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21/12/2020

The fact that msg can celebrate its 40th anniversary this year is largely due to many committed and loyal employees. One of them is Hans Ranft. In this interview, he talks about jobs sealed with a handshake and why msg is one of the few companies with two CEOs. He also explains what the Beatles have to do with msg.

Mr. Ranft, you’ve been working for msg for a long time. Do you remember how everything started?

I’ve been at msg for more than 20 years now. I previously worked at IBM for 19 years. I already knew the founders Hans Zehetmaier, Herbert Enzbrenner and Pius Pflügler before the establishment of msg. The three were working as trainees at IBM in Munich. Like me, Hans Zehetmaier is originally from Wartenberg in Erding county and he had studied business administration in Landshut a couple of years before me. He recommended that I do an internship at IBM, which I then did.

msg developed in the meantime.

Yes, and I followed this development in all those years with great interest and high respect over all those years and never lost contact with the founders. In the meantime, Hans Zehetmaier repeatedly asked me if I would like to join msg. To be honest, I have to admit that the time wasn't ripe for me back then. I felt I was in very good hands at IBM. But in the fall of 1999, the time had come. I was at the Systems IT fair in Munich and paid a visit to the msg stand. The set-up was impressive. Only then did I see in detail how msg had developed: Almost 1,000 employees and a turnover of 235 million DM. I found that quite remarkable. Hans Zehetmaier was also present. He gave me a warm welcome at the msg stand and during our conversation he offered me a promising job. I was smitten immediately (laughs).

What made you decide to join msg back then?

I had a great time at IBM. Very loyal customers, wonderful colleagues and interesting work. One of the highlights was an international job at the IBM European headquarters in Paris, where I lived with my whole family for a year. But I was ready for a career change. At the age of 42, I felt ready for a new challenge. At IBM, I was initially in systems consulting and then mainly in sales. But now I wanted to play a part in shaping business and strategy and also to develop in this direction on the management side. So, the prospect that Hans Zehetmaier had put to me came right on cue. I was to further develop and expand the sales and marketing of msg. I was enthusiastic right from the start. During our conversation at the trade fair, we agreed on a handshake that I was to join msg in the spring of 2000. A few days later, I handed in my resignation at IBM. That’s how it started (laughs).

How did your career progress?

I joined msg as head of Marketing and Sales, gradually building up and expanding the team by integrating marketing and sales people. From the outset, I was also tasked with taking charge of the important partnerships. For example, the traditional partnership with IBM or the then comparatively new relationship with SAP, as well as others that we were able to develop over the years. And, as was customary for medium-sized companies at the time - to have several jobs at the same time - I was still responsible for hardware and software sales, together with a team of former IBM employees, which had arisen from the long-standing partnership with IBM. However, we then sold this business area to another partner, as it no longer fitted in with msg’s strategic outlook. At that time, I took care of this personally with Hans Zehetmaier. I then managed to establish Marketing and Communication as a central department. However, we quickly realized that a centralized sales team was not a successful model in an organization as strongly industry-oriented as msg. We then organized sales on a decentralized basis in the different units.

What were the next steps?

In 2017, after some intensive years and very exciting topics in the course of msg's successful development, I was again ready for a change. I had been thinking about it for some time. msg had grown enormously over the years and the digital transformation was in full swing. The challenges and demands were also growing steadily. Given msg’s size at the time and its future prospects, I could no longer combine both jobs while satisfying my own standards of performance. So, in a way, I initiated my own transformation, set new priorities and from then on clearly focused on partner management. I thought that this would be the best way for me to use my seniority and experience to msg’s benefit. We then established the Global Alliance Management executive department, which I have headed ever since.

What is this role exactly?

It is and will be increasingly important for msg to establish sustainable partnerships on equal terms and, in particular, to bring the right partners on board for our strategy in the area of platforms and ecosystems. My role is to continue to build and expand these partnerships and to make sure that the entire group can use them - as a decisive factor for our global competitiveness and securing our future. Continuous business development is also essential in this context. Where can we initiate new business areas at existing partners? Where can we open up new business areas with new partners?

You also hold a second position in the company – that of CEO - Chief Entertainment Officer. How did that come about?

(laughs) Hans Zehetmaier used to say that msg is one of the few companies that has two CEOs. I’m a passionate hobby musician, I’ve played in the msg band for 20 years and have also been in a rock band for four years. In 2000, we were at a large SAP conference for insurers, where we also presented our SAP reinsurance solution FS-RI for the first time. After the evening event, in the small hours, some folks from a reinsurance customer and from SAP were together with Hans Zehetmaier and me in the bar, where the opportunity for a musical performance arose. So, I sat down at the piano and performed a couple of songs.

It was a great atmosphere and the “audience” went wild. At the end, I played “Let it be” by the Beatles as the finale and our group suddenly started to sing along – but, funnily enough, instead of “Let it be”, they sang “FS-RI”. The name of one of msg’s top products. And that was when the idea of making songs for products and solutions, as well as for events, was born. We did this for the first time at the opening of the inscom in 2002. It was sensational and the attendees were flabbergasted. Since then, there has been a Hans Ranft song at every inscom.

How many gigs have you played and which ones do you remember the most?

I’ve played a total of almost 20 gigs. That always lightens up the mood. Only the farewell to Hans Zehetmaier, who moved from the executive board to the supervisory board at the start of 2020, was very sentimental. It was a great honor for me. It was also a very emotional thing for me to play the song for msg's 40th anniversary. I will also always remember a great performance against an impressive backdrop at a party to celebrate the completion of a project at our customer Allianz at the Wappenhalle of the former Munich Riem airport.

Let's take a look at the future: What challenges lie ahead?

There will certainly not be less to do. So, flexibility is the decisive factor. Leveraging the synergies of the various units, we have to strengthen the innovative energy that we have in the group and that we bring to light every day. We all must be ready to be part of this and to pool our combined expertise. Together with partners, we can then excel on the market. We will continue to succeed if we manage to orchestrate our msg knowledge and to enrich it with partnerships in such a way that we can offer maximum benefit to our customers and make them competitive. I am convinced of that. And if we also retain our spirit, act with common sense and the right intuition, continue to understand and advise our customers well, and live up to our social responsibility, we will have our formula for success. Then, there is no need to worry. It won’t take another 40 years to earn the second billion.