Christian O. Erbe heads up the fifth generation of the Tübingen-based family business Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH. This highly successful company develops, manufactures and markets professional medical systems, devices and instruments. It specialises in a number of areas, including electrosurgery, thermofusion, plasma surgery, cryosurgery and hydrosurgery.

Erbe is indebted to a number of people for the company’s huge global success story. They include a very courageous and resolute woman – his great-grandmother Pauline. The company, which was founded in 1851 and grew out of a precision mechanics workshop, first experienced a major crisis in the early 20th century, when the son of the company’s founder died suddenly and unexpectedly at just 52 years old. As his descendent Christian O. Erbe puts it, “He worked himself to death”. Due to this turn of events, Pauline Erbe had to take on the company, which had already established an excellent reputation for its medical devices. In 1907, this was a highly unusual situation for a wife and mother. This chapter in the history of both the company and the family may well be one of the reasons why Erbe is such a strong advocate for improving the balance between work and family life – especially for women – not just in his role as an entrepreneur, but also in his many honorary positions in industry and research.

A father to a son himself, one of the biggest issues he faces is how to combine his duties as managing director with his many honorary positions. Among the many posts he holds, he is Chairman of the Medical Engineering Section of the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (ZVEI), sits on the board of the health industry committee of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), is the Vice-Chairman of the German Society for Biomedical Engineering (DGBMT) in the German Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE), Chairman of both the Reutlingen Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK Reutlingen) and the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWIHK), and sits on the board of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK). Furthermore, he is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees both for the Max Planck Institute for Biology and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, as well as Chairman of the Board of the Association of Friends (Universitätsbund) of the University of Tübingen. Finally, he is the Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Standortagentur Neckar-Alb location agency and an honorary commercial judge at Tübingen district court.

Erbe has picked out all these roles specifically, since each honorary position is associated with one of the pillars of his vocation – the interplay between medical technology, science and business. Consequently, he does not find sitting on committees tedious, but instead regards the many meetings he attends as steps in striking the perfect balance between these three passions of his life. Equally, he is fully aware that he will not always be able to represent the same point of view in his role as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry as he does in his role as managing director of a family business. “It would be wrong to make generalisations and draw conclusions about all businesses on the basis of my own company,” he explains. “What’s more, I can’t drive medical technology forward unilaterally,” he continues. As chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he believes it is his job to explain to politicians how business ticks. “Time and again, when talking to elected representatives, I am astonished that they are unaware of the practical impact their decisions have. I tell them, ‘If this proposed legislation gets through, the impact on businesses will be as follows...’ In many cases, they are completely taken aback and tell me, ‘But that wasn’t our intention’.”

Inheriting a business is a privilege – not a burden

As the company’s managing director, Erbe is responsible for over 1,700 employees in 110 countries. The fact that some people in his own company might regard him with suspicion because he inherited his position rather than “working his way up” doesn’t bother him. “That’s never been a problem for me. The companies in Austria and the United States were small to begin with, too, so I had to work my way up in both these places – not as far as my job title was concerned, but in terms of building up the businesses.” Erbe also inherited his passion for medicine and technology from his forefathers. “I started thinking about what I wanted to do when I was quite young, and theology and human biology and/or medicine were always what interested me. For me, theology means working with people, leading people and understanding people. These are the jobs of a parish priest – their role doesn’t just involve preaching on Sundays. And, to a certain extent, this is also how I view my role here in the company.” The social aspect is hugely important to him. When he was asked about the war in Ukraine in a newspaper interview, he emphasised: “We need to continue to show solidarity with those who were attacked with no provocation and are leaving their homeland for good reason. This is – and remains – a task for the whole of society, and it is one we must tackle together.” And Erbe says this both as an entrepreneur and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “When it comes to fundamental, humanitarian issues, it’s not about representing individual interests. I don’t need to think long about it, either. Humanity commands it.”

There are 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week

Despite his impeccable time management, there are only 24 hours in a day – even for Erbe. He has therefore been forced to take a step back from various things he used to do. “In the past, I also attended operations, discussed innovations with doctors, and got stuck right into the subject matter, because I have a technical background as well as a business one.” He is therefore somewhat disappointed that he is no longer as directly involved in developments. However, he also observes that development cycles are getting longer and longer. “Our engineers always say that they spend one third of their time on the actual development – and two thirds on the paperwork. In the past, it was the precise opposite.” He therefore also values the ideas BioRegio STERN Management GmbH uses to assist the life-sciences sector. One example is the “Incisions and insights” workshop series that gives medical technology companies and doctors in the Institute of Clinical Anatomy in Tübingen the opportunity to discuss medical need and innovations directly.

Communication is part and parcel of Erbe’s everyday working life, including online. He posts frequently on LinkedIn – and these contributions are “100 percent of my own making and posted by me”. The idea of a digital detox would be unthinkable for him – even when on holiday. “I always work through my e-mails when I’m on holiday, because I don’t want to spend the whole day wondering whether something serious has happened. What’s more, I don’t want to get back and have to deal with 800 unread emails in my inbox, because that would immediately undo all the good of the holiday.” He feels this working ethos is sometimes missing in generation Z – those born between 1997 and 2012. “That generation tends to be more consumer-minded. We interview applicants who want to know whether, if they work a four-day week, they can finish early on a Thursday, like those who work a five-day week can on a Friday. That strikes me as an intriguing question to ask during an interview...”

His son will not be following in his father’s footsteps. This is one of the reasons why, for the first time in the company’s 165-year history, Erbe decided against appointing only family members to the Management Board. “The non-family part of the Management Board works extremely well. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to take on all the honorary roles I do. However, the company continues to be under family ownership – the partners have specifically declared this aim,” he says. This 62-year-old therefore still has a lot to do. To relax, he tackles some heavy gardening work from time to time, since, as he explains, “sport isn’t really my thing, even if my doctor does advise it”. And even though his company is the main sponsor of the Tübinger Erbe-Lauf race event and his friend Dieter Baumann – an athlete who has won Olympic medals – is one of the organisers, Erbe is not particularly keen on running, either. “I belong to a football club, but I haven’t been there for a good while. It would be a good idea to do sport. Maybe I’ll get round to it if I post less on LinkedIn and give fewer interviews...”