About

HERITAGE B is a family-owned industrial holding with two business activities: at present TEKA and THIELMANN, with intentions to grow by setting up more business activities in the future. HERITAGE B group achieved combined net sales of €760m and employs approximately 5,000 employees in 35 countries across four continents. Since 2018, the legal team has been led by group chief legal and compliance officer Christian Haitz, and is currently made up of six lawyers and two support staff. The operational legal responsibility is delegated to two “key account” senior corporate counsel, based at the headquarters of the business activities. This allows a customer-centric, business-oriented focus on the two business activities which operate in very different businesses: TEKA in the B-2-C kitchen and bath equipment and THIELMANN in the B-2-B industrial stainless-steel container business. Close collaboration with the business activities is ensured by regular participation in management meetings at business activity level, with Haitz representing the team in the group executive committees. In less than seven years, HERITAGE B was able to build a cutting-edge legal team based in two locations, Zug and Madrid. ‘Cohesion and alignment in the team is ensured by bi-weekly team meetings by video conference and regular bidirectional visits on all levels of the team members’, says Haitz. To ensure ongoing alignment, Haitz has decided to hold an annual two-day legal strategy summit, held the first time in December 2018 in Switzerland with great success: At this summit, the legal department jointly defined its missions and visions, and agreed to subsequently allocate the corresponding strategic priorities. This strategic retreat allows the team to define, refine and adjust its departmental strategy and ensure its alignment with the group’s and the business activities’ strategies. ‘The legal department is working with high intensity on the implementation of legal technology initiatives and embraces standardisation to dedicate its resources to non-standard problems – this is where the legal department can truly add value to the business’, says Haitz.