“The workforce must be as enthusiastic about the company as the customers are about the product.”
Taking over an existing company can sometimes be just as challenging as founding a new one. Merle Sandersfeld-Kelm, CEO at Sandersfeld Sicherheitstechnik, knows how to succeed, and the role that footsteps can play.
CEO, wife, mother, actively involved in various honorary positions and committees – how is that possible? “With a great sense of humour and willingness to compromise”, reveals Merle Sandersfeld-Kelm with a twinkle in her eye. She never wanted to choose between work and family. After all, for her, both worlds blend together. “I need both to be happy”, she states clearly. As CEO of a security company in Leer, being on call 24/ is something she takes for granted.
Working in the evening and at the weekend, checking e-mails while on holiday and attending network meetings in passing – all part of normal “positive stress” for the 36-year-old, as she puts it. “My work is my baby, it’s what I live for.” It’s also just as normal for her to spend time with her family. In the morning she brings her two sons to kindergarten, two afternoons a week are earmarked for shared activities, and certain rituals such as enjoying sport, cooking and reading good-night stories are an integral part of everyday routine. “I don’t want to delude you: it’s not always easy”, admits Merle Sandersfeld-Kelm. “You have to be able to compromise. You can’t have everything.” The mother of two rarely has time to read a book or relax on her own. But that’s OK with her.
A journey to find herself
Although she is truly rooted in her home in Ostfriesland, you could definitely not say she is a typically cool, serious North German stereotype. “I’m rather spirited”, she laughs. “My parents already had to curb me as a child. I went everywhere, talked to everyone and was simply full of energy all the time.” That’s why she moved abroad for a while after completing her training as a forwarding agent. During this period, Merle Sandersfeld-Kelm passed her Cambridge English exams and lived alone on Malta and in Barcelona. It was a time that shaped the person she has become today. Since then, she not only speaks fluent Spanish but also found her true self: she has a “Spanish soul”, she says. She has come to realise that she is a mixed combination of both her parents. “My father is an entrepreneurial type with a practical outlook on life, while my mother is sensitive and interested in culture, with a gift for languages.”
Back at home in Leer, she went to college to get her university entrance qualifications, then moved to Holland with her boyfriend, who is now her husband, and studied international business and languages. She was highly ambitious: “My aim was to graduate with top marks. I was a bit of a swot”, she grins. She succeeded, too. Her specialism was human resources management, which is still her hobbyhorse to this day. Her creed is “to get the workforce as enthusiastic about the company as customers are for the product“, What matters is to deploy people according to their skills, and to create a corporate culture that is open for feedback and criticism. A sense of togetherness is also important.
Little things, such as getting Father Christmas to come and meet the employees’ children, or producing a digital advent calendar or an annual cookbook with recipes from the team, help to create an appealing, appreciative work environment in the company. Flexible working hours were also introduced a few years ago, something the entrepreneur makes use of herself. Given her keen interest in human resources management, she also works as a lay judge at the employment tribunal in Emden.
Back to her roots
Besides human resources management, other key skills Merle Sandersfeld-Kelm acquired during her studies are marketing and corporate strategy. She insisted of course on spending her year abroad in Spain: the self-proclaimed “latina rubia – the blond Latina” – went to Madrid and Córdoba, before writing her Bachelor’s dissertation as a student trainee with a Dutch logistics company. They were so convinced by her work that they offered her a job. But things turned out differently.
Her father asked her whether she could possibly start working for his firm, a full-service provider in the security sector. Although she saw this as an opportunity with potential, Merle Sandersfeld-Kelm has some reservations. She certainly didn’t want the staff to see her just as a copy of her father. But he was able to reassure her about that. “He said: Yes, you’re my daughter. But you’ve got your own personality, and they’ll soon notice that when they get to know you”, she remembers, although she’d originally wanted to work in an international setting. In the end, she opted for her roots and in favour of her father’s life work. But she had one condition to make: “I’m an all-or-nothing person. So I said that I’d like to take over the company one day. But to do that, I need the freedom and responsibility to develop and implement things.”
Tradition coupled with innovation
In 2012, Merle Sandersfeld-Kelm started working as management assistant at Sandersfeld Sicherheitstechnik. She had never been afraid to explore new horizons – an approach she adopted from her father. In 1984, when Helmuth Sandersfeld-Kelm set up his business as a locksmith, he would never have thought that the company would eventually have a workforce of 160 employees and be one of Germany’s leading service providers in the security management sector. Tradition coupled with innovation are factors driving the company’s success. His daughter Merle has played a major role in getting these values established in the company. “For me, experience and innovation go hand in hand. Rather than making radical changes, I just wanted to bring things forward into the present day.”
Alongside a comprehensive corporate design strategy, during the first few years she also introduced an internal communications portal and 360° feedback talks for the staff. She worked on developing this method of staff assessment while studying for her Master’s degree with a focus on innovation management, which she did parallel to her work. Today she still holds such performance reviews with all employees every two years, giving both sides the possibility of putting ideas and criticism on the table. It’s natural for Merle Sandersfeld-Kelm to do this herself, as she sees human resources management as something the boss does.
Trust as foundation
She’s been the “boss” since 2014, working together in the management team with Jens Boelen, who is responsible for technical issues and sales. “He acts as a critic and centre piece between me and my father. When I come to him with all my ideas, he filters them to produce a result that’s realistic in the end”, reports Merle Sandersfeld-Kelm. Meanwhile she has more or less taken over all her father’s tasks in everyday operative business. Even so, she’s glad that she can always go to him for advice. “I’m not too proud to ask, and he’s not too proud to hand things over. He’s always trusted me, thus giving me the chance to make my mark here in the firm. I really appreciate that.”
Trust has played a major role, and not only from her father. She would never have taken on her position in the management team without the feeling that the workforce respected her. Meanwhile, the business woman has gained experience in finding her feet in a men’s world. There were only a few other women in the Ostfriesland and Papenburg Junior Chamber International when she joined in 2012. That’s not something that’s ever intimidated her. “There wasn’t a single day where I wore different clothes or went without make-up on. Nobody should have to pretend. Appearance has nothing to do with ability.” Meanwhile she has been on the board of the JCI for several years, and was and still is the first woman to be elected spokesperson of the Junior Chamber International in Ostfriesland.
Merle Sandersfeld-Kelm attributes a considerable share of the success that she has achieved up to now to the support she receives on a daily basis. “I am extremely fortunate in having such a smart assistant, a great babysitter and home help, as well as the division of labour between me and my husband.” She also sees part of her role as CEO in delegating responsibility. “I don’t have to know everything. I just have to know who I can ask”, is her motto. She very much wants her co-workers also to be able to benefit from what her father gave her: the freedom to leave their own footprints.
Sandersfeld Sicherheitstechnik GmbH
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