How do you manage the largest upheaval in the company’s history?
Financial experts are currently warning of a slow-down in the economy. Might it not be better to defer large-scale alterations such as those currently underway at OTTO?
No, absolutely not! Germany is nowadays often accused of being insufficiently encouraging of innovation, of investing too little in the digitalisation of society, of maintaining an overly traditionally structured economy, of losing touch with technologies of the future such as artificial intelligence and much more. People are free to think what they like. But we certainly won’t be providing any evidence for these accusations - instead, we are the counter-example. We have a yearning for innovation and digitalisation. That’s why we are adjusting ourselves accordingly, and are making no compromises.
"The right business models prevail in the end - and we are absolutely convinced we are on the right path."
OTTO is one of the largest E-commerce retailers and generates an annual turnover of more than three billion euros. How do you make changes to such a large company while remaining operational?
With good judgement. And self-discipline. This is because on the one hand, the transformation cannot happen too quickly from our point of view, and on the other we not only want to continue normal business operations, but actually expand them at the same time. It feels rather like completely redecorating your own apartment. Everything is due to be repainted, but unfortunately the furniture cannot be taken out and stored, and the electrician keeps opening up the freshly painted walls in order to lay a new length of wiring. It goes without saying that building from scratch is easier. But then you can’t just stem a turnover of 3.2 billion euros at the same time. As a result, we must design our evolution from our existing structures outwards.
Why is the reorganisation of OTTO so complex in the first place?
Because we are expanding our business model and no longer want to be just a retailer, but a platform operator and a service provider as well. In order to win lots of new brands and suppliers as partners, we have to modernise our technological infrastructure and develop flexible and automated onboarding systems as well as a new service mentality towards our partners. Quite literally no stone is being left uncovered in this respect given that we are extensively rebuilding our office building.
OTTO’s turnover has been growing consistently for the past nine years. But what is the situation as far as revenue is concerned?
Revenue is growing too, but it is promptly reinvested in digitalisation and our transformation. It is of course always good to build up some reserves. However, we decided that both now and in the years to come, growth should be our focus in order to secure our future. Once we have finished our restructure, we will start to build up reserves once more. Everything at the proper time.
And if the desired successes do not materialise? What then?
The right business models prevail in the end - and we are absolutely convinced we are on the right path. We have overcome several such challenges in our 70-year history and are generally optimistic, interested in progress and willing to engage with change. We know what we want, we know the sector inside out, we have a solid customer base and have attracted the steadily growing interest of hundreds of brands that would like to collaborate with us. Essentially, there are worse starting positions. And if any business enterprise in Germany can withstand the large competitors in the USA or China and offer a real alternative for customers, then that company is OTTO.
