Tropicana Jul-Aug 2018 #119 Hot Stuff

DOMINIK FRUTH
Dominik has since been accustomed to being thrown in at
the deep end and on all occasions, have stepped up to
the challenge.
UP FOR THE CHALLENGE
Not one to stay idle, Dominik is always looking for more
challenges to take on. When he completed his apprenticeship
and continued on a full-time employment with Häfele, he
shelved his initial plans to further his studies and asked his
boss about developing the Vietnamese market. “ He relented
in 2003, and told me to go over to Vietnam and develop the
market prospects there.”
Fast forward to 2018, Häfele has come a long way in
establishing its position as a leader in the Southeast Asian
market with businesses running successfully in Singapore,
Vietnam and Malaysia, all of which fall under the steady
management of Dominik Fruth.
“ I put a lot of trust in people,” he explains. “ I engage them
and they are people who want to do the job. I am a strong
advocate of employee engagement and empowerment. Like
how my bosses believed in me enough to empower me to
handle certain aspects of the business, I do the same. If
an employee wants to do the job, I entrust them with it.
I try to inspire them whilst keeping within the management
objectives.”
Dominik believes in mentoring the employees and taking
on a more friendly approach as opposed to being a mean boss.
“After all, that’s how I was managed when I first started and I
reaped the benefits.”
He regards his staff as colleagues, and considers that they
work together rather than them working for him. “ I’m not
afraid to get my hands dirty. I would do things myself and
will do whatever it takes to help out.”
Coming to Malaysia, Dominik felt that the time was
ripe for Häfele to make an impact in the country. “ I saw the
potential, I loved the people we had, and I saw that there was
a lot of drive and passion. We decided to build this big design
showroom, which actually set us back quite a bit because we
were too small to handle it. But in the end, we pulled it off and
it was immensely gratifying when we had the launch party.”
Over in Vietnam, Dominik built a huge showroom,
exhibiting a full range of Häfele designs which gave visibility
to their business, allowing interested parties to touch and feel
their products before purchasing them; a prospect, he believes,
that worked in the company’s favour.
“If an employee wants
to do the job, I entrust
them with it. I try to
inspire them whilst
keeping within the
management objectives.”
TM | JULY/AUGUST 2018
26