Michael Stietz, Körber site: Hamburg-Bergedorf, Germany
Some decisions feel bigger in the moment than they sound.
In the past, we operated within clearly defined boundaries:
One site.
One Business Area.
One industry.
Efficient on a small scale.
Limited on a large one.
Then came the decisive question:
How do we create structures that enable sustainable growth?
Our answer was not a restructuring.
It was a shift in perspective. A shift for the next generation.
The Körber Campus concept.
No more isolated individual sites.
Instead, interconnected production and service hubs.
Sites serving multiple industries.
Capacities that can be deployed flexibly.
Resources working together.
The first Campus was established in Pécs, Hungary.
A site that had focused on a single Business Area for decades.
Today, cross-Business Area teams work side by side.
What used to be separate now decides together.
Of course, there were doubts.
Concerns about losing control.
New processes.
New responsibilities.
Externally, we often heard:
“Too complex.”
“Too ambitious.”
“Too risky.”
Today, we know:
Without the Campus concept, we would not have been able to manage our growth across our core industries.
It was not the building that made the difference.
It was the way we thought.
Moving away from site-centric logic.
Toward the system.
A Campus is not just a factory.
It is a decision for scalability, resilience, and future-readiness.
Transparency was – and still is – the starting point.
Data and facts create orientation.
Vision drives progress.
Without a clear target, change remains fragmented.
Culture is the lever.
Collaboration replaces silos.
