Reinhold Würth: Leading Through Culture and Numbers

Who is Reinhold Würth, and why is he worth a closer look?

Reinhold Würth is often written about as the “screw king,” as an art collector, or as an outspoken commentator on economic policy. For owners of small and mid-sized businesses, another side is more revealing. Würth took over a business with a handful of employees and led it for decades in a way that allowed it to grow without losing its character as a family business. In doing so, he emphasized two things that many consider opposites: a leadership culture built on appreciation, and clear, often very ambitious numerical targets.

This portrait therefore pursues one question: How are culture and numbers connected in Reinhold Würth's leadership, and what of it can be transferred to a small business? It relies only on publicly documented information from the company and the press. Statements attributed to him are marked as such. Where I interpret, this is recognizable as an assessment.

To answer it, I first trace the milestones. Then I present Robert Simons' levers of control model, weigh two readings of his leadership style, and finally ask what owners can take from it today. How field sales contributed to the group's growth is covered in the case study Würth: how a screw wholesaler became a global group through field sales. This portrait focuses on the person and his leadership.

The milestones: from apprentice to chair of the advisory board

Reinhold Würth was born on April 20, 1935, in Öhringen. His father Adolf Würth founded a wholesale business for screws and nuts in Künzelsau in 1945, which was entered in the commercial register on July 16, 1945. On October 1, 1949, Reinhold Würth joined the business at the age of 14. When his father died at the age of 45, the son, then 19, took over management. According to the company, annual revenue at the time was the equivalent of around 80,000 euros.

1. 1962: the step abroad

   Würth Nederland becomes the first foreign subsidiary, followed the same year by Switzerland and Austria.

2. 1972: the start of the collection

   With the purchase of a painting by Emil Nolde, Würth lays the foundation of the Würth Collection, which today comprises more than 20,000 works.

3. 1987: target and foundations

   With revenue of 700 million euros, the company sets itself the goal of exceeding five billion euros by 2000. In the same year, Würth transfers the company into family foundations, by his own account to prevent inheritance disputes.

4. 1994: withdrawal from operations

   On January 1, Würth leaves management and becomes chair of the advisory board.

5. 1999 to 2003: teaching

   Würth teaches as a professor holding the endowed chair of entrepreneurship at the University of Karlsruhe.

6. 2006 and 2025: handover

   In 2006 his daughter Bettina Würth takes over as chair of the advisory board. In 2025 his grandson Benjamin Würth becomes chair of the foundation supervisory board, and Sebastian Würth chair of the advisory board.

At the end of 2025 the group employed 86,415 people, around 44,000 of them in sales. A tax case is also part of the public picture: in 2008 it became known that prosecutors had been investigating him on suspicion of tax evasion. Würth accepted a penalty order, a procedure without an oral trial. For this portrait, the case matters mainly as a reminder that the same rules apply to successful entrepreneurs as to everyone else, and that trust also depends on keeping them.

What Würth has said about leadership

Two statements sum up Würth's stance, and at first glance they are in tension. The first comes from the celebration of his 90th birthday on April 29, 2025, in Künzelsau. There, according to a report in the Stuttgarter Zeitung, he said he attributes his success “60, perhaps 70 percent” to having given “leadership culture priority over leadership technique.” Good leadership technicians are worthless, he said, if they lack emotion, feeling, and empathy. Sincere gratitude and appreciation toward employees could have a great effect.

The second statement comes from a 2012 interview with the magazine Unternehmeredition: “My main credo from the beginning was that growth without profit is deadly.” In the same conversation, he mentions an equity ratio of around 40 percent, with which growth could be financed from the company's own resources, and a return target of five percent. Someone who talks like that does not lead by feel.

Culture without numbers turns into mood. Numbers without culture turn into control. Würth's leadership shows that a business needs both.

How values apply in daily work instead of hanging on the wall is described in the article company values that hold in daily work. How a few key figures can steer a business is shown in the guide a one-page KPI cockpit.

The mental model: Simons' four levers of control

In 1995, Harvard professor Robert Simons presented a model that explains how companies can grant freedom and keep control at the same time. His levers of control are four kinds of systems that work together. Two of them work more through culture, two more through numbers and rules.

