OPINION! Christian Laase, Managing Director Plista: “Success cannot be planned in a structured way”

Christian Laase is the Managing Director Organization and Finance at GroupM's Online-Marketer Plista for Finance, controlling, Business Operations and personnel responsible.

Christian Laase studied international business administration and business informatics at the European Business School (EBS) in Oestrich-Winkel as well as in Thailand and India. Before joining Plista, he was involved in founding two companies: in 2004 as a co-founder of auf IT specialized communication and creative agency Liquid Solutions 8 GmbH and 2006 as co-founder of the software agency 5MM. In addition, the native of Berlin, who speaks a total of five languages, Founders and managing director of Weltfrieden AG, who advocate responsible Investments begins.

Mr. Laase, how did the founding team of Plista get together?

It was the mixture of three things: the desire for independence, the passion for innovation Technology and enthusiasm for online Advertising.

Andreas Richter and I studied together at the EBS in Östrich-Winkel. Last year the Uni we discovered our common passion for self-employment and went to Berlin together...

... a classic garage foundation?

Well, something like that. In fact, we first slept on the couch with my parents, and later shared a flat with them Office founded in the large old building. There we have the first Company, founded a web agency and developed the basic building blocks for our technology there. Later we moved into an office in Mitte.

Dominik Matyka then brought in the know-how and the enthusiasm in the field of online advertising. This we have combined with our technology - and made a real product of it. We founded 2008 together with Dominik Plista - and grew steadily from there.

It is always said, in order to be able to work together optimally, teams must complement each other in their abilities. What does it look like?

That applies to us completely: Der Success of the company is essentially based on the mixture of the three founders or characters:

• Andreas is a visionary and technician with strategic vision and love for the product. He is therefore responsible for the further and new development of the products.
• Dominik is a gifted salesman, networker, and a business clerk.
• Christian looks after the organization, the finances, but also brings together the emotional ends, balances and endeavors not least for the well-being of all participants.
• Since autumn 2013, Jana Kusick has also been the strategic all-rounder in management.

It is also - but not only - a question of different expertise. At least as important were always the complementary characters, the different roles of the founders in the Companys and the mixture of all these properties.

If you have, for example, For example, your rapid growth? Or did you first start and think, now we see what develops?

We were fresh out of university and just started. Of course, from the beginning there were abstract ones ideas. First of a technology. Then from a product. From a big company. With the decision, getting investors on board was also the decision to move quickly growth met.

We could not foresee what exactly and in detail this means. We have always made the best of it and also kept the necessary flexibility on the road. Both our products, our organization and the founders personally. In the end, everything went very well.

You can have success structured from start to finish to plan? I think no Are there factors that favor success? I think so. But you only know that afterwards. More on that in the second part of the interview.

How do you find suitable personnel? And has recruiting changed with the growing size of the company?

Our success depends heavily on the right people. It's the same with good employees as with good friends: one person can find them everywhere, the other nowhere. Obvious but often expensive places are the advertisements on job portals and job exchanges. Or as a last resort Headhunterwhen nothing else works.

On the other hand, conferences, online forums, social networks (FB, etc.) are less obvious and often free of charge. But the bakery on the corner has also worked for us. Good Seller don't always have to come from your own industry.

So you prefer to network rather than search specifically?

Yes, which has been getting better and better for us over the years and is now a vital part of ours Recruiting-Strategy has become, the good word of mouth is our own Employees. If you like the job Fun and they believe in the company, they like talking to friends and acquaintances from their own social environment. This is how we found some of our best employees.

Therefore, the employees not only do yoga together, but also compete against the bosses in summo wrestling or go on team trips twice a year. Of course, we also use 'normal' recruitingways, but set targeted incentives to inspire a certain type of person.

There is no general way of addressing. This has to be oriented in the individual case to the social context. A first approach to Stepstone sounds naturally different from the personal invitation with a glass of wine among friends.

Innovation: How does it work if you need new ideas for your company?

This process has also changed in the course of the company's history. At the start, much more fundamental decisions had to be made. What do we do at all? With whom and when? These ideas were often formulated only by the founders in long neighbors, lots of coffee and square meter whiteboards.

Today it is about equally important but not so fundamental decisions or ideas. What do we do. What are we doing? What do we do differently? These ideas and decisions often come from our management meeting (founder + management), are presented to us by employees and presented. But there is also an innovation agency or a classic Klausrgtagung over a weekend to the employment.

How does it work when you delegate tasks: Which means of communication do you prefer? And how do you make sure the other person has understood you correctly?

One important fact we learned: “Mere Information is none Communication!” Only a mail (information) can be a personal Conversation (Communication) of course not replace. Nor should she. On the other hand, you can't just be in all day Meetings sit.

Basically it works like this with us:

• Various meetings (all-hands, management, teams, task forces, projects, etc.) for direct communication. As much as necessary - as little as possible.
• Mails and phone calls with the customer.
• Internally, in addition to meetings for the delegation and documentation of tasks, we work as much as possible in a very extensive task management system (Jira).

Misunderstandings do occur - but these can be resolved within the framework of an open and fundamentally benign interaction with one another fast clarified.

Was there a point in the development of the company that you had to take a step back in the first place, but which subsequently emerged as a necessary learning step?

You grow, sometimes you let someone go. You develop products, stamp a few of them back in. wins customers, sometimes loses some. Tries another market, withdraws from this one.

Growth is only linear in the rarest of cases. Growth like success is more like a dance: Two steps forward - one back. That's better than standing in front of a big wall at some point, but never having learned that you can or have to take a step back.

As long as you get to the end, this is a completely normal and healthy development. And actually half the fun of the thing.