“The RM principles express the essential building blocks of our corporate culture. They make how RUBBLE MASTER works transparent to employees – how we want to deal with each other, but also how we act with our customers, suppliers and stakeholders,” says RM CEO Gerald Hanisch. RM now wants to “export” these values to the Northern Irish screen manufacturer Maximus, which was taken over by RM in 2018. “Takeovers are a long-term process and a sensitive approach is required, especially when it comes to corporate culture”, says Günther Weissenberger, RM CFO and Managing Director at Maximus. This is why it was decided to have this process accompanied by a project at the Steyr University of Applied Sciences.
Seven international students, who are currently completing their Bachelor’s degree at the Steyr University of Applied Sciences, have spent an entire semester assessing the takeover and have carried out a qualitative study. Adenike Adedapo, Alexandra Höflinger-Schmid, Janne Mikkola, Selina Mühlbachler, Sabrina Stockhammer, Felix Ratzenberger and Johanna Zittmayr interviewed a total of 15 employees at RM and Maximus in person or over the phone. In the anonymous interviews, value systems of various well-known companies and RM were discussed. “It was great for us that we were able to talk directly to the employees,” the students said enthusiastically. “For our students, the company project is always a highlight because, in addition to the theoretical aspects, they can also deal very specifically with a practical example,” says Jörg Kraigher-Krainer, Vice Dean of Research & Development at Steyr University of Applied Sciences, who supervised the students during the project. “For us, the work of the students actually has a high practical benefit, which is something the students are always happy about. We will reflect on the recommendations internally over the next few months and then put together a package of measures,” says Hanisch about the cooperation and the results.