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Barbara Faber
CEO of DTM Deutsche Tele Medien
As Executive Director of Business Enabling at SEVEN PRINCIPLES AG, Barbara has been responsible for central functions and business process optimization since February 2016. Until January 2016, she was Managing Director of the Hinnerwisch publishing group, which has its core-business in “local search” advertising for name brands such as “Das Örtliche” and “Das Telefonbuch”. Her main objective was to transfer the traditional business model into a sustainable digital business. Barbara’s experience in the media sector is complemented by many years of successful work in both medium and large-sized national and international IT companies.
Since January 2020, Barbara is the CEO of DTM Deutsche Tele Medien GmbH group in Frankfurt and has just been elected on the reserve list of the Siinda Board.
Q. Do you have a kind of daily routine to get the day started?
Oh, it actually depends where I am, and whether it’s weekend or not, to be honest. But the routine I have every day is I need coffee in the morning before I talk to anyone. So that’s something quite important for me. And if I’m at home, I try to see my husband and my cats and be grateful in a way. And when I was younger, and my kids were younger it was to wake up my kids, but they are now adults, so I skip it now.
Q. Do you think that having an organization and also relying on digitalization is helping the current context?
Yes, absolutely, that I can confirm. I think if there’s something which is positive on the pandemic is that the digitalization went on much faster than anyone expected in all the different areas. So, that helped a lot and will help us hopefully in future, although, in some areas we’re still behind.
Q. Do you have any particular hobby that you developed more during this year?
It’s true, Actually, I started again knitting. I stopped that after my studies. At that time, every time I had a test or something like that, I finished a piece. I need something to do with my hands when I’m thinking to be honest. And so that’s that. I started again end of last year, and now I have a lot of pullovers of sweaters, much more than I need!
I also did a lot of research, more research in the Internet than I did before in all different kinds of areas. And last but not least, it was not especially reading. I went into our audiobooks a lot. And I like that very much.
Q. Do you have a favorite reading genre or author?
It’s difficult to say, whether I have a favorite author. I think I love a lot of different ones. Let’s say, I have kind of periods where I’m going to read books from different authors, and in the past, it had to be Dan Brown. Lately, I read mostly European authors, like Marc Elsberg. He wrote books like “Black Out” which is very related to the actual topics, and kind of future scenarios, which could happen in a way.
But my favorite books are “Le Petit Prince” by Antoine de Saint Exupéry and “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch.
Q. Another thing that we really love at Siinda events, when we have the chance to meet together, is to share dinners with all our partners and members and discover the cooking traditions. So is cooking also something important for you?
Eating yes, cooking definitely not. My husband had to learn to cook, so we get something to eat. So no, I’m good at baking, but not cooking.
Q. And do you have favorite comfort food or a type of meal that you like the most?
Yes, and this I get every time for Christmas. And so, recently, I got it again. Actually, I’m not sure what is the English word, because it’s a typical German meal, it’s called “Sauerbraten” with dumplings. Although I have to admit it’s normally done with raisins, and I hate raisins. We are also trying at the weekend to support those small restaurants in our area and collect the meals which is not very common in all German areas, I had to learn. But in our area this is possible and I hope this is helping a bit the restaurant- owners.
Q. What message would you like to give to Siinda partners and members?
That’s an interesting question. So, I think we should all be ready for changes and live, because changes are always also new chances to look forward. The most important thing for me is to do it in a kind of Monty Python term, “Always look on the bright side of life”.