spoga+gafa highlight: IVG Messe-Talk with Christian Gansch

On September 6, 2010 Industrieverband Garten (IVG) e.V. kindly invites to the traditional Messe-Talk and to the adjacent get-together of the "Green Market". The event will start at 7.15 p.m. in the Konrad-Adenauer hall in Cologne.

With the musician and consultant Christian Gansch from Salzburg this year the association offers an Austrian speciality. The well known orchestra leader and consultant will reveal what companies might learn from conductors and musicians. His theme: Many voices – one goal: the orchestra as model of success

A must for the garden market

The association expects about 500 participants to this event. Presale tickets will be at 60 € (70 € at the box-office). They may be directly purchased from the Industrieverband Garten (IVG) or at the IVG-booth at spoga+gafa, Boulevard (aisle A No. 006). Apart from the surely thrilling speech you might get involved into interesting discussions and meet manufacturers of the gardening industry, retailers and speciality retailers as well as many journalists of the "Green Market". Refreshments will also be served. Furthermore IVG general manager Michael Cuypers promises some surprises. This year’s IVG Messe-Talk will be a must for everybody working in the "Green Market".

The following interview is released for publication.
(specimen copy requested)

2010-06-01 mc/vs

Listening to each other – acting together

Question 1: Mr Gansch, you are invited to speak at this year’s IVG Messe-Talk. What will you talk about? What will the audience be listening to?

Reply:
My theme is “Many voices – one goal: The orchestra as model of success”. By taking the orchestra as an example I will show how hundred individuals, some of them even egocentric, will finally present a homogeneous and harmonic result. This is not an easy job to do as you can surely imagine.

Question 2: You are a conductor, your profession is music. What led you to consulting?

Reply:
I have got two biographies. I am a musician but I am also a person of economy. For 14 years I worked in the management of Universal Music. My experience is: Conducting an orchestra and managing a company do have much in common. Managers may learn a lot from musicians. The theme of the orchestra is listening to each other – acting together. In an orchestra there are up to 15 divisions. Technically speaking, 60 violinists shall support one flute. This works because everybody knows that the client pays for a perfect result and not for a perfect division. In both cases it is essential to overcome silo thinking, for the benefit of the whole you have to stop acting egoistically, i.e. focussing on your division only.

Question 3: Conducting an orchestra – leading a company – what do both have in common?

Reply:
There is not only the conductor. In an orchestra there are up to 15 divisions with three leaders each and two substitutes. There are hierarchies. The conductor as leading person only gives a vision. The division managers care for its execution. It’s them who conduct the instrumental groups and not the conductor. The audience surely won't note it, provided it works. Of course, there are other aspects as well. For example, members of an orchestra are usually members of a union.

Question 4: An orchestra shall be coherent; it must be a unity and sound homogeneous, although it consists of mostly talented but individual persons having their own ideas and imaginations. It only works, if all work together to fulfil the common task and feel responsible for it. This is also true for associations as organisers of common interests. Are you a member of an association?

Reply:
No, I am not. I am not a member of an association or a club may it be a gulf or shooting club. This has got something to do with sitting very close together in the orchestra. Body to body in a very narrow place. There is no way to escape. There are enormous group dynamics. Therefore I need some distance, that means a balance off the groups. However, the theme of an association is similar to the one of an orchestra: listening to each other – acting together. To the benefits of all and in the interest of the whole.

Mr Gansch, thanks a lot for the interview.

The interview was conducted by Michael Cuypers, general manager of Industrieverband Garten (IVG) e.V.

CV: CHRISTIAN GANSCH, born in 1960 in Austria, founded the trend of orchestra-company-transfer in the German speaking area when publishing his book "Vom Solo zur Sinfonie - Was Unternehmen von Orchestern lernen können" in 2006. He works as conductor, producer and consultant worldwide. From 1981 to 1990 he was leading member of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. Then he started working for the music industry and produced worldwide more than 190 CDs with artists like Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado and Anna Netrebko. Apart from many international prices he won four Grammy Awards. His presentations are based on his experiences in the world of music and economy (for further information see www.gansch.de).

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