Hi readers of my new blog post,
although the year 2024 is not completely over yet, I have decided to lean out of the window and write a short summary right now.
First of all because I need a break from working and because writing – the same as doing sports, reading, watching movies and listening to music – means relaxation & pleasure for me.
I am quite sure that You also sometimes have the feeling, that You have made so large – good & bad – experience in Your live so far, that You hardly expect any more big surprises for the future.
But at least in my case this does definitely not come true. Every new moment, day, week, month and year brings along new experiences and surprises for me. And that`s wonderful. I truly love this open live…
Definitely – I`m a heppy man…
The year 2024 started with really big challenges for me.
Since I knew that I´d have to invent myself completely once again because of my planned “retirement” at VULKAN do Brasil (https://www.vulkan.com/pt/localizacoes/brasil), where I was President during the last 10 years with responsability for our (no longer mine!) factory in Itatiba, São Paulo, for our (also no longer mine!) 3 sales divisions in Brazil, for our (also over now!) industrial divison in the whole Latin America region incl. Mexico, Central America, The Caribbean and all South America and during the years 2018 – 2023 for the business development of the industrial division of the VULKAN Group in Australia and subSahara Africa, I needed to develop new plans for my own, from now on totally independent, personal & professional life.
A really “hard nut” was for me how to get myself reintegrated into my familly. After 20 years of continuos total dedication to my work and consecutive global, regional and local travelling, I discovered quickly, when I stayed at home, that my wonderful wife Selma and our great sons Geywison and Gabriel had developped totally independent from me own lives. I felt like a prisoner or soldier who came home after 20 years and nobody noted him.
But thanks to our wonderful familly relationship we finally managed to overcome this big challenge after a couple of hard – for all of us – months and we are one heppy familly now once again.
With regards to my upcoming formal, official retirement at VULKAN for the end of august 2024 it was very clear for me that I needed to find new opportunities for doing business and for earning money, so that my familly and I would be able to continue with our normal way of live.
During the first 5 months this year I let my creativity freely inspire me and developped several non-traditional, in comparison to my professional activities as executive for industrial companies during the last 20 years, new business ideas.
One of these was the idea to prepare and launch an own start-up company. The business idea behind it was great and I still believe somebody will realize this one day. I even had found a dream partner for our new company and we actually had already signed contracts. But when new business perspectives and opportunities came up for me, we decided to refrain from this project.
Another dream also grew up in my brain and heart. And I still continue to develop it, although only in very small steps due to my new main occupations and responsabilities. The subject of this dream is to built my own virtual community “Klaus`s Tribe” and to actively utilise with it for lots of different purposes.
From June 2024 on I have – supported by my wonderful friends from the small but highly experienced and creative digital marketing agency AMPLIA (https://amplia.derybr.com.br/) – started to create a new visual appearance for my own company KFH Services (kfhservices.com).
I became so excited about marketing and branding ideas, which I somehow already knew quite well from my Managing Director times for Schwarzkopf & Henkel (https://www.henkel.com/our-businesses/schwarzkopf-20376) in Spain during the years 2000-2003, where I was responsible for a cosmetics factory and where – during 4 years – I had worked very closely together with my colleagues of the German & Spanish marketing departments, which was like an MBA in marketing for me.
When 4 German industrial companies invited me to visit their companies and factories in Germany at the end of August, several interesting discussions happened and only 2 weeks after my return from there my contractual agreement with the excellent German global leader for mechanical power transmission solutions, the globally acting RINGSPANN Group (https://www.ringspann.com/en), to become the General Manager, registered and personally liable Administrator and Legal Representant of the new Brazilian subsidiary RINGSPANN do Brasil (https://ringspann.com.br/) resulted.
Since then I have been – nontheless my contract forsees only half-day work – actively working 48 hours during 7 days per week and thus the progress, which I could achive with the creation and establishment of our brandnew company, is – even for me – really impressive.
But thats my own personal work style and cultural & ethical spirit and motivation. There will be plenty of time for relaxing after the end of my live. No need nor interest to speed this up.
A really moving moment – during November 29 Sergio Bertuol, the owner, constructor and landlord of our small but very beautiful rented building in Vinhedo, São Paulo, handed the keys over to me.
So far I have no shame in patting myself on the back, as I definitely can report several missions successfully accomplished.
As I have mentionned earlier already , this year has also been a very rich year for me when it comes to creativity, innovation and – last not least – very beautiful cultural inspirations.
In April Selma and I visited the wonderful Dali exhibition in Sao Paulo.
And one month later we enjoyed a marvellous “Candle Light” Queen music presentation with acoustical classical instruments in Campinas.
When it comes to music, I discovered two marvelous bands, who I really love and listen endlessly.
One of them is Baila Nova (https://www.wearebailanova.com/), a vintage bossa nova band in which no member comes from Brazil.
Laura Vall, born in Barcelona, sings wonderfully in portuguese language, but she also performs in english. Here`s one of my favorite songs:
And the other band is Thiervery Corporation (https://thieverycorporation.com/), an American electronic music duo (nowadays).
Their musical style mixes elements of dub, acid jazz, reggae, Indian classical, Middle Eastern music, hip hop electronica, and Brazilian music, including bossa nova.
Here`s one of my ownfavorite Thievery Corporation songs:
And what about my literature discoveries during 2024.
One of the writers I like most has always been Cervantes. And I have started reading once again his incredible Don Quijote de la Mancha (I stick to the origian name) novel.
This time in the spanish EDICIÓN CONMEMORATIVA IV CENTENÀRIO CERVANTES edition, published at the beginning of the year 2016 by RAE, the REAL ACADEMIA ESPANHOLA.
The other famous writer which I adore as a fountain of endless inspiration, and which I am fully enjoying now as well, is William Shakespeare.
By the way, as Chat-GPT lets us know: While it’s often said that William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died on the same day, April 23, 1616, this is not entirely accurate due to differences in calendars used at the time.
- Shakespeare’s death: Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, according to the Julian calendar, which was still in use in England at the time.
- Cervantes’ death: Cervantes died on April 22, 1616, as recorded in Spain, which was using the Gregorian calendar.
The discrepancy arises because the Julian calendar was 10 days behind the Gregorian calendar. Thus, while their deaths are often cited as occurring on the same date, they did not die on the same calendar day.
And I have also started to read into the publications of Leandro Karnal, a brazilian writer and filosopher.
Here`s what Wikipedias tells us about him:
Leandro Karnal (born 1 February 1963) is a Brazilian television personality and former university professor at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas until 2019. Karnal has publications on the subject of History, focusing on the History of the Americas and the History of Religion. He was born in São Leopoldo, and became known in Brazil for his work on popularizing philosophy for the masses; he lectures around the country. In 2020, he became co-host of CNN Tonight, a nightly commentary program at CNN Brasil.
You see – 2024 is not over yet, but it was really a “fat year” for me.
During the next days I`ll finish some very urgent work still, but then I will enjoy a relaxing X-mas time together with my familly at home, before we will fly for 10 days to our second home in Recife, about 2.500 km in the northeast from Sao Paulo.
And on monday, January 6, 2025 I`ll be up and “fighting like hell” again for the growth and success of RINGSPANN do Brasil.
Cool down. Enjoy the upcoming beautiful days with Your famillies and get prepared for 2025.
2025 will be a wonderful year. Our year !!!
