“Leading with kindness and compassion is the key. As a leader, you must not only manage a company, turn a profit, and meet your financial targets, but also inspire and motivate others to perform to the best of their abilities, be content, and grow within your company,” says Karl Friesenbichler, Australia Managing Director, Head Region of APAC at Ferag. He is a proficient leader focused on shaping the organization and creating an equal and safe work environment.
Karl has always been at the forefront of the intralogistics market, hailing from Austria, more specifically Graz, which is a global hot spot for the intralogistics sector.
“To lead people well you need to understand group dynamics, and listen to your teams. I believe that if you are in a leadership position you are responsible for creating an environment that allows for equality, honesty, and mutual respect. I am committed to ongoingly improving the businesses I’m involved in,” says Karl.
Leadership defines success differently for every leader; how did Karl get there?
Karl says that education and skills are a toolbox, and your experience is how you use this toolbox. Without the tools, you can have all the experience you want but it’ll be impossible to achieve your goals, and vice versa.
“It was more of an accident than anything else. I was in the UK for an internship and started playing with how stores send their replenishment orders to warehouses. From this first glimpse into the supply chain, I was hooked. Especially intralogistics, how products move through a warehouse, and why, was always fascinating to me,” he added.
Karl, as a native Austrian, has worked and lived extensively throughout the world. He is very passionate about the intralogistics industry and has worked in it his entire career.
“It came out of the realization that there was a gap in the intralogistics market. Warehouses were not operated with the best process in mind but with suboptimal solutions. If I can improve something I will always try, and that was the basic idea of dereOida,” says Karl.
His extensive experience has led him to realize that most solution providers are stuck in old patterns, meaning they mostly want to sell their robots and conveyors instead of finding the perfect customer solution. As someone excited to bring the best solution to these customers, Karl formed dereOida and developed doWarehouse. This path led him to partner with leading intralogistics suppliers, software architects, and consultants.
In September 2023, Ferag acquired dereOida and Karl is now Ferag’s Australia Managing Director, Head Region of APAC. This acquisition has positioned Ferag as an integrator and supplier of complete intralogistics solutions. These solutions open up new opportunities for customers who need to adapt to new market conditions while having a one-interface system providing them with information and control.
Takeaways from hurdles
“The biggest hurdle is in your own head. You start to doubt yourself and your mission. I had to silence all those doubts and just follow my goal of creating the best product I could create. And stop looking at what your competition is doing on social media, this can impact you as well,” says Karl.
“The fast-changing consumer behavior. A social media post going viral can change our behavior, not just our purchase behavior but how we define what is acceptable. Society is changing fast and we, as entrepreneurs, need to keep up and constantly adapt to this. Personally, I find it fascinating,” Karl added.
The ever-changing challenges in intralogistics have always kept him interested. Karl has realized solutions for large customers such as Natura Cosmeticos in Brazil, Alshaya in the Middle East, Office Depot in Europe, and many more.
He concentrated on building next-generation automation solutions in Australia with customers in the Retail, FMCG, and pharmaceutical industries in the last few years.
Work-Life Harmony Mantra
“When your passion is your work you find that whenever you walk away from it you get bored pretty quickly. I love my work and what I do. But when I’m not working, I am an introvert and love being home, cooking, or just relaxing with a good book,” assures Karl.
The People Who Inspired Karl’s Life
“So many people have helped me on my way, from mentors early on to great leaders to projects that might have not gone as well as I thought. Everyone and every situation had a lesson I learned and applied to my method and how I work,” says Karl.
Ferag AG: Offering Innovative Solutions Adapted to The Needs of The Market
Ferag AG, founded in 1957, is a global company with its APAC HeadQuarters based in Sydney and its global headquarters in Hinwil/Zurich, Switzerland. It is a Swiss family-owned group and has been the global market leader in conveying and processing systems in the graphical industry for over 65 years. Ferag offers end-to-end solutions, from initial consultancy to system integration, sales, and support.
Empowering the Industry with cutting-edge Services & Solutions
Ferag operates in two primary industries: print and intralogistics.
Solutions for the print industry include high-speed systems for the industrial processing of newspapers and magazines.
Innovative conveying and sorting solutions for intralogistics are a consistent and sustainable further development of the processing systems originally developed for print media production.
Ferag also specializes in developing total intralogistics for various industries, including e-commerce and 3PL automation.
ferag.doWarehouse software and automation solutions are developed in-house in APAC, and implemented by its teams. As a system integrator, consultant, and innovator in the field of intralogistics, Ferag plans, controls, and coordinates complete in-house intralogistics systems.
