My name is Tom, Thomas Bayes actually, Vice president Asia at Emo Trans in the USA. I shall try to tell you why succession is a success element at EMO Trans. Please let me show you that the alliteration is not out of place this time.
     I have grown up around EMO Trans my entire life. My father Paul Bayes was co-founder of EMO USA along with Jo and Karin Frigger and Eckart Moltmann. That was 1972, when the first of today’s 30+ USA offices opened its doors at JFK, on the wings of the successful start of the company in Germany seven years earlier.
     Twenty-one years later, I started to work fulltime for EMO on September 1, 1993. Since then I worked in JFK, SFO, Manila, Philippines and now my corporate office in DFW, Dallas, where I have lived since 2003. EMO had its first third generation with my family, as from Paul to me and now through my son Daniel, who works for EMO DFW handling air export, that is the count. It is truly a family organization as my wife Denise Bayes is my assistant, and she has helped me for the past 10 years; my middle son Thomas did an internship for two summers with EMO Dallas while he was in college, however, he graduated with his Masters in Accounting and he is now working for the accounting firm PWC. My youngest son Dylan is in his second year getting his degree in Supply Chain Management at the university of Oklahoma and maybe at some point he will also join the EMO Family, at least this is what I hope for.
     The value that EMO brings besides being an incredible family-run company, is that everyone has an opportunity to succeed and internally grow within the group. I started 31 years ago as a messenger running around the JFK airport, fast forward to today and now along with Marco Rohrer, our President and Global CEO, I have the responsibility of 13 EMO Countries in Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
     You may wonder what is special about EMO Trans that not only sets up family generational partnerships, but also creates an environment that allows them to flourish. My view is simple: EMO from day one has been run as a family and now going on 52 years later in the USA, that value and drive is still as important as it was from the very start there and then. A lot of us have family within the company and for the ones that are not family they truly feel like extended family, as a lot of us have worked together well over two decades.
     The slogan for EMO is ‘Success by Performance’ and year after year, generation after generation, this is what we all strive for in the EMO World, just like a big, extended family. These are our values, vision and ambitions. EMO Trans success continues through the second generation and still based on more or less the same core values. Working together as a family makes the difference as we attain success by successful successions!
     This being said, as in many families there needs to be a lot of understanding for one another. If you do not use understanding in large doses you get people bickering and that is surely far from what we are looking for. I think the key is being respectful of everyone’s opinion and having very open discussions, covering all the points that are needed, as well as having everyone involved to understand this is not personal, but what is best for the company going forward.
     This prudent approach is necessary to achieve a successful plan and, when discussing something with an open mind you can accept different opinions and the feelings that might be triggered.
     The overarching objective that all have is working together, so following an agreed common denominator is quintessential to be successful in business, and – let’s face it – also in our family lives. This is a fine balance that needs to be kept. It is important that business energy stays at work and the family life stays at home, and it needs to be clearly separated, so at the dinner table we are not talking about work and at work we are not discussing the weekend get-together. As I said it is a question of balance and we have been learning this lesson now for three generations!
     In all this, I feel the most important trait that make a family coop special is the commitment to each other, as you are committed to each other and to make it successful. At the same time, you are supposed to work for a common goal and you are supposed to verify that the others are sufficiently motivated to achieve it.  That is when you have the perception of a successful synergy and that is also where you can actually “touch” your success. 
     It takes energy and stamina, but the love of winning drives me most. I do hate losing, but the passion of winning is my daily drive, so I try to enthuse our days at EMO with this kind of spirit every single day on the job.
     Let me wish all out customers and work connections, wherever in the world their business takes them, complete success in their endeavor.  When you work with us at EMO you work with a family and, remember, there is nothing inaccessible for a united family.
Tom Bayes