In jedem Unternehmen steckt ein besseres

A common thread runs through Weichselbaum's thinking: the concept of time and its significance for work and value creation are likely what holds the Weichselbaum system together at its core. Ernst Weichselbaum is a time traveler: he shows what can be, allowing us to envision how organizations and work will be different and much better in the future. In fact, incredibly better! Weichselbaum is a seducer into a different world of work and organizational value creation. The concepts presented by Ernst Weichselbaum in this compact volume are like pebbles: they have been long and consistently polished. Each of us can take them in hand and use them. Ernst Weichselbaum has been a pioneer in many ways. For example, until the early 1990s, he worked at an Austrian "hidden champion," the office furniture manufacturer Bene. There, he built a career over 28 years, ultimately becoming the managing director. At Bene, Weichselbaum developed the principles and practices of his system over the years, applying and refining them. In 1982, he was a pioneer of "flexible working hours" at Bene. He played a leading role in the development and operation of the concept of the Fractal Factory. He created a participative, results-oriented compensation model that set standards. All these concepts merged over the years into a "time-oriented business management," a management system with fixed delivery times independent of capacity utilization, which became known as "the Weichselbaum system" even beyond Austria's borders. Weichselbaum claims to have discovered all this "through observation and common sense." However, practical theory has also shaped him—such as Foerster's constructivism, cybernetics, and systems theory. Last but not least, a deep-seated, persistent humanism, which is very much aware of its political dimension, has influenced him.