.a.S.a. has been in business for 25
years. What do you remember as being
great successes and where do you find
“lessons learned” in thepast?
For me, as the aggregation of many
individual success stories, the development
of .A.S.A. Group is itself a great success
story. Starting from a small Austrian entity
focusing on landfilling, the Group has
developed to a multinational citizen service
provider in the last 25 years - nowadays
being amarket leader in it’s business area.
This development is even more admirable,
as it happened in a relatively young,
constantly changing and very competitive
market environment, thus requiring a lot
of creativity as well as team spirit from its
employees andmanagement.
Of course, such a development is naturally
also linked to lessons learned. But, I think
we can avoid repeating mistakes by simply
following some general principles, like to
define and follow a common strategy and
align the group’s objectives and resources,
or to share know-howandexperiencewithin
.A.S.A.
2013 has been a very difficult business
year for us. How will this affect 2014 in
your opinion?
The year 2013 was a very intense year
for all of us. On the one hand, this could
be associated with uncertainty regarding
internal changes and re-organization. But
this uncertainty is over now. The new group
management team is defined and reflects a
very positive mixture of highly experienced
and fresh people. Therefore, I believe
that together with the new organization
structure, we are well prepared for future
challenges. On the other hand, there are
also difficulties resulting from market side
and some instability in the overall economy
together with budget restrictions in public
administrations. However, aside from
those difficulties there are also always
opportunities, like inPolandor Serbia.
All in all, I believe that 2014 will still be a
very challenging and intense year wherewe
will have to focusonefficiency, improvement
and cost savings, but already start to set
the course for our future (e.g. intensively
working on our common IT system, define
strategic directions).
Youareanewmember in theMCof .a.S.a.
group.What are your responsibilities?
Iwill be responsible forcertainGroupCentral
Services, namely Business Development
and Strategy (BDS), Communication and
CSR (CCSR), Engineering and Plant
Management (EPM), Logistic Management
as well as Sales Support and Development
(SSD).
What activitiesdoyouexpect inyour field
in 2014? Where do you see the biggest
challengesahead?
The overall market environment will be the
biggest challenge for us this year. AsGroup
Central Services, we therefore have to
assist our CountryOrganizations andGroup
Management by providing an optimum level
of support and service for them.
franzpredl
age:
40
Placeof Birth:
Vienna (Austria)
Countryof residence:
Austria
Family status/children:
married, 2 children
Favourite activitiesduring leisure time:
skiing,
tennis, hiking, timewith family
In .a.S.a. since:
2003
Function in .a.S.a.:
groupCentral services
Career steps
until now in .a.
Head of BDS .A.S.A. Group a
General Manager .A.S.A. Int
Head of Project Management
.A.S.A. Group
CountryManager .A.S.A. Ro
mANAgEmENTCORNER
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IntroductionofManagementCommitteemembers
