Helmut Graf, CEO, VNR Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG, Bonn, Germany
What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
After my graduation in business administration at the University of Cologne, Germany, I started my business career in a consulting firm in the city of Dortmund. In this consulting firm, we built up a new consulting field on start-ups, venture capital and technology promotion. After that period, I worked as a research fellow at the University of Dortmund for some time till I finally joined the Publishing Group Norman Rentrop (today Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG) in 1989.
Has there been a defining moment in your career? Perhaps when you knew you were on the right road.
Yes, right from the start at VNR! I learned everything I needed to know about publishing [through] “learning by doing.” So shortly after joining VNR in 1989, I set up publishing activities in Switzerland and Austria, and then went on to form joint ventures with publishing houses in Poland and Romania. I successfully negotiated with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to introduce the Mayo Clinic Health Letter into the German market and was responsible for a joint project with Agora, Inc., in Baltimore that brought newsletters like Taipan and Oxford Club into the German market. Today, I am the senior executive of the entire VNR Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG. I love the challenge to reach for change and start something new; and I highly cherish when projects thrive and prosper.
In brief, describe your business/company?
VNR Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG is a publishing group that encompasses eight specialized publishing houses. Together with its sister company FID Publishing House Inc., VNR publishes 240 print newsletters, loose-leaf services and electronic publications. The company is one of the Top Ten German publishing houses for business and the economy.
What are two or three important concepts or rules that have helped you to succeed in business?
– The client is king! Always! When we developed our first product for the heads of nursery schools, everybody thought that this was a stupid idea. But we succeeded because this client group, just like any other professional group, needs guidance and knowledge in business administration.
– The only consistent thing is change! And we always admit it. Whatever the market requires, our profit centers respond to it immediately. In our profit centers, every product works like a little company of its own, with its own business ratio. This is how we can react promptly. Furthermore, we always discover new niches when existing topics become less profitable.
– Keep your feet on the ground! We do not follow every new hype that is coming up but stick to our last. And test, test, test. At the beginning of the digital age, some of our competitors thought that print would be dead. They ceased good print products or published everything online. That was a huge mistake! We still do earn good money with our loose-leaf services and at the same time we build up online products and portals.
What is the single-most successful thing that your company is doing now?
We are constantly improving our existing products, searching for new niches, identifying new marketing channels and producing new products.
Do you see a trend or path in 2011 that you know you have to lock onto for 2012?
We expect a further segmentation of the client’s habits in media usage. In the future, there will not only exist traditional marketing channels such as print and internet but also new channels like applications for smart phones, videos and audio CDs. Social-media portals like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube will become more and more important. We will use multichannel marketing to reach all clients.
What are the key benefits of SIPA membership for you and your team?
SIPA offers a great opportunity to meet industry leaders from all over the world, learn best practices from each other and discuss the latest trends. The openness and willingness to share ideas cannot be found elsewhere and is certainly a key characteristic that makes the SIPA community different from any other publishers association.
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Moers at the Niederrhein in 1957 and grew up in a little town named Neukichen-Vluyn in western Germany close to the border to the Netherlands.
What college did you attend? Is there a moment from that time that stands out?
I studied business administration at the University of Cologne. My major was trusteeship, auditing and tax law. Rather accidentally I picked corporate planning as a minor. My professor was one of the first professors in Germany who specialized in “entrepreneurship.” Ever since, I constantly [work] with this topic, as well.
Are you married? Do you have children?
Yes, I got to know my wife in high school. We have three kids: our 21-year-old daughter Marie, our 20-year-old daughter Julie and our 17-year old son Leonhard.
What is your favorite hobby and how did it develop in your life?
If I have time, I play tennis or go for a run. Some years ago, I also started diving with my son.
Is there a book you recently read or movie you saw that you would recommend?
I would still recommend Jeff Jarvis’s “What Would Google Do?” There is a lot to learn for publishers.
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