New video that just dropped

[HowardH]

Christian Oltzcher just did an interview.  Interesting look at the man behind the phenomenal growth of Festool NA.

Interview

 

[tjbnwi]

I had the privilege of meeting Christian years ago, very pleasant person.

He is an amazing Foosball player, no one in the class came close to beating him.

Tom

 

[rocky100370]

Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Bob Marino]

Thank you Howard for sharing this video. 
I think anyone who’s ever met Christian would have to say that, besides being a great leader of the company, he was extremely intelligent, friendly and very down to earth. And I know the staff missed him when he left Festool USA and headed back to Germany, but everyone knew that he was destined for greater things.

 

[HowardH]

My cousin is very close friends with his fiance (wife?) and knows him very well.  She can't say enough good things about him. 

 

[Bob Marino]

Howard,

I can tell you that his staff felt the same way about. He was a true people person. 

 

[nclemmons]

Bob - great to see you are still active on the forum!

I met Christian at a FT event in Lebanon years ago.  Very approachable and a VERY good listener.  I think he’s a key reason FT ended up acquiring Shaper Tools. 

 

[ChuckS]

I'm not familiar with Festool's business structure. Like SawStop and a few others, Festool is owned by a parent company. Why did he emphasize in the video that Festool is a family business? Even if Festool is still managed by the original group of people (or family), doesn't the fact that it's controlled by another business entity make it no longer a family business?

 

[HowardH]

I'm not familiar with Festool's business structure. Like SawStop and a few others, Festool is owned by a parent company. Why did he emphasize in the video that Festool is a family business? Even if Festool is still managed by the original group of people (or family), doesn't the fact that it's controlled by another business entity make it no longer a family business?

Most if not the vast majority of significant family businesses have a corporate structure they operate under. Even with a holding company and the various subsidiaries, it's still owned by the family. 

 

[mino]

I'm not familiar with Festool's business structure. Like SawStop and a few others, Festool is owned by a parent company. Why did he emphasize in the video that Festool is a family business? Even if Festool is still managed by the original group of people (or family), doesn't the fact that it's controlled by another business entity make it no longer a family business?

TTS - the parent of Festool is a family business.

Not sure if he was referring to the US crowd, but it definitely holds for the parent company.

Considering the understanding of the (long-term) value of shareholding by a connected family brings, I would not be surprised if Festool (Germany) intentionally chose to keep the FestoolUSA operational model fully in tact after the purchase. So he can mean it both ways. Metaphorically for US branch and literal for the company as a whole.

Keep note that the "Families" owning TTS are no longer the original few founding fathers ... they had kids which had kids ... it is tens of folks being involved by now at various levels. Not all owning a part directly.

 

[ChuckS]

I was probably having in mind too narrow a definition of what a family business was when watching the video.