wienerberger podcast - hosted by CEO Heimo Scheuch

Heimo Scheuch Podcast Episode #20: CEO Ask me anything, Part 1/3 - Work-Life-Balance

• Heimo Scheuch • Season 1 • Episode 20

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What would you ask a CEO of a global company with around 19.000 employees? Heimo Scheuch invited his community for a Q&A. In this episode you will find out what he eats for breakfast, which philosophers his cats are named after and what he thinks about work-life-balance. #askmeanything 

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my podcast! I'm Heimo Scheuch, the CEO of Wienerberger and today we have a special edition of my podcast."Ask me anything" was the subject and in this sense I am glad to answer your questions. Let's start with the first quesion, which was "How is it going?" It's going very well, thank you! I had a tremendous year. Me personally and also Wienerberger. We have achieved a lot and I think we have a great run!

Next question:

"What does a CEO of such a big company eat for breakfast and is there even time for it?" Obviously and this is very important, there is always time for a good breakfast. For me it was always important to have a healthy and good breakfast before I start the day, so I even get up earlier sometimes to fix a good breakfast and it's a healthy one and from time to time I've learned from my Asian friends to eat even a warm soup in the morning because this gives you a lot of energy and because I work out early in the morning, then I come home and fix myself a healthy breakfast. Thank you!"Hi Mr. Scheuch, you are doing a great job as CEO of Wienerberger and the company is doing well. You as a leader are a role model for many. How do you personally make sure you have a healthy work life balance?" There's not so much a work and a life. For me it's the life as such. Work belongs to it, it's part of it and if you don't enjoy what you are doing, then you really have to think, if you are doing the right thing. I was trying to say with this, that for me work is joy! It's fun! Sometimes it's difficult and sometimes it's not easy; it's like our lives. We get excited about things, we get angry about certain things, but at the end of the day, what is important, is that you do what really you want to do and then you don't have this problem of having a sort of stressful working relationship with yourself. At the end of the day it is important to take time for yourself and relax and do the things also privately, that you want to do.

Ok, then the next question fits perfectly:

"How do you manage your time? Do you have any tips here?" Tips? I think everybody has to decide for himself or herself what is important for the person, but for me I can only say, I was born in the mountains. Nature is very important for me, so I spend as much time as I can outside either walking, hiking, climbing, fishing, whatever, but being active in nature is for me the most relaxing and rewarding thing to do."What are your average weekly working hours and how much free time do you have?" I have seven days of free time! Short pause and laughter. Obviously you know for me, I don't count the hours, that's not important for me. I enjoy every day! Actually I see it, ..my philosophy is very simple: Every day is a gift! Every day that you can live and be on this planet is a gift. If you see it as this, then it's not so important how long you work or what to do. I like people, I always have said that I do this job because I like people and I love them and I like to work with them, so I enjoy it - and that's not for me "If I go home at 5 o'clock in the afternoon or 10"; it doesn't matter - I've enjoyed my day! Perfect! So obviously you do have time for hobbies! What are they? What are your hobbies? Oh about hobbies I would say, I like to read, I like to write also. Probably you don't know but I was..a couple of years ago I was writing a book for children and this is also fun. I do like, as I said, to be outside in the nature, so I spend a lot of time with hiking or fishing for example, which I like to do, but also from a cultural aspect, I like to go to the theatre, I like to go to the cinema or even I love music and music creations from classical music to modern music. I am an enthusiastic Rolling Stones fan for example, I was at the last concert here in Vienna and I enjoyed that, so it's a variety of things. It's important also to be open minded! Thank you!"You mentioned that you like reading! What is your favourite book?" I was thinking about it when you said, do I have a book that I like most. I must say No! I am intrigued by new books, by interesting stories, by fascinating ones, I was just reading very recently because I've spent a weekend on a mountain hut in my home region in Carinthia, I was reading a book. It's a sort of novel about Vienna and the Sacher Hotel, for example. Very nicely written and intruiging also. So it's a variety of things, it can be a more scientific one, but also a very sort of easy one to read from time to time. Okay, ähm, last questions of the section work-life-balance."In your Instagram post you mentioned cats. Do you have cats?" Yes, I do!"And if so, what are their names?" I have even 2 cats, two and I have a dog! And they don't live together because this doesn't function, so they are at different places, but the two cats, their name is, one is Sokrates and Archimedes. They are Greek philosophers and they behave like this. It's very interesting! Sokrates is the one who talks all the time and Archimedes is the more quiet one - and they are brothers by the way!"And the name of your dog?" The dog is Dave!"Named after?" He is a labrador and he lives outside of Vienna, because he needs more space!