Reduce costs, motivate employees, keep your nerve ...
Too long supply chains, too much consumption, too little substance, too little solidarity, too little Europe, too much populism, too little work, too much life: for Christoph Ingenhoven, the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic mercilessly expose the failings of recent years. But he is far from losing his optimism as a result. We had a chat with him.
Christoph Ingenhoven, how are you and your office experiencing these days?
As I was traveling in the Engadin and London, trips to Cannes and Riyadh were cancelled at short notice and I was unable to return to Switzerland, I finally ended up in Düsseldorf, where the majority of our extended family from London, New York and Munich had also arrived in the meantime. My partner stayed in London with her children and one of my daughters was unavoidably deployed in hospital, so it’s a good thing the houses are big enough for that… The office has 45 percent of employees working from home, 45 percent still in the office, 5 percent on sick leave and 5 percent on vacation. We are all trying very hard to do our work with video and telephone conferences, which we are doing well together.
So almost half of your employees are working from home. How quickly was that possible and: Is everything continuing as usual?
We managed the switch within a few days. Everyone can take their computer and screen with them. For everyone else, it’s a new situation, but you get used to it after a few days – especially with the right discipline when preparing for conference calls. This is not a permanent solution and in normal times it is not good for the team and the quality of our work, which thrives on thinking, drawing and talking together. For the moment, however, it secures our ability to act. It’s a good thing that the internationalization of our projects in many very different countries means that we have always been used to working virtually to some extent in different time zones.
What challenges are you and your team currently facing?
Meeting deadlines and commitments to our clients, keeping in touch with clients, prioritizing paid work over unpaid work, carefully pushing projects over the finish line in the final decision-making phase, realistically assessing how the year will continue, running stress tests, reducing costs, motivating employees, holding your nerve, keeping quality high, not losing your sense of humour, finding new orders for the time during and after the crisis, winning competitions …
“You’re all more grown up after the crisis.”
You also have offices in Sydney and Singapore. How is the situation there?
Singapore is continuing to operate relatively normally and, as a large proportion of our Australian projects in Sydney and Melbourne are currently being processed there in addition to the Singaporean projects, capacity utilization is also very good. The opening of our Toranomon Hills project in Tokyo has been postponed, although the project has been completed. A second high-rise there is under construction and will probably open for the postponed Olympics next year.
Architecture students are asking themselves how they should complete their assignments in a team despite the initial restrictions. What advice would you give them?
That shouldn’t be a problem for this generation, Face Time, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype …, they can do it. The crisis is an opportunity, it mercilessly exposes our failings and shortcomings: too long supply chains, too much consumption, too much marketing, too little substance, too little vertical integration, too little solidarity, too little Europe, too much populism, too little work, too much life, the world is much nicer without emissions, fewer cars are not a mistake, childcare is difficult to replace, our small businesses are poorly financed.
Everyone tries to get rid of their problems first and foremost with the state, not only those who are really in need, but also those who have always taken all the profit out of the company in a timely manner for years. If we learn anything from this, it may have been very good and when we have the crisis behind us, you will all be much more grown up, stay alive!