outside investors. Without further ado junior took the responsibility on himself. Christian Scholz had to manoeuvre between many cliffs before he could bring the sales negotiations to a successful finish. Since mid 2008 LTB has been in family ownership, with father and son each holding 50% of the shares. As the managing director Christian Scholz is responsible for the operative lines.
“Of course my father had always been giving me signals: He always thought it was a good idea when I followed in his footsteps. Yet he did not put on the pressure,” replied Scholz junior when asked about the situation. The situation in the summer of 2008 proved an unexpected boost to the process.
“It’s not always easy being responsible, and not always pleasant,” confessed Scholz. But then again, he continued, his children’s teething troubles weren’t either, and both were seen through. Christian Scholz knows the company like the back of his hand, having familiarised himself with every division during on-the-job training and as a working student.
Here he wrote his diploma dissertation in the field of technical physics and has been a permanent employee at LTB since 1996. His father Matthias Scholz, a doctor of physics, was the initiator of the LTB corporate startup and its yearlong managing partner and is delighted that his son is now continuing his life’s work.
Sören Schmahl does not really consider himself a successor. As early as 1994 he had founded together with his father Wolfgang the Institute for Facility Management, which specialises in computer aided facility management and works for real estate offices and Charité clinics in Berlin. At the time Schmahl was still studying computer science before he opened a computer shop and supplied hardware and software to his father’s company.
When in the mid 1990s computer technology made enormous progress particularly in the field of database applications the two had the idea of providing computer aided services for facility management, at the time an unknown discipline in Germany. Sören Schmahl is becoming more and more involved in the company. When asked to explain why this works so well, Schmahl junior replied: “Harmony comes from the sharing of work.” Of course there is the occasional friction because situations are often assessed differently. Yet father and son form their opinions “cumulatively”.
Sören Schmahl confessed that he is taking over the business in homoeopathic doses. Father and son attend many appointments together, and the son profits from this arrangement. Father Wolfgang agrees, even though he has no intention of escaping his responsibility: “I’m not glued to my chair. ” The future,” he added, “is something my son’s got to organise.”