The IHK (Chamber of Commerce) - magazine „Wirtschaft Nordhessen (Economy in Northern Hesse)“ asked Dr. med. vet. Silke Engl, Management Director of Veyx, ten questions about her career and personal successes.
1. Which was one of your decisions having the most impact on your life?
To become a veterinarian. For my studies I left my home town in Northern Hesse and moved to the far away city of Leipzig: my student life was great freedom and at the same great commitment.
2. Do you regret one of the steps you took and why?
No. Least of all I regret having met the love of my life in Leipzig.
3. Which is your source of strength and how do you regain it?
My family is my source of strength. Even though our two children are both in primary school age and demand much of my energy particularly in times of Covid-19, they are my special source of strength. This winter, when I watched them frolicking in the snow, I was reminded of my own childhood and my being a child myself.
4. What really gets on your nerves? What is it that annoys you?
I cannot stand unreliability. To me it is important to stand to one’s word. That’s what I do and that’s what I expect of the people around me and of my partners.
5. How do you hit upon great ideas?
I enjoy listening to other people, and often this provokes the best ideas. They do not always have to be your own ideas. To think impossible things often is the basis for innovative ideas. And then it’s important to make out a really good idea and to snatch the opportunity.
6. How did you earn your first money?
In a very unspectacular way: As a pupil, I worked in the business of my parents. During school holidays, my sister and I helped packing up udder injectors at the table in our living room to top up our pocket money. Today, with the current standard of pharmaceutical manufacturing, this would be even unthinkable.
7. Do you have a valuable tip for prospective entrepreneurs?
At the very beginning, you might be the only one to recognise a good idea. But if you succeed in realising this idea for the benefit of many people, more people will start to favour your business idea. It can then prosper and grow into a fully-fledged business. What you need is the courage to take the first step.
8. During the last months, which topic kept you must busy in your job?
Like all of us, it was Covid 19. Veyx-Pharma is systemically important since we produce pharmaceutical products for farm animals. We even had more work to do than before the pandemic. However, we do not only react to this acute situation, but at the same time act creatively for the future of our company. Currently, we invest in a new laboratory and office building at our head office in Schwarzenborn.
9. What should entrepreneurs, together with their competent Chamber of Commerce, particularly focus on?
They should continue to consolidate the industrial location in Northern Hesse and emphasise the rural areas of this region because of the high quality of life in small towns and in villages. We should give more attention to what we have than to what we do not have. In this way, it will be possible to attract and to keep qualified staff
10. What would you like to pass on?
If you really enjoy doing a particular task you will be good at it.
My company in two sentences:
Veyx is one of the few veterinary pharmaceutical companies which is family owned. To use the picture of a tree, it has a trunk rooted in agriculture and branches which spread widely and produce new growth.
