Our North Star

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The North Star – our destination

A new approach requires a clear destination. Otherwise, you quickly get lost or take unnecessary detours. The North Star is the destination we are heading for. It shows us the way and provides orientation for all our employees in their day-to-day activities. The essence of what we do is at its core: “Engineering a better life”. Its seven parts serve as coordinates and describe individual fields that are important if we are to reach our destination.

The map – our route

To make sure we know which route to take on the way to the North Star, we have the Strategy Map, which shows the tasks that need to be completed in each area, who is responsible for them, and the deadline for their implementation. Each part of the North Star has superordinate areas of action. Within these areas of action, various initiatives provide us with a precise roadmap for operational work.

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Our purpose – our core

"Engineering a better life” is at the core of the North Star. This is our purpose – our corporate mission, the essence of what we do and simultaneously our grand objective. We want to make sustainable, intelligent, future-proof solutions. In doing so, we will help our customers to achieve greater sustainability and so protect the climate. But at the same time, we will also create a good climate in our professional home. For ebm‑papst, this is not just any trend, but is anchored in the company’s history. Gerhard Sturm himself stated the guiding principle that every product must be more ecological and economical than its predecessor. So our path to the North Star is based on solid foundations.

Why is vision important for ebm‑papst?

We want to shape the future and lead air technology into a new era. The Vision of ebm‑papst clarifies what we need to do to fulfill our corporate purpose of “engineering a better life”. We are creating the basis for this with each part of our North Star.

What will change as a result of our vision?

We will focus on our core business of heating and air technology. We see a lot of growth potential in these key areas. This will help us to become and remain a leading manufacturer. Only by focusing our efforts can we operate profitably in the long term. We will strengthen our market position and become a pioneer in our industry with future-oriented and cutting edge products.

We have set ourselves strategic goals to make our vision a reality. We will inspire our customers and develop the next generation of digital fans, linking the two with sustainable solutions. We aim to become carbon neutral. We will strengthen our position as a top employer and consolidate our technology leadership with innovations. To enable all this, we will focus on achieving profitable growth.

Why are these goals important for ebm‑papst?

The North Star point “Our strategic goals for 2030” specifies that we want to work sustainably and focus on profitable growth. This covers a number of areas of action: from profitability, growth and a comprehensive sustainability strategy to digital innovations and the optimization of our organization.

What will change as a result of our strategic goals?

The various strategic initiatives to achieve these targets take regional circumstances and differences into account and set corresponding priorities. In Europe, we will be working primarily to increase profitability over the next one to two years. In the APAC region, the focus will be on growth, while our colleagues in the Americas will be concentrating more on market development and growth.

How will we be approaching this in concrete terms?

One example is the sustainability@ebm‑papst project and our climate strategy, which will help us to achieve our climate target of climate-neutral production by 2025. For this purpose, we have calculated the entire company’s carbon footprint. We want to reduce emissions with a series of measures. We also want to invest in sustainable power generation in the future and switch to green electricity.

There are also initiatives regarding our regional goals. In the APAC region, we are already working to increase our market share. In the Americas region, one of our plans is to expand our air conditioning business.

We will achieve our strategic targets by focusing on core business with promise for the future. Air Technology and Heating technology offer huge potential for market success and growth. We are concentrating our efforts on exploiting this potential.

Why is focusing on our core business important for ebm‑papst?

If we want to be profitable, we must focus on what we do well – and expand those areas where we know the market will grow sustainably. Both of these apply to Air and Heating Technology, where we have important core competencies, strong products and exciting areas of application. We are already very well positioned and are now further expanding this solid base.

How will we be approaching this in concrete terms?

We are expanding our core business. To this end, we are creating the new strategic business areas Refrigeration, Industry & ICT, Residential Ventilation, Transportation, Renewable Energies, Commercial Air Conditioning, Cleanroom, and Indirect & Digital Sales.

We want to showcase what we do better than anyone else in the market! We are technology-driven. Innovations are our mainstay. We aim to offer customers solutions that fully meet their requirements in terms of speed and performance. This is why we must work to achieve the required speed and simplicity through digital and AI-driven solutions.

Why are our fields of differentiation important?

If we want to be at the forefront of the market, we need convincing reasons. Only if we meet our customers’ expectations 100 percent will we have a secure position as market and technology leader.

What will change as a result of the focus on this?

We must work specifically on offering our customers fast, high-quality and forward-looking technologies. This is where our uniqueness and strength lie. We can achieve this by focusing on digital and AI-driven innovation.

How will we be approaching this in concrete terms?

One key measure is our digital strategy, which helps us to achieve and further expand our fields of differentiation. We are also setting up a global product management system. This will enable us to closely link market needs from the regions and product development. The modular product system plays a major role in efficient product development. We want to make the best possible use of the skills available to us in our fantastic ebm‑papst teams and inspire our customers.

To achieve our goals, our company needs to perform at the highest level. Ultimately, this comes down to structures, culture, and processes. We will think globally and do business locally near our customers. We will become more decentralized and more diverse. At the same time, we will establish consistent, lean structures and processes throughout the company. We will work in agile teams, interact with, and lead one another as equals.

What will change as a result of the focus on this?

In Air Technology, we will continue to drive forward the ‘local for local’ approach. This means that we will position ourselves regionally to be close to our customers so that we can deliver quickly and adapt flexibly to circumstances. It is important to work in standardized processes around the world.

How will we be approaching this in concrete terms?

For the new structure, we will be defining and establishing business processes and equipping the areas in which we want to grow with the necessary resources. Consistent processes for customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and product lifecycle management (PLM) will provide the basis for this. We will also be focusing on the eight new strategic business areas, which are an important part of our new organization. Heating Technology will likewise continue to strategically expand its business while also managing the Heat Pumps business area. As a result, we will be able to offer all the technologies used worldwide in Heating Technology and respond flexibly to possible market changes and regulations.

To ensure that we have the same basis everywhere, we will be driving the exchange and development of knowledge worldwide and forming global teams with regional responsibilities.

Four principles shape the way we work together and guide each other every day: We trust each other to perform our tasks responsibly and transparently. We inspire each other and encourage engagement and motivation. We enable others and nurture our personal growth. We support one another and challenge ourselves by setting ambitious goals and questioning what we already know.

Why is our collaboration important?

People remain at the center of our work, despite all our strategic considerations and realignments. Because we are all ebm‑papst and we all contribute to the company’s success. How we work together and how we treat each other is therefore an important factor. Because together, we shape our professional home.

What will change as a result of the focus on this?

Trust and transparency, inspiration and engagement, enablement and development, and challenge and support – these are the principles dedicated to ‘our collaboration’. We want to shape the way we work together in line with these principles and create an environment where everyone feels comfortable and can make full use of their strengths for ebm‑papst. This will help us retain skilled employees within the company, attract new specialists to ebm‑papst, and be even more successful together.

How will we be approaching this in concrete terms?

A central HR project in the context of our collaboration is the introduction of the People House, which will act as a model for our future actions both internally and externally. It is based on our values of efficiency, enthusiasm, and humanity. The four central rooms of our house will deepen the principles of our collaboration from the North Star, with the topic of leadership playing an important role here.