Interview with Bodo Janssen, Managing Director of Upstalsboom Hotel + Freizeit GmbH & Co. KG

Upstalsboom Hotel + Freizeit GmbH & Co. KG, with its registered office in Emden, employs around 600 workers and is the leading provider of holiday accommodation in the three to five-star segment on the North Sea and Baltic coasts with its approximately 50 hotels and holiday apartment complexes. You initiated this course of growth, which is marked strongly by quality, at the end of 2008.

What is the secret to your success?

Turning away from conventional business management and embracing a cybernetic, that is to say integrated management approach. Profit maximization is thus not the focal point of what we are doing, but results from our workers being oriented toward their actions achieving economic, ecological, social and cultural sustainability. This in turn leads to targeted and smooth-running processes and projects and thus to increased long-term economic efficiency.

Will you tell us a little about your own future visions?

When I retire at some point I want to be able to tell a story about happy people and happy workers.

A large part of your hotels and holiday apartment complexes is located in the JadeBay region. What exactly do you appreciate about the region and what makes it unique? Is there anything that particularly characterizes the people who live here?

What characterizes the people in this region is what will be required all the more in the future: calmness, clarity and orderliness and that in combination with authentic cordiality. The JadeBay region will take on a special position due to its economic and ecological profile and particularly due to the exponential development begun elsewhere. Personally, I connect the term freedom with the JadeBay region.

You are very committed personally and professionally to social issues. You provide strong support for the region and assume entrepreneurial responsibility.
With your project "The North. Good for you" the Upstalsboom Group is exploring new paths under your management with its social commitment.
What exactly is this project, why did you initiate it and what goals are you pursuing?

It is important for companies to look beyond their own economic nose and see themselves as a responsible member of society. We are also taking a stand against the loss of confidence in the free market economy that arose among other things from the financial crisis. Within the scope of our project "The North. Good for you." all of the around 600 Upstalsboom workers at 20 locations actively supported kindergartens, schools, reading dens, hospices and other social institutions for one day. We found and find it important not just to hand over donations but to fly the flag ourselves. Besides the benefit for the receiver, handing over a cheque often makes only the bearer a well-regarded person in the literal sense. In our project we have learned that everyone involved in the project has become a well-regarded person. When a child tells an employee that that was the greatest day in their life that makes a positive impact.

With this project we will knowingly develop the broad and active commitment of our employees for social and cultural purposes as a fixed part of our corporate culture and firmly entrench this commitment.

If every company in Germany gives its employees just half a day a month for social themes the positive effects of that will take on almost immeasurable proportions.

Why in your opinion is the JadeBay growth region also attractive for expanding companies and potential investors from other sectors and what kind of future do you envisage for the JadeBay region, both for its inhabitants and its potential investors?

The 34-year-old maxim of Upstalsboom – to live, work and invest in a place where others take a holiday has proved its worth.

What wishes do have of the economy and other potential partners in the JadeBay region and what in your view are particularly urgent spheres of activity that require work?

As far as I can see Jadebay GmbH covers all urgent spheres of activity. Basically I wish that all concerned would be engaged in the region as a whole and forgo certain individual advantages in favour of the entirety. If everybody just wants what is best for them we won’t make any progress as a whole.

What requests and suggestions would you give location management for the JadeBay region for the road?

That location management understands how to increase the awareness of all those concerned in the system to assume more personal responsibility. Moreover, my suggestion is to make use of more effective instruments when dealing with complexity, instruments that meet the requirements of exemplifying the reciprocal relationships between the factors of an entire dynamic complex – here I would like to name the Sensitivity Model according to Prof. Vester.

JadeWeserPort is attracting international attention to the region. Do you see yourself as a partner who, in association with others in the region, can be active in terms of our new, future internationalization? Together with us, for example?

Internationalization moves a little more slowly for tourism, but we are happy to be on the boat and view ourselves as a partner.