Audi 2006 Annual Report Download - page 35

The point-makers
Faber-Castell AG, Stein, near Nuremberg
Manufacturers of high-quality products for
writing, drawing and creative design
Consolidated revenue, FY 05/06: EUR 354.1 million
Employees worldwide: 6,500
Established: 1761
Considered to be one of the
most important innovators
in Germany: Count Anton
Wolfgang von Faber-Castell.
German premium brands
conquering world markets
Professor Bernd Venohr,
Berlin School of Economics,
is an expert on business
strategy.
German industry is very good at exporting:
Germany earned the title of the world’s top
exporting nation for the third year in succes-
sion in 2006. In addition to the well-known
major corporations, this success stems
in no small measure from some 1,150 mid-
corporates, most of them in family owner-
ship, that are the leaders on the world mar-
ket. They are remarkable not only for their
large
number, but also for their sheer diver-
sity. Medium-sized German companies are
very successful all over the world both in the
obvious areas such as mechanical engineer-
ing and automotive parts, but also in the field
of consumer goods and durables: around
200 of these companies have succeeded in
allying German engineering expertise to
outstanding design and marketing. The re-
sult: high-quality, innovative brand products
that reflect the tastes of highly discerning
customers all over the world. The four en-
couraging examples portrayed demonstrate
what medium-sized businesses can achieve
on world markets if they take the huge op-
portunities of globalisation to heart.
ECONOMY: WINNING BRANDS
PHOTOS: FABER-CASTELL
33AUDI 2006 ANNUAL REPORT
As the world’s biggest manufac-
turer of wooden pencils, he is
standing his ground amid the
computer age’s trend towards digitisa-
tion. His core product, the pencil, has
been manufactured for 245 years and
was voted Product of the Year in 2000.
He regards internationalisation as the
most natural thing in the world, yet his
Bavarian products still proudly sport a
motif from mediaeval Germany even
when sold in the Far East – two battling
knights with lances. Count Anton Wolf-
gang von Faber-Castell stands by the
power of tradition – yet is considered to
be one of the most important innova-
tors in Germany.
The count is in good company in his
choice of favourite writing implement.
Advocates of his pencils include artists
from the 18th to the 21st centuries, liter-
ary figures such as Goethe, Nabokov,
Böll and Grass, artists such as van Gogh,
and designers of the calibre of Karl
Lagerfeld. The Faber-Castell pencil is
still much in demand as the oldest
branded writing implement in the
world: in a new guise, it was voted
”Product of the Year” in 2000. The manu-
facturer gave its triangular pencil the
name Grip 2001, its non-slip pimples
making it particularly ergonomic.
The count recognised early on that the
suggestive power of his heritage still
has the capacity to open doors world-
wide. In the 1990s he reintroduced the
brand motif of the knights that had once
been sacrificed to the spirit of the age,
incorporated the company’s founding
year into the logo and has portrait pho-
tos taken preferably in front of the family
castle. For the eighth-generation owner,
there is no hint of conflict between the
dictates of tradition and innovation.
Exemplary social standards and an in-
volvement in social and environmental
issues are a personal concern of the
count. Again something that runs in the
family. “The best thing about a family
firm is the values for which it stands,” de-
clares von Faber-Castell, smiling.