AS HEAD OF PURCHASING AND LOGISTICS, Norbert Sorg is also responsible for many new construction and renovation projects as ‘MAPAL's building manager’.
Norbert Sorg: A man of many talents
Before Norbert Sorg joins MAPAL, he already gained a lot of professional experience. After completing a commercial apprenticeship, he worked for a company in Aalen for several years and completed further training in business administration in parallel to his job. The interview is conducted by Dr Dieter Kress and the authorised signatory Karl Hänle. Norbert Sorg afterwards has to make an appointment with senior partner Dr Georg Kress, who gives his blessing to the appointment.
He initially shares the office with Karl Hänle. During his many conversations with Dr Dieter Kress, he learns a lot about MAPAL and the philosophy of the executive floor. He soon takes over the management of the purchasing department from Karl Hänle and later additionally that of the logistics department. In dealing with the very demanding but also supportive Dr Dieter Kress, he develops a strategy that is as simple as it is sensible: he does not bother the boss with questions and unsolved problems, but instead presents his proposals for solutions. Or simply tells him what he is currently working on. “If he didn't interfere, I knew everything was OK,” remembers Norbert Sorg.
IN A TEAM THERE IS A SOLUTION FOR EVERYTHING
Like Dr Dieter Kress, he himself is a man of quick, binding decisions. He is characterised by his decades of leadership in the volunteer fire brigade, where he often has to make quick decisions that might make the difference between life and death. This solution-orientated approach helps him with a task that he also performs at MAPAL for a long time: As the “construction mayor of MAPAL” he manages and coordinates the many reconstructions and new buildings that are realized during his time, including at the subsidiaries. His meticulous perfectionism helps him in this role, as does his good networking in local politics thanks to his work at the fire brigade. His management skills are that highly esteemed that Dr Dieter Kress temporarily entrusts him with the management of the newly set up IT department - even though he himself does not even know how to burn a CD. Despite this, Norbert Sorg works together with a software company to develop the requirements and the profile for a purchasing software that is then successfully introduced - long before the company started using SAP.
Here, as in all his different functions, he is helped by his common sense and the promotion of good teamwork. “People have to enjoy developing themselves,” he is convinced. To do this, you have to “assign the right people the right tasks and also allow them a certain amount of freedom”.