ANDRITZ is a globally leading technology group in plant engineering, with business areas including hydropower, pulp and paper machinery, metal processing, and a wide range of sustainable process technologies in Environment & Energy. Its core business is highly complex and strongly project-driven. Planning, precision and technical problem-solving are central values – and they often shape how organisation and leadership are understood.
With around 30,000 employees across more than 280 locations in over 80 countries, ANDRITZ AG ranks among the world’s leading international suppliers of plants and technologies. The company designs and delivers system solutions for key industries – in particular pulp and paper production, metal processing, hydropower, as well as environmental and energy systems.
At the heart of this is a holistic performance portfolio: from engineering, automation and digitalisation through to plant operation and service – all aimed at making processes more efficient, lower in emissions and more resource-conserving.
At the same time, ANDRITZ is investing deliberately in future technologies, including solutions for carbon capture, green hydrogen production, biomass plants and recycling systems, underlining its role as a driver of the green transformation.
The Leadership Advanced programme is aimed at experienced leaders in middle management, typically those who themselves lead other leaders.
Three core modules of three days each form the foundation: Leading myself, Leading people and Leading the organisation. A fourth, two-day module follows after around one year, offering space for deepening, reflection and collective transfer into practice. This fourth module is intentionally open in design: participants, together with the programme lead, decide which topics to deepen, revisit or implement in practice. In this way, the programme is not experienced as a completed training course, but as part of an ongoing learning journey.
At its centre is not a new set of tools, but a different mindset:
a systemic and radically resource-oriented view of leadership.
Where the usual focus lies on identifying and fixing errors, attention here turns to what already works – to strengths, potential and resonance. Communication is understood not as a sender-receiver transaction, but as the joint construction of reality.
Particularly in a technical environment, this approach makes a tangible difference.
Leadership is no longer seen as repairing deviations, but as consciously shaping contexts in which people can become effective. Positive Leadership here does not mean glossing over problems or ignoring difficulties, but working with what is present and making the best possible use of strengths and existing resources.
Participants repeatedly emphasise how the close integration of training and consulting makes the programme especially practice-oriented. Johannes Köpl contributes perspectives drawn from many organisations, bringing experience from a wide range of industries and transformation processes.
This external perspective opens spaces of resonance in which abstract concepts become tangible. Leaders recognise how systemic principles can be applied to their real-world challenges: decision-making, conflict, project communication and change.
After more than a decade and now twelve rounds, the programme has become a cornerstone of leadership development at ANDRITZ – and an invitation to see organisations as more alive.
What do participants say? We asked:
„The Leadership Advanced programme has had a lasting impact on my leadership practice. I learned to consciously balance the needs of employees with the goals of the organisation. Particularly valuable was the insight into how misunderstandings arise from different ‘mental maps’, and how crucial it is to explore the other person’s map through targeted questions.
My perspective on organisations and teams has broadened significantly – a genuine shift in perspective with strong practical relevance.“
Gerhard Laher
Vice President, Global Site Operations
„The programme introduced me to systemic concepts and ways of thinking in a highly practical, accessible and therefore sustainable way. Thanks to his experience as a consultant and organisational developer, Johannes brings these approaches directly into the corporate context, making the programme varied and wonderfully alive.“
Stephan Eder
Head of Data Intelligence Solutions
„What impressed me most was how Johannes makes complex theoretical content tangible through numerous practical examples. His way of facilitating is clear, respectful and always on equal footing – creating an open and trusting learning atmosphere. The exchange is not only inspiring but immediately applicable in day-to-day leadership.“
Gabriella Ritter
Head of Accounts Receivable
„I gained real value from the programme by getting to know my own strengths.“
Christoph Lonad
Division Quality Manager
„Through his many years of experience as a consultant to well-known companies and institutions, Johannes Köpl brings a wealth of strong – and above all highly practical – leadership methods into this programme, all of which can be applied very effectively in everyday work.“
Martin Hasenhütl
Head of Generator Sales, Hydro Division – Modernisation Projects
