There are a number of underlying factors for Carl von Linde’s success in developing his young business into Germany’s leading international supplier of refrigeration machines within just ten years:
The business model
As an entrepreneur, Carl von Linde relied from the very start on close cooperation with potential users of his technology, above all beer brewers. In production he relied in turn on a few machinery manufacturing companies. But von Linde insisted that only his engineers, assemblers and installers would install and start up the machines at customers’ facilities, thus ensuring direct and exclusive contact with the customers.
Loyalty
One of von Linde’s closest confidants was Heinrich von Buz, the director of Maschinenfabrik Augsburg (later MAN). The two enjoyed a business relationship spanning 50 years , and von Buz had a seat on the Linde Supervisory Board for 39 years.
In the Sulzer brothers, von Linde found highly competent people to turn to for technical problem-solving. Von Linde also had the Sulzer connection to thank for the fact that his company became the largest supplier of refrigeration machines for the meat industry in Argentina.
Personnel policies
Over the years, von Linde preferred to hire graduates of the Technical University of Munich, whom he knew personally or who were recommended to him by his teaching successor at the university, Moritz Schröter. Friedrich Schipper, Robert Banfield, Rudolf Diesel, Karl Heimpel, Hermann Reuther, August Krebs and Alexius Negele, among others, were all alumni of TC Munich. Von Linde also relied on family members. During the early years, two of his brothers and a brother-in-law worked for Linde’s company. They were followed by two nephews, two sons-in-law and two of his own sons, physicist Friedrich and engineer Richard Linde, who, together with their brother-in-law Rudolf Wucherer largely determined the fortunes of the company through the middle of the 20th Century.
Compensation
In order to create the strongest possible ties between his key people and the company, von Linde paid above-average salaries. Head engineers could earn between 15,000 and 20,000 marks per year including profit sharing during the 1890s. Unlike the engineers, for a long time commercial employees in the company did not play an especially major role. It is a telling fact that prior to the Second World War, no commercial employee was ever appointed to the company’s Executive Board.