03-wir-03-2012-english

Ten years of GIZ
As it celebrates its tenth anniversary, GIZ’s commercial arm –
International Services – looks back over a successful decade
and a few ups and downs along the way.
Mr Kleiner, you were involved in building up IS right from the start. How
would you sum up the last ten years?
Testing GIZ in the market was a great time. We’ve had problems, ups and
downs, but we’ve managed to achieve positive results throughout our first
decade. We’re seeing a growing number of commissions and a higher total
output, and that’s down to our great staff, great ideas and, of course, great
clients.
So what have been the most difficult times?
It’s always difficult when IS posts a negative operating result at the end of the
year. That’s happened twice. The first time was in the very early days, when
we weren’t really sure what sort of business IS was attracting. The second
time was in 2008, when we had to deal with wildly fluctuating exchange
rates. We’ve now put mechanisms in place to protect us against that happening
again.
And what have been your major successes?
Winning a commission is an unbeatable feeling and it spurs us on even more.
And of course, there have been some high points – large and attractive commissions
like the university construction programme in Ethiopia, high-volume
commissions in Brussels, and medium-volume commissions in many other
countries. That’s what’s really great about IS – winning out over our competitors
time after time.
Commission
volume of EUR
2.6 billion over
ten years •
First year: EUR
170.8 million;
2011: EUR 252
million • Ten
offices around
the world: Abu
Dhabi, Addis
Ababa, Ankara,
Belgrade,
Brussels,
Jakarta, Kabul,
Moscow, New
Delhi and Riyadh
• Around
1,700 projects
over ten years.
The single
highest-volume
project was the
University Capacity
Building
Programme (UCBP) in
Ethiopia, worth EUR 42.5
million • Largest clients: the
Governments of Ethiopia
and Saudi
Arabia and
international organisations
including the European
Union and the
United Nations
• Originally 264
staff in Germany and
abroad; by early 2012,
379 employees plus
976 national personnel
• Most recent commissions:
Guinea,
India and China
• October 2003
and March
2005: former
German Chan- cellor Gerhard
Schröder visi- ted IS projects
in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait •
March 2008: Crown Princess
Victoria of Sweden was briefed on
a project in Abu Dhabi
Before he helped set up IS, Elmar Kleiner had a number
of responsibilities, including heading the economic and
social policy division of what is now our Sectoral Department.
When Martin Hansen takes over as IS Director
General on 1 July, Elmar Kleiner will be returning to the
job he originally trained for in development economics.
IS’s experience of tapping into new markets and new business areas is now
potentially of benefit right across GIZ, given our broader corporate purpose.
What do you feel you can contribute to developing the public-benefit
business?
The most important thing I can say is that you need to proceed cautiously
and to think carefully about the direction you’re taking. That way, you can
avoid having too many flops and excessive costs. IS has taught us to act cautiously
in the market so that what we do will be efficient in business terms.
And when you’re competing against other organisations, you need stamina
and you have to remember that knock-backs are a normal part of business.
And what can IS learn from the public-benefit business?
Basically, IS sells the models, experience, presence and networks of the public-benefit
part of the business. We wouldn’t exist without the public-benefit
business, so you could say we exist in a solid symbiotic relationship.