The mapping is my interpretation, not an analysis of the company from the inside. But it makes tangible an idea that recurs in studies of family businesses. Oro and Lavarda (2019) examined in a case study of a family business how the four levers interact with strategy and performance measures. They observed that the controlling owner, with his entrepreneurial vision, shaped how the levers were used. For owners this means: in a family business, the levers of control are rarely a system someone designed. They are the way the owner leads.

An everyday analogy makes the model tangible. A sailboat needs a destination, a chart showing the shallows, a compass, and a crew that coordinates regularly. Without the destination, you sail in circles. Without the compass, you notice too late that you have gone off course. Simons' levers are these four things for a business.

Two readings: culture leader or numbers man?

The first reading sees Würth above all as a culture leader. It draws on his own weighting of 60 to 70 percent, on the emphasis on gratitude, and on the way he talks about employees. From this perspective, the group's success is a consequence of leading people, and the numbers are the result, not the tool.

The second reading sees the numbers man. It points to the credo that growth without profit is deadly, to “Vision 2000,” which was meant to increase revenue of 700 million euros more than sevenfold within 13 years, and to the discipline in financing. From this perspective, the talk of culture is a retrospective view that underestimates the share of the numbers.

I consider both readings one-sided. Würth's own statement speaks of priority, not exclusivity. And an ambitious numerical target only works if people want to support it. Simons' model explains why the two belong together: beliefs set the direction and prevent numbers from becoming an end in themselves. Numbers show whether the direction is right. What is not publicly documented are the internal systems with which the group uses its numbers day to day. How exactly culture and key figures mesh within the company cannot be derived from the sources used here.

Succession and ownership: leadership beyond one's own lifetime

Part of Würth's leadership only becomes visible over decades. In 1987, still during his active years, he transferred the company into family foundations. In 1994, at 58, he withdrew from operational management and moved to the advisory board. In 2006 he handed over the chair of the advisory board to his daughter, and in 2025 the grandchildren's generation took over key positions. In a 2012 interview he said that employees, too, knew that nothing negative would happen when he died.

For owners, this part may be the most instructive. Many businesses depend so heavily on one person that a loss endangers their survival. Würth separated ownership, supervision, and operational management early. A similar consideration can be found with Robert Bosch, whose company today belongs mostly to a foundation. How family and business are cleanly separated is covered in the article leading a family business. How to plan one's own exit is described in the guide planning your own exit.

What owners of small businesses can transfer

No small business will repeat Würth's path, and that is not the goal either. What can be transferred are principles derived from his public statements and Simons' model.

• State in one sentence what your business stands for, and check whether your employees would say something similar.
• Decide what your business does not do, even if it would bring revenue.
• Choose three to five figures by which you can detect deviations early, including at least one on profitability.
• Set a long-term goal that you discuss regularly with the team, not only during annual planning.
• Tell employees specifically what you are grateful for, in a way that they know what is meant.
• Settle ownership and succession while you can still do so calmly.

Why specific recognition achieves more than general praise is assessed in the article recognition at work.

Limits of this portrait

Three caveats apply. First, it is based on public statements, and an entrepreneur's statements about the reasons for his success are hindsight. Whether leadership culture really accounted for 60 to 70 percent nobody can measure, not even Würth himself. Second, Würth is an exceptional case. Inferring a recipe from an exceptionally successful company overlooks the many that did not grow with a similar stance. Third, the group's internal control systems are not public. The mapping onto Simons' levers is therefore an interpretation from outside.

Conclusion: how are culture and numbers connected at Würth?

The question at the start was
culture and numbers are connected in Reinhold Würth's leadership. The public evidence shows an entrepreneur who takes both seriously. By his own account, he gives leadership culture priority and emphasizes appreciation and gratitude. At the same time, he sets ambitious, measurable goals, finances growth from the company's own resources, and regards profit as the precondition of any growth. Simons' levers of control model makes it understandable why this is not a contradiction: values give direction, boundaries protect, numbers show deviations, and shared goals keep everyone on course.

For owners of small businesses, the lesson is not to imitate Würth. It is that a good leadership culture is no excuse for missing numbers, and good numbers are no substitute for a culture in which people want to pull together.