Post by Martin Stridde

The Least Commercial Commercial Company? The other day, at a lunch hosted by HYROX, Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fuerste shared some thoughtful and appreciative words about HYROX's global partners, including Concept2, Inc. When introducing Concept2, Christian said something that immediately caught my attention: "Concept2 is the least commercial commercial company that I know." The room laughed. I did too. Because the more I thought about it, the more I realized how accurate that description is. Over the following days, I shared the quote with several colleagues. Every single one of them smiled and said: "Yep, that's true." So why is that? This year, Concept2 celebrates its 50th anniversary. If you start looking for the reasons behind Christian's observation, you'll quickly find yourself looking at the values established by the founders, Peter and Dick Dreissigacker, together with their wifes Bari and Judy. I'm not the right person to write a comprehensive analysis of what makes Concept2 unique. Others can do that far better than I can. But I do think one important clue lies in a decision made on January 1, 2025: Concept2 transferred 100% of its ownership to a Perpetual Purpose Trust. Why? Because the goal was never simply to maximize value for shareholders. The goal was to preserve the company's mission, independence, and long-term commitment to its customers, employees, suppliers, and community. One passage from the announcement particularly stands out to me: "It was important to us that Concept2 was never sold off to new owners and always remained true to itself." In a business world often dominated by quarterly results, acquisitions, and exit strategies, that's a different perspective. Perhaps that's what Christian meant. Concept2 is undoubtedly a commercial company - we sell Ergs and Oars. But maybe it has always been a company whose purpose came before its commercial interests. What do you think makes a company feel "less commercial" while still being successful? #Concept2 #HYROX #Leadership #CompanyCulture #PurposeDrivenBusiness #LongTermThinking