A second life for ATLAS #04
Making intuition pay
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Sometimes, a second look is worth it: For the 23rd edition of our customer magazine ATLAS, we’re breathing new life into previously published articles – with fresh perspectives, new developments, and the benefit of hindsight. This piece refers to the article "Making intuition pay" from ATLAS #04 (2015), which can be read in full here.
Then …
[…] And what advice would the Mrs Senger-Weiss of today give to the Mrs Senger-Weiss of 1968?
To be honest: back then my health started to suffer. The responsibility I suddenly had to bear, it was all a bit too much for me. So I would have advised the Heidi Weiss from back then to take things easy. And to learn to accept that erring is human. The only important thing is that the sum of the errors is significantly less than the sum of the correct decisions. But when you are starting out from scratch, you get incredibly uptight about making mistakes. And that takes its toll.
When taking decisions, did you generally follow logic or gut instinct?
I'm a woman. And most women are pretty keyed to their emotions. When I have taken decisions I didn't feel comfortable with, they usually turned out to be wrong. But there are, of course, people who base all their decisions on reason and logic. […]
Heidegunde Senger-Weiss was born in Vienna on 20 May 1941. After finishing school in the town of Bregenz, she attended the Vienna Academy of International Trade. Following internships in Switzerland, the Netherlands and the US, she joined Gebrüder Weiss in Vienna as the assistant to the branch director. In 1968 she and Paul Senger-Weiss took over the reins at Gebrüder Weiss with its 1000 employees in Austria and a branch in Hamburg. In 1969 they both joined the Management Board. They have three children: Wolfram (born in 1971), Elisabeth (1972) and Heinz (1974). In 2005 Heidi Senger-Weiss joined the Supervisory Board where she is currently chair. Her sons Wolfram and Heinz are now members of the Management Board.
… now
Some interviews begin formally and remain on that track until the final question is answered. Others surprise you with their openness and closeness of connection. Our conversation with Heidi Senger-Weiss (who sadly passed away in 2023), which we’re re-printing in this issue, belongs to the second category. What started out as a quite normal chat about business, strategy and leadership culture developed into a remarkably personal conversation with one of the most influential figures in the history of Gebrüder Weiss as a company. As Frank Haas, who was posing the questions that day, recalls: “I wasn’t sure if Frau Senger-Weiss would really open up with me. But she proved to be a reflective, open and approachable guest. The trust that grew in that moment never dimmed.”
In recalling the interview in this issue of ATLAS, we remember a pioneering executive, who combined leadership with poise and never lost sight of the connection between humanity and business success.
