30 Years APE

A company turning 30 is often used as an occasion to present growth, prosperity and optimism. Photos are shown of modern industrial facilities and attractive products, the now gray-haired founders and hopefully a young and dynamic management team to carry the company into the future.

This is all well and good and as founders we can be proud, but as we all know, sustainable corporate success rests on the continuous efforts of many employees – and on extraordinary merit of some.

I have known and worked with Cornelia for 33 years. In the mid-80s, I was a young professional and she also started her career after her studies in Jena as a laboratory technician in our institute in Berlin Adlershof, the Center for Scientific Instrumentation of the Academy of Sciences. Cornelia quickly assimilated into our workgroup and her effective and well-organized way of working ensured that tests and experiments in our laboratories ran smoothly.

The institute did not survive the political and economic upheavals that accompanied the end of the GDR. Together with colleagues and also scientists from Halle/Saale we founded an engineering office. Based on the scientists’ research results, a new medical product was to be developed and marketed. Cornelia was part of the new team. Indeed, some prototypes were built that worked well, but we were beginners and lacked the experience to turn a good technical solution into a commercial success.

Nevertheless, these three years were like a high-speed capitalism crash course. Besides working in the lab, Cornelia discovered her interest in business administration and organization, taking on many tasks in these areas. She always had a good overview of our economic situation which quickly put her in a central position.

But economic success for the engineering office never materialized, government funding alone could not sustain the small company in the long term and finally there were internal disputes. I left the company, but continued to work for it as a freelancer for a few months. Cornelia made sure that my old boss paid my bills on time.

A few months later, November 9th 1992, Edlef, Thomas and me founded APE GmbH. In March 1993 Cornelia left the engineering office and became the first employee of APE.

This was a tremendous support, at first just for me, soon after for Thomas and Edlef as well, who joined a few months later. During the first years, Cornelia was the assistant for “everything”. All office activities went through her, but she also took over tasks in production such as soldering PCBs, drilling front panels or revising manuals, and as a trained technician she was able to discuss many technical questions directly with customers.

The first few years were difficult for APE, we were making progress with product development, but realizing sufficient sales was a constant challenge. Financially, we were on thin ice. Sometimes salaries could not be paid on time, but Cornelia made sure that at least social security contributions and taxes were always transferred on time. I often had doubts whether we would make it – Cornelia’s loyalty was an important pillar of support.

Somehow things started to look up, the first commercial autocorrelator made APE a small up-and-coming brand in the still rather limited ultrashort industry. From the beginning, we were oriented globally and increasingly successful internationally.

We left Adlershof in 1998. The GSG business park in Lichtenberg had just been completed and APE GmbH was the first tenant in the modern commercial premises. It was fun to settle in here.

There was no real structure or hierarchy in the still young and small company, the 10 employees only had loosely defined roles and naturally took over different tasks in development, customer relations, production or shipping. It was always an event that we were proud of together when a product was ready and packaged for its long journey. Along the entire value chain, Cornelia was managing and organizing.

In the following years, demand for our products increased and we had to grow fast. APE hired more staff and expanded the business premises, including building a first clean room.

Our work became more and more professional and yet, for many APE remained more than just a job, but also a place of social life. There were events, parties, trips, vacations with colleagues or the legendary children’s Christmas parties with ingenious technical tinkering – and all these remain as highlights today. We were lucky that things went steadily upwards for many years.

APE’s 20th birthday has remained a special memory for me. Not just because we celebrated it exuberantly at the Wasserwerk Berlin, but also because for the first time it became clear to me that APE would soon be facing a change. Although the three founders were still running the business well, we also faced problems appearing in many areas. In terms of organization the centrally controlled owner-managed company was increasingly reaching its limits.

We reached out for help! As a result of comprehensive coaching, we restructured the company. Departments and teams were created and we old founders came to the realization to use this opportunity to also bring in a modern and rejuvenated executive management for APE.

There was no question of continuing the family business as such, but our children were not ready yet to step in directly or to take on responsibility in other form. At the same time, we had some experienced and talented colleagues in the company who seemed suitable for the role of CEO.

We decided on Cornelia and Bodo. Bodo had been in charge of production for a few years, Cornelia had been the CFO for the longest time anyway and was also trained in HR issues. The decision was quickly made.

A sudden slump in orders from an important OEM partner presented the company with considerable problems in 2015. For the first time in our history, sales plummeted massively and over a few months APE lost more and more capital. The new leadership had to act and implement tough and unpopular measures. We parted with employees, downsized and reorganized the company. Fortunately, the measures proved successful relatively short term and the company was able to recover within a few months. It was a tough start for the new team, no one had foreseen it like this. In the end, however, the management was successful and strengthened.

We founders withdrew from the day-to-day business, Cornelia and Bodo worked quietly and we appreciated that after the upsetting first months. Marketing and sales in particular were reorganized, new staff joined, other colleagues left. Economic success returned again for APE.

The expansion of the sales department was successful, but presented APE with new requirements. Building complex, individually customized systems and at the same time increasing series production was an organizational challenge. Nonetheless, the high rate of innovation had to be maintained through research and development.

With which measures and in which way APE could best move forward led to discussions and conflict. It was also about our culture and goals as a company. What does APE want and where does APE want to go? How do we manage to be a modern enterprise which is caring, social, innovative and economically successful, all at the same time?

We had to deal with these difficult questions in the middle of the pandemic. The shareholders, the management and some of the employees were acutely involved in this process. During coaching the different positions came to light and it became clear that decisions on the part of the shareholders were necessary to return the clear identity to the company, that many colleagues felt missing.

As shareholders, we decided in favor of a change of management because, in our opinion, the most recent findings and ideas could best be implemented with a fresh team. Together with the new CEO Konrad and a large majority of employees we asked Cornelia to return to her work as an experienced, competent CFO closely connected to the company.

Cornelia agreed and we were relieved!

The tasks remain challenging, but there is a lot of justified optimism and I am very happy that APE is going forward with Cornelia at her side.

Thank you Cornelia for the 30 years at APE!