While the pandemic induced three-month lockdown of Shanghai during 2022 presented all manner of hardships for those forced to stay inside, it had a galvanising effect on CEIBS Global EMBA (GEMBA) 2020 alumnus Andreas Hornfischer, who has lived in China for the past 18 years and is currently General Manager at one of the world's leading suppliers for the global appliance industry

Andreas used this difficult time to completely reimagine his relationship with food, nutrition and exercise, later applying this new mindset to his leadership style in the process.

“Lockdown was hard for everyone, of course,” Andreas remembers. “I put on a lot of weight, I was frustrated, I realised that I had to make some changes, despite not being able to leave my apartment building.”

Not only did Andreas start a new exercise regimen of regularly walking up and down the 100 flights of stairs in his building (equivalent to scaling the Shanghai Tower), he also hit upon a completely new approach to balancing his nutritional needs, one that closely mirrors and would later inform his attitude to business and leadership.

Baking a Super Bread

“I come from an engineering background – I like data, I like precise instructions, and both are helpful when it comes to dieting,” says Andreas. While he found it easy to adhere to specific guidance regarding strict portion sizes and ingredients for making healthy meals, this approach didn’t address two core issues that cause so many people to lose discipline with their diet.

“The food was healthy, it was balanced, but it wasn’t tasty, and it involved a lot of extra effort to prepare properly. I liked the way my body felt revitalised, as I lost 27 kilos. But for the long term, I knew I needed something else to stick to a more nutritious, healthy lifestyle.”

Andreas then embarked on a personal quest to find the optimal combination of ingredients that would create a new superfood - a super bread, in fact. One that would provide acceptable taste while delivering all the essential nutrients and healthy properties of his previous dietary approach.

After hundreds of attempts, Andreas perfected his first super bread, which contained 88 plant-based ingredients (adhering to the Chinese cultural affinity for the auspicious number ‘8’).

“I constantly experimented, refining the mixture and baking process until it was right. Instead of finding ways to add all these ingredients into my meals, I could combine them into one bread,” shares Andreas.

While the first finished bread design required the careful mixing of 88 ingredients, while the latest utilised a whopping 208. Many of them have personal significance to him, including “Grains of Paradise” sourced during his time on a recent GEMBA Global Module in Africa, and 30 different types of mushrooms he sourced on a family trip to Yunnan province. Creating a food item out of this complexity would often take Andreas around two hours of careful, painstaking effort.

Relying on his engineering capabilities once again, Andreas decided to build a mixing machine capable of accurately pouring the precise amount of all 208 ingredients into a central container, ready to be mixed into a suitable dough and baked.

“This reduces the process from two hours of hand-based labour to a single push of a button. That is what makes it sustainable from a time and effort perspective. Maintaining a healthy diet is hard, but taking out the inconvenience factor while improving the taste of the food you eat makes it a lot easier to form good habits.”

Blending Bread and Business

Creating a super bread (and the means to produce it quickly and reliably) has done more than improve Andreas’ body; it has inspired him to take lessons from his personal nutrition ambitions and apply them to his business leadership style.

The three main business considerations that Andreas shared from his time in the kitchen are:

1. When you know that the approach is right, persevere

“I now know around 1,000 ways to make bread wrong! It often came out too crumbly, too wet, too uneven – there are so many ways to make mistakes. However, mistakes always inform our approach, so if the end result is worth pursuing, then make lots of mistakes and let them guide you towards the right result.”

2. Lead your team with certainty, but offer them variety

“We all like dependable food that delivers good taste and nutrition, but nobody wants to eat the same meal again and again forever. Similarly, no matter where we come from, we all want a combination of certainty but also variety in our work. So, lead with certainty, ensuring that everyone can rely on your decision-making abilities, but also give your team variety. Give them the opportunity to contribute to your organisation above and beyond the tasks attached to their daily work.”

3. Celebrate the wins, and the steps towards winning

“If I had focused too intently on what was going wrong with the bread, I might not have kept going. Previously in my work I focused too much on catching people doing the wrong thing, so I could correct them. Instead, try to catch them doing the right thing, recognise their progress, and celebrate their achievements. This is a better recipe for effective motivation.

GEMBA – The Secret Ingredient

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just lead to Andreas’ super bread; it also inspired him to apply for the Global EMBA programme at CEIBS.

“The sudden appearance of the pandemic made me realise that the world is very unpredictable, and I needed to be more agile so I could reposition myself well enough to handle any scenario,” Andreas recalls. “GEMBA is all about lifelong learning, continuous improvement, and that mindset is invaluable to any business leader, specially one who wants to test themselves.”

During the programme and since graduation, Andreas has routinely taken his GEMBA learnings back to his company to share them with his team. Running the same leadership enhancement exercises and applying the lessons of cutting-edge business cases has had a tangible impact on the China arm of the company, as Andreas recently returned to its headquarters in Germany to pick up an award for “Best Global Location”, on behalf of his team.

“We didn’t win because we have the best factory or the best machines; we won because we have the best people, the best overall team performance, that’s what elevates a workplace. I’m proud that we received this accolade and I’m grateful to GEMBA for showing me that good leadership is like baking good bread – you have to cultivate the right resources, constantly reassess and refine your process, and, ultimately, you get out whatever you put in.”

Andreas is now looking to develop another super bread, which will contain a full 288 ingredients. Hopefully his mixing machine has room for the new additions.

This article is based on an interview between Andreas Hornfischer and CEIBS MBA 2009 alumnus Jeff Pi, host of CEIBS Alumni International Chapter (CAIC) podcast ’Unscripted’. Click here to watch the full interview on YouTube.