Appel, CEO Of Post Office DHL, Believes That Morale Is More Effective With A Sense Of Mission.

Appel, CEO of post office DHL, believes that morale is more effective with a sense of mission.

Appel, CEO of DHL, believes that a sense of mission can make employees more dedicated. Research also shows that employees are more productive when they consider themselves valuable and personal sense of mission.

Frank Appel (FrankAppel) sits on the sofa, surrounded by express UAVs, augmented reality glasses and packaging sorting robots.

It looks like a playground for a big technology company.

This is exactly what he wants.

Since becoming chief executive officer of DHL Deutsche PostDHL in 2008, Appel, 56, has sought to make this German post service and international express company a working place for employees to work.

The monotony of moving goods from A to B can be boring.

But for Appel, his 522 thousand employees played a key role in shaping the pillars of globalization, or what he called "the largest peacemaker in the world".

"What drives people is not income growth," he told an interview at DHL's Innovation Center in Bonn.

Every employee must have a clear understanding of our mission.

The better you understand, the better the company's performance. "

His core belief is that when goals are focused on finance, the sense of mission is often lost.

Increasing revenue is a meaningless goal for most employees.

Appel expanded this theme at the World Economic Forum this year. He criticized the tax reform of President Donald Trup (DonaldTrump) on the basis of tax cuts instead of improving infrastructure, education, or balancing the budget. Economic

He said: "if tax reform leads to an increase in the budget deficit, it may be beneficial to the next 12 months, but then it will have to pay the bill."

Unlike most executives, Appel reached the molecular level of understanding what prevented employees from developing their potential.

Appel was first a scientist, and he received a doctorate in neurobiology.

Then he went to McKinsey, a consulting firm, and concluded that the best company's "driving force" is that highly dedicated employees make life easier for customers.

This may sound idealistic, but research shows that he may be right.

Employees are more productive when they think they are valuable, optimistic and have a sense of mission.

Gallup (Gallup) conducted a global survey last year, and found that from these aspects, the profit of employees who are dedicated to their work is 21% higher than that of the company with the lowest achievement rate of 25%.

According to data from S&P CapitalIQ, DHL's revenue has increased from 53 billion euros in 2011 to 60 billion euros in 2017, while its operating profit margin has increased from 2.8% to 6.2%.

Net profit in 2016 was 2 billion 600 million euros, up from 1 billion 500 million euros in 2015, which is a standard for success.

But Appel talked about the "three bottom line".

He also attached importance to employee satisfaction and environmental goals. The former was measured by the annual company survey and the latter was measured by the carbon efficiency index.

He launched three projects involving employees, hoping to make progress on the second and third bottom line.

The first is "GoTeach" to provide education for young people in a disadvantaged position.

GoHelp also worked with the United Nations to use DHL's logistics expertise to help communities cope with the crisis. Last year, "help" entered Puerto Rico, which was hit by Hurricane Maria.

GoGreen is an environmental action whose goal is to reduce DHL's logistics related emissions to zero by 2050.

According to the DHL index, the employee opinion survey launched in 2009, these efforts have produced some results.

3/4 of the employees said they thought they were dedicated, and that proportion Appel took just 60%.

In 2008, the target of increasing carbon efficiency by 30% between 2007 and 2020 was achieved four years ahead of schedule in 2016.

Appel said that the social initiatives he presented for his employees came from the core belief inspired by his brain science research that leaders are more likely to feel love, hope and mission.

He said, "we have three needs. If you treat them correctly, human beings are very similar."

This belief may sound vague, but its source is not so.

Appel grew up in post-war Germany and studied neurobiology, which had a profound impact on him.

He said he wanted to fight against the "banality of evil", which was known by Hanna, a political theorist and philosopher born in Germany, HannahArendt.

He said, "you can see some pictures -- when people and their families came home, they held a big barbecue party.

They killed 500 people during the day.

That's why I began to be interested in neurology.

I feel that something is broken in our brain. We must understand what is broken.

Appel had hoped that engaging in scientific undertakings could mean participation in the common pursuit of knowledge.

But even when he studied what makes wheelchair users unable to regenerate and enable them to walk again, he met the conflict between scientists around themselves. They had a dispute over whose name should be in the first place in the research paper.

When he joined McKinsey in Germany in 1993, he felt that he was part of the team - and realized how important it was.

DeutschePost became McKinsey's customer before acquiring DHL in 2002, and hired him to manage enterprise development in 2000.

Asking Frank Appel's 3 questions

Who is your leadership hero?

Family (and school and work unit) is one of the main organizations in one's life.

It is also one of the most important sources of inspiration for most people to become leaders when they become leaders.

I am very fortunate to have a mother who taught me how to cultivate self-confidence and sense of belonging.

If you weren't a CEO, what would you do?

Most likely scientists in the field of neurobiology.

What lesson did you learn from leadership?

I learned early in my business career to focus and strengthen my strengths.

During Appel's role as chief executive, some of DHL's projects became a compelling example of how not only to mobilize the goodwill of employees.

In 2012, Appel approved the DHL plan for the production of zero emission logistics vehicles.

In 2016, the first battery powered StreetScooters was launched, and DHL is now producing third of them at the price of 32 thousand euros per vehicle.

At present, there are more than 5000 StreetScooters running, most of them in Germany.

DHL said the fleet reduced 16 thousand tons of carbon emissions per year, because the battery was charged in a specially built power station powered by 100% renewable energy sources.

Last year, DHL's capacity doubled to 20 thousand, seeking expansion to other markets.

Its goal is to use clean energy operations in 70% of cities in 2025.

Appel called this project an example of "inclusive growth" - something that employees would support.

In a 2016 Research Report, Gallup lamented that Germany's management culture paid little attention to human management but emphasized "reliability and efficiency, simplicity, intuition and structurization".

By contrast, Appel said that making employees proud will enhance customer satisfaction and create advantages.

He said: "we can not say, listen, our strategy is to make money. If we have spare time, we will do something beneficial to society."

"Our job is to do things that are good for the society. We must make money if we want to do that, otherwise we will not be able to continue investing."

Ask outsiders

Gazi Islam (Gazi Islam)

Gazi Islam, a professor of personnel, organization and sociology at Grenoble BusinessSchool, says most of the leaders are aware of the need for employees to have a sense of purpose and a sense of mission in Grenoble.

Typical practices include improving employee health and welfare, ensuring that their work is recognized or part of broader action, such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects, including charitable fundraising.

Islam says that the intentions of these projects are usually good. "But their legitimacy depends on whether employees feel the best interests of their companies."

He said that researchers have studied how employees feel cynical about the corporate social responsibility project of their enterprises - the result is predictable.