In this article
Götz Werner founded dm-drogerie markt in Germany in 1973. The European retailer sells personal-care, beauty, and household products; it is not a US-style prescription pharmacy chain. Werner died in 2022. In its account of his life, dm emphasizes the conditions he wanted to create for people to contribute and develop.
His work raises a question that travels beyond retail: is management primarily about controlling people’s activity, or about creating the conditions in which they can act responsibly?
This article explores that question as a practical leadership lens. It does not claim that one founder’s philosophy explains every part of a company’s success or that copying a European retailer will produce the same results in a US business.
Start with the contribution to other people
In his 2015 Mercator lectures at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Werner discusses business as people working together for others. He connects enterprise with attention to customer needs and the conditions that enable employees to contribute. The publication is in German.
For a manager, the useful application is to make the contribution specific. Whose problem does this team solve? What does good service look like from that person’s perspective? Which internal routines make it easier or harder to deliver?
Purpose does not replace revenue, margins, or cash flow. It helps explain what the business is trying to accomplish through those resources. A profitable transaction can still damage a relationship if the customer receives something unsuitable or employees must absorb an impossible promise.
Trust needs a practical operating model
Giving responsibility to people close to the work can shorten the distance between a problem and a decision. But announcing that everyone is empowered does not establish who can decide, what information is available, or when escalation is needed.
Define a decision that can genuinely move closer to the team. Specify the scope, budget, quality requirements, and risks that require consultation. Provide the information and skills necessary to exercise judgment.
Consider an illustrative service team authorized to resolve certain customer problems without waiting for a manager. The team needs clear boundaries and a way to review recurring issues. It should not be punished for using authority that leadership explicitly gave it.
Trust is compatible with appropriate controls. Financial safeguards, safety procedures, and clear accountability remain important. The distinction is between proportionate oversight and approval routines that remove judgment from every small action.
Values become credible through decisions
Respect, responsibility, and long-term thinking are easy to endorse. The harder question is what they require when priorities collide.
If a company says it values employee development, does it protect learning time when demand rises? If it promises customer focus, can staff challenge an unsuitable sales target? If responsibility matters, do managers explain their own mistakes as openly as they expect employees to explain theirs?
These are questions for your organization, not claims that any company has achieved perfect consistency. Our guide to values-based leadership provides a framework for translating commitments into behavior.
Develop people, not just their immediate output
A narrow view of development asks which course will improve next month’s performance. A broader view considers how people build judgment, understand the business, collaborate, and take on responsibility over time.
Start with a real task and the support needed to perform it. Combine practice, feedback, access to experienced colleagues, and time to reflect. A training session without an opportunity to apply the learning is an incomplete investment.
Development should not be reserved for a small group labeled high potential. Frontline roles also require judgment and deserve visible routes for learning. At the same time, respect individual ambitions: not everyone wants management responsibility or a promotion.
See leadership development that changes daily work for ways to connect learning with actual behavior.
Treat dialogue as part of the work
Dialogue is more than asking for opinions at the end of a meeting. It involves listening long enough to understand the experience behind a position, making assumptions discussable, and explaining how input affects the decision.
A manager might ask: what are customers telling you that our reports miss? Which rule creates work without protecting anything important? What decision are you waiting for, and why can it not be made closer to the task?
Listening does not require unanimous agreement. Leaders still need to decide. Close the loop by explaining the choice, the reasons, and any unresolved concern. Otherwise participation can become a ritual that asks for candor without changing anything.
Use organic growth as a question, not a formula
The image of a growing tree can help explain the relationship between visible expansion and underlying capacity. More customers or locations create demands on coordination, leadership, and service that revenue figures alone do not reveal.
However, businesses are not governed by a simple botanical rule. Slow growth is not automatically healthy, and fast growth is not automatically irresponsible. Examine whether the organization can support the commitments it is making.
Before expanding, ask which capability is already under strain and what must change before the next step. The guide to five levers of organic business growth develops this organizational perspective.
Recognize the broader social debate
Werner also advocated an unconditional basic income, a position documented in dm’s account of his life. That advocacy belongs to a wider political and economic debate; it is not an established consequence of his leadership approach.
You do not need to share all of a founder’s philosophical or policy views to examine a useful management question. Equally, an inspiring biography should not substitute for evidence about working conditions, commercial performance, or the effects of a proposed policy.
Seven steps for your own leadership practice
- Examine your assumptions. When do you expect initiative, and when do your own actions make it difficult?
- Clarify the contribution. Describe the customer or community need in language the team recognizes.
- Listen beyond status reports. Ask about obstacles and contradictions, not only completed tasks.
- Delegate one real decision. Define authority, resources, boundaries, and a review date.
- Test a stated value. Apply it to a difficult choice and explain the trade-off.
- Protect development. Provide practice and feedback, not only access to training content.
- Review capacity before expansion. Include workload, coordination, and service quality alongside financial measures.
Expect established habits and incentives to resist change. Begin with a bounded experiment, make the expectations clear, and adjust from evidence. A new leadership vocabulary without new decisions will not be enough.
OQM can help examine organizational conditions such as empowering leadership, strengths-based contribution, and trusting relationships. It does not certify a leadership philosophy or imply an endorsement by dm. Explore OQM or discuss a practical starting point.