WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR WÖLFEL, STEFFEN PANKOKE?

Dr. Steffen Pankoke is the CEO of Wölfel. In a personal conversation with him, you can learn interesting facts about the economic strength and the potential of an innovative family-owned company, as well as much more about our shared future.

[Translate to English:] Porträt von Steffen Pankoke

Listen to the entire interview in full length (only available in german)

Hello Dr. Pankoke, let's jump, or rather swing, right in. Why should young people in particular, but also specialized professionals, choose Wölfel?

Well, if you're a fan of dynamics and mechanics or of vibrations and acoustics, if you enjoyed these areas during your studies and if you are looking to work in a family-owned medium-sized company, then Wölfel is the perfect place for you. 

Here, you can do what you enjoy and what sparks your interest every day. Then the positive reinforcement sets in, something I'm truly convinced of: I enjoy what I do, so I do it well. What I do well, I enjoy doing. You'll meet colleagues who share the same mindset and who support and inspire each other as a team. If that resonates with you, then come to Wölfel in Höchberg!

One key advantage lies in our personnel philosophy, inspired by Professor Wölfel: “We don’t just fill positions, we look for good people.”

Of course, we have job profiles too, but if someone comes along who fits in with us and brings more than what we initially sought, we don't discard the surplus, as is done in large corporations Instead, we work together to find the best way to make use of those skills. In fact, many of Wölfel’s areas of expertise have emerged this way. 

Our atmosphere is equally important: it is human, family-like and collegial. Respect and appreciation underpin our leadership style, and this is evident both internally and externally. At a recent trade fair, a customer commented: "You guys are the friendly ones." And a colleague who used to work in a large corporation wondered, " Where are the elbows and loud voices here? I don’t see any." Correct, we don't have them, and we don't need them. We work together, pulling in the same direction.

After graduating from high school, I studied Mechanical Engineering at TU Darmstadt. In my fifth semester I took a mandatory subject, machine dynamics, and heard about vibrations. That’s when, somehow, I became fascinated with dynamics. This was thanks to Professor Wölfel, under whom I later completed my doctorate. After completing my doctorate, he offered me the opportunity to change employers while remaining under his leadership. 

I joined Wölfel as a project engineer and naturally I had brought some research topics from Darmstadt, which I then transformed into industrial applications. To me, that's true knowledge transfer in action. In 2010, Professor Wölfel appointed me to the management board.

[Translate to English:] Offshore-Windpark

People want to live in a secure, comfortable future with as little disturbance as possible while preserving the planet's resources. In all these areas - structural safety, comfort, noise reduction, and resource conservation - our core competencies, that is, vibrations, structural mechanics, and acoustics, play a significant role.

Wölfel contributes to this with engineering consulting and with products that measure, evaluate, or reduce vibrations and sound. We do this across a wide range of industries, structured within our sectors: Civil Engineering for the construction industry, Plant Engineering for plant and power station construction, Mechanical Engineering, Environmental Engineering for sound and noise protection, and, of course, Wind Engineering, our newest and currently highest-grossing industry, supporting the energy transition.

[Translate to English:] Steffen Pankoke mit Kollege

At Wölfel, we use AI for some of our internal processes – the trend is rising – as well as an element and feature of our products and services. But for us, every solution begins with “natural intelligence”: By that I mean applying the laws of physics, especially mechanics. Once we’ve built that foundation, we then use AI as a booster to gain the final few percentage points, for example in predictive accuracy. AI does not replace this natural intelligence – it complements it.

The world of tomorrow will certainly be more demanding and challenging than the world of today, and even more so than the world of yesterday. This means that whatever you do, you have to do it exceptionally well in order to succeed in competition.

At Wölfel, we have been mastering our core competencies for more than half a century: vibrations, structural dynamics and acoustics. This is our world and our professional home. Everything we do today and everything we will do tomorrow revolves around these core areas. That is our focus.

To achieve this, we need people who share our enthusiasm for “our” vibrations and who excel in this field. And by that, we do not just mean mechanical vibrations but also interpersonal ones – the “good vibrations,” where resonance means starting each day with motivation and solving challenges together with colleagues. Fortunately, we have many such people at Wölfel, more than 140 today, and we continue to attract and inspire more to work with us, for us and alongside us.

That was a long answer to a short question. The shorter version would be: Yes, we are definitely on the right path.

[Translate to English:] Wölfel-Messestand

The answer is short: Yes, absolutely and every day. It’s a real joy to take on challenges with this fantastic team.