5 years ProDigitalis Medien! This costed a lot of sweat, nerves and many weekends – but it was worth it! Today the agency is more successful than ever, with a strong team and a confident CEO, who supports his pdm team and the agency. To us this is reason enough to recall the past 5 years. In order to do so, I took a walk with our CEO Christian Baumert to the stations of ProDigitalis Medien and wallowed in reminiscences with him and spoke about the online trends and visions of the agency.
It’s a gray November day. Thick fog patches hung over the city, when I met our founder and CEO Christian Baumert at the first office in the Josef-Orlopp-Straße in Lichtenberg. From there we started our walk towards the Boxhagener Staße in Friedrichshain, to the current office of pdm.
I consider myself lucky, that he took time for me. Because normally his schedule only allows appointments in 15 minute slots. He looked calm and relaxed, as we know him. I asked him why he founded the agency. He answered quick like a shot: „I was looking for a challenge. This is hardly surprising when you consider that my former student part-time jobs were limited to cleaning and promoting. ProDigitalis Medien was the challenge.“
What was initially planned as a small one-man business, within 5 years rapidly developed from a start up to a medium-sized company with 20 permanent employees, thereof 18 full-time and 2 part-time. In the beginning the agency primarily focused on the processing of data projects, very soon these projects were followed by further orders from the publishing sector. „I’m very pleased that we still have some clients from day one in our client base. This does not only show our development but also the trust that our clients have in us“ he proudly said.
We were walking down the Möllendorffstraße when I asked him about the core competences of ProDigitalis Medien. He promptly replied: „Flexibility, that is our strength. The flexible structure, our ability to adapt to the current market conditions and that we are continually learning, learning, learning! We are constantly optimizing ourselves. And we are good at what we do.“
The fog is getting thicker, as we reached the Ringcenter on the Frankfurter Allee. Despite the rainy and cold weather it’s quite busy on the streets. We walked past the knot of people, who were rubbing hands because of the cold weather. Suddenly Christian stopped searching for change in his pocket to buy me and him a latte macchiato from a stand in front of the Ringcenter. „It keeps the hands warm and tastes good. The quality must always be good in everything you eat, drink and do“ he said, laughing. We walked further along the Gürtelstraße sipping our latte while talking about the future of pdm. „There are many good and creative agencies with great ideas. But an idea is only as good as its implementation. We are characterized by our solid and reputable work.“
We stopped some steps ahead of the office. His phone rang. He picked up the phone and within the next five minutes I was able to mentally go through the other interview questions. Still completely in thoughts he tugged at my sleeve and asked whether we should go on. I nodded and wanted to know in which direction he thinks the future online trends will develop. He took a quick breath and said laughing: „If I had known exactly, then we would already played in the same league of Facebook, Twitter and Google. Seriously: The future in the online sector lies in the simplification of the everyday life and the improvement of the quality of life. For example I don’t need to dial the emergency number but rather the emergency gets notified automatically. This gives us time for the great and important things in life such as family, friends, creativity and individual development.“
Only 500 meters from the current office of ProDigitalis Medien in the Boxhagener Straße. I felt how joyful nervousness was spreading in both of us. Because here the agency has become a success.
On the last few meters I wanted to know whether he achieved everything he wanted in the past 5 years and what goals he has set himself for the coming 5 years. He had to think before the determining said: „No. I am very, very happy how pdm has developed but that doesn’t mean that I have achieved everything I wanted. There is still more to do! And for the coming 5 years? First of all the things I wanted to achieve until today“ he said smiling. „I want to create surplus values and contentment for our clients, employees and agency. Therefore, we want to offer great products and services, a cooperation on a partnership basis and to retain our clients on a long term. In addition, it is aimed to continuously improve the employee satisfaction on the one hand with benefits of various kinds, on the other hand by further education. Moreover, the social commitment is an important goal of our agency. Therefore, our volunteering project „KINDerLEBEN e.V.“ is near and dear to me. For the coming year we want to support more projects like this.“
Shortly afterwards we stood in front of the office entrance. The fog has lifted and it stopped raining. We both became silent for a moment and recalled the past 5 years. And again Christians iPhone rang like countless times before in our interview. There’s nothing left to say than: We’re looking forward to the next 5 years ProDigitalis Medien!