Taking Ferag to new heights: The compelling executive team that propels Ferag APAC to next level growth
- Girish Gera, Country Manager – India – Ensuring organization growth with people management
With 23 years of experience, Girish is enthusiastically leading the Ferag Indian Organization towards sustainable growth and profitability. As a profession, he is a Mechanical engineer and management graduate and carries with him work ex of Global Multinationals like ABB, Hitachi, Vanderlande, and L&T.
He started his professional career in intralogistics with ASRS (Automated Storage and Retrieval System), today he is a veteran in the industry with knowledge and understanding of all types of automation solutions for warehouse, industry, and airports.
“As a leader, my mission is always to ensure sustainable and profitable growth while working with team support and ensuring business ethics,” says Girish.
- Michael Gruber– APAC Service Director – Takes pride in supporting customers and mentoring team members
With more than 25 years of experience in the intralogistics industry and the last 7 years in the APAC region, Michael is a team player and has recently joined Ferag as the APAC Service Director, based in Sydney. He has held service and support positions for the majority of his career and is very passionate about supporting his customers as well as developing and mentoring his teams.
His journey down-under led him to expansion opportunities in the APAC region in some senior customer service management positions, managing customer service and support. Michael’s extensive experience in intralogistics has allowed him to work for many industry-leading organizations, including Daifuku, Schaefer Systems International, and Vanderlande.
“I have a robust entrepreneurial mindset which helps me to think a lot outside the box and enables me to find solutions or new opportunities to help and support our customers,” says Michael.
- Michael Rolfing, Country Manager – Managing Director Malaysia – A Persistent, whole-minded corporate entrepreneur
Michael is from Denmark and currently heading Ferag’s office in Malaysia. His goal is to help its clients through better solutions. For him, this is both about delivering the right technologies, but also about making them easy and cost-effective to obtain.
Michael is building Ferag Malaysia’s competencies within data science, software development, and support as well as sales and solutions engineering. He is responsible for sales within Southeast Asia (SEA) and defining the path forward.
“Our initial mission was to gain access to the local talent market, primarily within software and solutions engineering. It later expanded into data science and sales as well,” says Michael.
- Ricardo Rabago Ponce de Leon – APAC Sales Director – Sydney – Performing for leading intralogistics companies
With ten years of experience in materials handling in Southeast Asia and ANZ, Ricardo has recently joined Ferag as the APAC Sales Director, based in Sydney. He has held various project management, sales management, and country manager roles, working for leading intralogistics companies such as Daifuku and Vanderlande. Ricardo’s guiding principle is to not over promise to clients and to stick to budgets.
He has managed an office, assembly plant, and airport operation in Malaysia at an early age. Before that, he spent ten years as a consultant, assisting companies from Singapore and New Zealand to do business in North America. His international experience is not only limited to his career. His outstanding academic performance has granted him scholarships to study in some of the best schools in the world, including schools in Singapore, Canada, and France.
He has sold many intralogistics projects of various sizes and natures, including solutions with conveyors, sorters, and AS/RS, and he will continue to do so with Ferag’s solutions as the company delivers systems integration and warehouse management software. point-based intralogistics solutions.
Ferag: A Global Leader
The company group is represented by 19 sales and service companies and has references in more than 50 countries. It employs around 650 people, including more than 40 apprentices in its training workshops.
A Glimpse into the Future
“Ferag is the one to watch out for. That’s what the market is currently saying to us!
Ferag is poised to be a disruptive force in the intralogistics market. Bringing their track record for delivering exceptional customer service for over six decades, together with quality Swiss excellence and innovation, to provide three product areas that can be implemented independently or together for a compelling intralogistics solution.
- ferag.doWarehouse – a state-of-the-art unified control system offering the functionality of a Warehouse Management System (WMS), Warehouse Control System (WCS), and Warehouse Execution System (WES) in one, ensuring unparalleled ease of hardware connectivity. Unlike other WMS providers, ferag.doWarehouse doesn’t require you to change your processes to fit the software.
- Innovator and Manufacturer of exceptionally robust Swiss-engineered equipment – such as Skyfall pouch sorter, conveyor, buffer in one, and Denisort conveyor.
- Independent Systems Integrator – combining some or none of the above solutions with industry-leading partner solutions designed to meet clients’ requirements.
“We are currently setting up the business to be a force to reckon with, in the next two years. These three product areas will be synonymous with Ferag’s Swiss excellence, innovation, and outstanding customer service and will dominate the intralogistics market,” asserts Ferg’s Leaders.
