A bold, can-do attitude defines the Deinböck painting contractors

The Bavarian firm is now running brilliantly. 25 employees handle more than 400 jobs a year – for exclusive private customers and small businesses. Take up of quotations is around 70 percent. And customer satisfaction is so high that Deinböck has almost no need for conventional advertising. The firm's reputation gets round by word of mouth. But that wasn't always the case. The path to success required courage and sometimes an unconventional approach.

A radical change of course brings results

You can see how it all started in the painting contractor's consulting room. In this room, decorated with modern designer chairs and a stylish wooden table, an old photograph of Edgar Deinböck's father hangs on the wall – looking smart, in his best suit, right after passing his trade exam. He founded the family business in 1959 and passed it on to his son in 1997. One year later, Edgar's brother Walter joined the company, a graduate business economist, who has taken care of everything business-related ever since. The company seemed well prepared.

But the coming years were not easy. Sometimes there were scores of customers as part of large building projects, sometimes they dropped off in large swathes. In the end, the turnover plummeted so far that Deinböck, like many painting companies in the region, had to make an existential decision – give up or go on? "I was on the verge of giving up, but at the very the last minute, I decided to push the family business forward. I wanted to keep what we'd grown."

But one thing was also very clear. Things couldn't continue as they were. Edgar Deinböck faced a Herculean task – he had to completely realign the business. So in 2005, he brought in a business coach to help. "That was the best decision ever!" he says in retrospect. "When you're in the midst of the daily grind, you often don't take the time to really look around you. My consultant taught me to look at the situation from outside." And as soon as he'd had the first meeting, the consultant wanted to know why his brother Walter and their respective wives weren't part of the coaching process, too. "I wondered why, because our wives never worked in the business. But of course, the consultant knew, that this would be a long and arduous process. If our wives weren't on board too, we'd soon give up. So we brought them in, too!"

On top of that, Edgar Deinböck went into a closed session once a month with his coach. There, they worked together on developing visions for the future and how to make them a reality. What's our current situation? How should the company continue? And how do you motivate your employees? The line of approach soon became clear. "I saw how other painting contractors were dealing with these tough economic conditions. One had filed for bankruptcy, another was letting all of its employees go, one had focused entirely on tenders." But for Deinböck the solution lay elsewhere. "We wanted to specialize, away from the property business, and undertake the most attractive painting jobs in the region, for high-quality private customers."

A profession perfectly suited to the charismatic Edgar Deinböck. It's hard to imagine that customers wouldn't be enthused by his communicative nature and sound advice. Yet his employees also had to be prepared for this new focus. After all, they are the ones who have to make an impression on site through their attitude and good work. To show just how important their contribution is, Deinböck involved the entire team in the planning stages. "I explained where we wanted to take the business and asked them to make suggestions about how to best achieve it." The result? More than 100 ideas, ranging from team building to presentation when meeting customers. Edgar Deinböck was impressed. "It was like a real shock wave ran through the business!" Supported by the company coach, everyone got together at a hotel in Upper Bavaria and worked on the concept for days.

This resulted in a series of workshops which are still held regularly today. "We practice how to behave around customers in order to make them feel comfortable. After all, it's part of your job to be in the most private areas of their home. We discuss issues mentioned in employee conversations, improve workflows and quality." Even when it comes to wages and working hours, Deinböck gives employees some control – and by doing so, achieves results that make both the boss and the employee happy, because everyone is entitled to speak. The best side effect? "My employees learn to think and find solutions for themselves."