Friday 2023-11-03

It's four in the morning in Guadalajara. It is still pitch black outside and the Mexican city is fast asleep. However, at least one resident is wide awake: Karl Schary is sitting at the screen in his illuminated office - management call. The early hour is not unusual for the new Managing Director of HELLA Lighting North and South America (NSA); the close exchange with Europe shapes his everyday working life and often requires getting up early due to the time difference. But this is nothing new for Karl Schary. He lived and worked here from 2015 to 2018, back then for Audi. During this time, he also met his current wife. His fascination for Latin America and especially for Mexico was an important argument for him to take on the challenge as the new Managing Director Lighting NSA at HELLA. The second argument for the new position at HELLA was provided by the market in which HELLA sees enormous growth opportunities for itself. “NSA is one of HELLA’s focus regions alongside Asia; the market offers enormous potential; 10 percent growth per year is absolutely realistic,” says Karl Schary. “The opportunities are on the street, we just have to pick them up and use them for ourselves.”

Finances and quality in view

The 40-year-old relies, among other things, on placing greater emphasis on financial aspects. “We have been very technology-oriented here so far. Financial management was neglected.” To ensure that this changes, Karl Schary brings with him relevant experience from his previous positions at Faurecia and Audi, which also helps him with another aspect: quality optimization. It is also one of his strategic priorities. One of the most important tools is the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA). This management method aims to avoid errors from the start rather than correcting them afterwards. To this end, potential sources of error are identified during the development phase in order to prevent subsequent costs in production or with the customer. “For us, this means above all that we get involved in global projects much earlier in order to bring in our regional perspective right from the start. So far, we have too often stood aside when it comes to important global decisions.” In terms of quality management, the new Managing Director also wants a “challenging mindset” from the employees: The teams should always critically question even tried-and-tested products again and again with the aim of continuously improving them and developing them further. “We have already held many workshops on this,” says Karl Schary. “A lot of good ideas came out of this. If we implement all of these, we’ll be off to a great start.”

Reducing the fluctuation rate

There is one challenge that needs to be overcome in all of this: the typically high fluctuation rate in the region. Against this backdrop, identifying and retaining top talents is one of Karl Schary's top strategic priorities: "It's about stabilizing the team. We need a constant pool of top people in order to reliably serve our customers and quickly develop the NSA growth market for us." In order to establish and expand this pool, Karl Schary is breaking new ground in terms of employee recruitment and retention. In addition to improved onboarding, which was already initiated before his start in Mexico, internal recruiting plays an important role: in future, important strategic positions will primarily be filled internally. "We already have great employees on board. We should utilize this much more. We have therefore intensified our internal succession planning and are offering sponsorship and mentoring, especially for young talents," explains Schary. Other measures are also intended to ensure that colleagues feel comfortable and stay for a long time. Creative measures are also used. 'Healthy Tuesday' and 'Sweet Thursday' are two of them. "Every Tuesday, we offer free fresh fruit juices as an energy booster." Thursday, on the other hand, is for the heart. Because on 'Sweet Thursday', employees can expect sweet treats in the office - cakes, biscuits, and sweets that everyone can help themselves to. Together with many other benefits, they are intended to increase employee loyalty. With success: "We were able to reduce the fluctuation at our locations by 20 per cent between January and September 2023 compared to the same period in the previous year. This means we are already better than the market average in terms of staff turnover," explains Karl Schary.

Widely travelled family man

Karl Schary brings a wealth of international experience to his work. Coming to Germany from Poland at the age of six, he quickly moved abroad as an adult. Stations lasting several years in Hungary, China, the USA, and Mexico mark his path and demonstrate his great interest in new challenges, different cultures and perspectives. "Mexico was just the perfect match," he recalls. Besides Latin America, football is his second passion, "but more in front of the TV or in the stadium," Karl Schary admits with a laugh. He actively does strength and endurance training at the fitness club, which is conveniently available on site. His greatest passion, however, is his family; Karl Schary is a family man with heart and soul. He loves to spend his free time with his two two-year-old children while cooking, playing, cuddling, or putting them to bed. Sometimes, however, he takes a break with his wife and the babysitter has to step in. The day of our interview is such a special day. "Today is our ninth wedding anniversary. We're celebrating it together in a nice restaurant," he says. In the evening, he will disappear just in time into the warm Mexican summer evening.