Last week you got to meet Jürgen Reinert of SMA. Now it is the turn of Günter Haug of BayWa r.e. to answer our six questions:
1. How are you personally – and as a company – coping with the corona crisis?
Personally: Due to our international business I am usually travelling a lot. But in the current corona situation I have been spending more time at home – which is also nice for a change. However, video conferences from morning to night is quite exhausting and I personally miss the variety of office work.
As a Company: It took us a lot of effort to figure out the right approach for us while taking into account the latest information. Together with the regional management our aim was to protect our employees and still keep the business going. In doing so, our local managers did a fantastic job! Since we already adopted our IT cloud strategy five years ago and established mobile working, switching to home office was not a problem from a technical point of view – everyone could immediately continue working from home!
2. What are you enthusiastic about, apart from your company?
30 years ago, when I started working in the PV sector, I was already fascinated by the fact that electricity from the roof of a house can cover the (electricity) needs of its residents. It’s a great development that today we are able to build plus-energy houses that can supply electricity/heating/electric cars, even have excess electricity and only need grid power on a few days in winter. Hopefully, we will soon be able to have energy self-sufficient buildings on a broad scale with affordable storage technologies!
3. What social media account or podcast makes your life better?
There are some that I find very informative. But they do not necessarily make life better...
4. Whom would you like to meet/have met?
There are many interesting and ambitious people that I’ve got to know. They are the ones driving renewables forward – each in his or her particular position inside and outside of our company. Who impressed me the most, however, was the climate researcher Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, whom I had the chance to listen to and meet in person!
5. If you could change one thing in the world – other than the corona crisis, of course – what would it be?
All my professional life I have been working with others to make the world a more sustainable place – at least in the energy sector. I hope we will succeed in doing this before we feel the full impact of climate change! Unfortunately, there are many more problems in the world that I would also like to change: Poverty, access to education, healthcare, etc.
6. What aspect of your company’s work are you most proud of?
What impresses me most, is the fact that despite the massive growth over many years in terms of turnover, countries/regions and employees, we have managed to remain fast, agile and innovative. While at the same time keeping our high-quality standards. (mfo)
Coming up next time: Urban Windelen of the BVES
