On new paths

Krebs realized a long-held dream when he took over Gestalten at the beginning of the year. For him, it was always clear that he wanted to become self-employed. And the course was guaranteed to be set before his 50th birthday, as he says. The previous owner of Gestalten was looking for a successor for the agency. "For me, this was a dream solution for various reasons," he enthuses. After all, as a loner, Krebs didn't want to become independent, but wanted to work exclusively with a great team. "For me, teamwork is very important," he emphasizes, "because in the service sector, we have nothing but the people with whom we can make our mark. Our customers are looking for support, solutions and, above all, ideas. And we are there for our customers - also as sparring partners." You can tell he loves his job and the many - also new - challenges.

Nomen est Omen

Also exciting for him is the name of the agency. "Because," says Krebs, "our name is also part of the program. Consulting, strategy and project management are central in today's environment, and a new definition of creativity is needed. So we want to design communication experiences that look at content, form and medium as a whole." And that requires a team that works and rallies various individual talents around one idea, Krebs said. Here, he says, he ideally complements the team of "designers" with his many years of agency experience, during which he led large teams as a consulting group leader and as a member of the executive board. He is thus no stranger to the entrepreneurial mindset. "That's why this challenge in particular appealed to me," he adds.

Learning from the sport

Being able to work in a team was an essential factor for his further career. This attitude is strongly influenced by his ambitions for sports. After all, Thomas Krebs is not only a convinced athlete and handball player, but above all a convinced team sportsman. He played handball very intensively for a long time and is convinced that he learned the most about it there - in terms of teamwork, assertiveness, humility, coping with defeats and learning from them. "An agency has a lot in common with a sports team," he sums up. One of the most beautiful things is to see how the team outgrows itself and achieves things that all the individuals could never do individually. It is this team spirit that ultimately motivated Krebs to take over the company. Part of the team spirit "à la Krebs" is basically a certain modesty on the part of the management level. "I firmly believe that commercial success requires performance of high quality and that quality is an important part of commercial success." In a small agency, you experience the impact of your own work much more directly, Krebs said. For example, as a small particle of a large agency or network, he has only ever been able to make a small difference. "An international agency concept, for example, means you have to apply the same concept to regional clients - even though it doesn't make much sense in their environment," he elaborates. Those were difficult phases, he says, in which the question of sense was also asked at times. Not so today as a small businessman: "My image of accountants - those who are responsible for ensuring that wages and creditors are paid on time and that customer invoices are also sent out on time - has definitely changed," he adds mischievously. In the past, as an exclusively operational customer advisor - he cursed them, but today the understanding is much greater.

The sofa from the 3D printer

"We live in an international and digital world - accordingly, there are also strong tendencies." Logically, that has a lot of good points - and, above all, its justification. Experiencing these changes is also very exciting, especially in international agencies. And Thomas Krebs knows what he's talking about. He has already absorbed the concentrated load of international agencies - such as McCann Erickson, Ogilvy & Mather, but also Publicis or TBWA. "I learned an incredible amount there, but of course you also recognize the limits of the system," Krebs says in retrospect. But what runs through centrally is the constant question, "Is our solution still right, or do we already need to go in a different direction?" Because even though no one knows exactly what the future will look like, Krebs says change is still the only constant. "Today, violins are produced with the 3-D printer. So of course it's not far to think that everyone will soon be able to produce a sofa in this way as well - and accordingly have such a printer in their home," Krebs elaborates. How these technical possibilities will change our world and, accordingly, our communication, is something that each and every one of us must consider. In this context, the general rhythm has changed completely in recent years. But this change is also a great opportunity for an agency. "With the necessary curiosity on this journey, even a small agency can cope better with the changes than if another specialist is hired for every detail," Krebs adds. After all, a specialist today may not be in demand tomorrow. At the same time, there are only a few who can orchestrate specialists well and bring in holistic thinking. Despite all the progress, there is one thing that should not be forgotten, says Krebs: "At the end of the day, it's always about people. Ursina mason

In a nutshell
Thomas Krebs was able to gain many years of experience in various national and international agencies.
1986-1987: Assistant Consultant, H. R. Abächerli, Zurich
1987: Assistant Consultant, Wyss+Gloor, Zurich
1987-1990: Consultant & Member of the Executive Board, Marti,Ogilvy & Mather, Zurich
1990-1992: Consulting Group Leader, H,S,G&L, Zollikon
1992-1996: Consulting Group Leader & Member of the Executive Board, McCann-Erickson, Zurich
1995-1997: Lecturer in communication strategy for advertising managers, SAWI, Biel/Bienne
1996-1997: Consulting Group Leader, Farner Publicis, Zurich
1997-1999: Deputy Managing Director, Consulting, Member of the Executive Board, McCann-Erickson, Zurich
1994-2001: Main expert for the higher professional examination for advertising manager, Swiss advertising industry
1999-2003: General Manager, Consulting, Member of the Executive Board, TBWA Switzerland, Küsnacht
2003-2004: Executive Director, Member of the Executive Board, Brainstore, Biel
2004-2007: COO, Consulting and Copywriting, Member of the Executive Board, Suter Global Communications,Zurich
2008-2014: Managing Director, Consulting and Copywriting, Member of the Executive Board,
Marti Communications, Zurich
2015: Communication consultant and owner, Gestalten, Zurich