News - 11.06.2024

A change of generation at Jäger Gummi und Kunststoff

Don't talk, just do it!

With Julius Jäger, the fourth generation is joining the JÄGER Group. The 31-year-old will gradually take over the functions of Andreas Jäger, who will withdraw from the operational business at the end of the year. But uncle and nephew have more in common than family ties.

He wanted responsibility and the freedom to shape his own destiny: Andreas Jäger was 34 years old when he decided to give up his position at the BMW headquarters in Munich and join the family business as managing director together with his brother Sebastian. 30 years later, he is now preparing to gradually hand over his official duties to his nephew Julius Jäger. In addition to their family ties, the two have one more important thing in common: Julius also left his job because it offered him too little opportunity to shape his own destiny.

“Independence enables people to take on responsibility in an incredible way,” says Andreas Jäger. He learned that from his father. That’s why he found it so difficult that in corporate structures like BMW, responsibilities are largely anonymized. “When I was presented with a document to sign that had already been signed by two other managers, I often didn’t even read it,” he says. “Nothing could happen to me.” As a family entrepreneur, on the other hand, he is fully responsible – but also has the greatest possible scope for action.

First managing director of the fourth generation

A prospect that also appeals to Julius Jäger. After studying mechanical engineering in Stuttgart, the 31-year-old initially worked in a consultancy firm and then in the strategic development of a family-run mechanical engineering company in southern Germany. There, he sometimes pushed things forward before he had the management’s permission. “Of course, I didn’t make only friends with that,” he admits. “But I simply didn’t understand why so many people in corporate structures think so narrowly instead of simply asking themselves what is best for the company and acting accordingly.”

Julius Jäger is the first member of the fourth generation to join the operational side of the JÄGER Group. He has been a member of the management board of Jäger Gummi und Kunststoff GmbH since last year and also wants to succeed his uncle as head of the holding company in the future. To ensure that the generational changeover goes as smoothly as possible, the entire family has been involved in an accompanied handover process for two years. In addition to a number of rules for dealing with each other, a family charter has been drawn up in which each generation has defined its terms and mutual expectations with regard to the company.

The functions are based on competence

All six children are already shareholders in the JÄGER Group, but apart from Julius Jäger, no one is currently planning to join the operational side of the business. He hopes that this will change and that one of his brothers, one of his two cousins or his cousin will decide to pursue a career in the family business. But it is not required. On the contrary. “The shares are a birthright, but not the functions. The decision is made based on competence,” says Andreas Jäger.

In addition, the family business is always competing with other exciting employers. “Of course, as a managing director in a family business, you have much more creative freedom than in a dependent employment,” says Andreas Jäger. But start-ups also offer this, for example. Their attraction lies above all in the fact that ideas can be implemented and tested much faster, since there is no corset of structures and thought patterns that have grown over decades. In an established company like the JÄGER Group, on the other hand, changes often take longer. On the other hand, as a managing director, you can rely on the high level of loyalty of your employees, whose expertise makes new developments much more soundly based and sustainable. “We can always rely on the many years of experience and support of many well-meaning people,” says Andreas Jäger.

*This text was created by the ADK and made available for publication.