Under Heinz Dürr's leadership, the family company Dürr, founded by his grandfather in 1896, developed into one of the world's leading mechanical and plant engineering groups. Since the 1970s, Heinz Dürr has been known throughout Germany as the chief negotiator for the metalworking employers, Chairman of the Board of Management of AEG, head of Deutsche Bahn and Commissioner of the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The 29.7% shareholding in Dürr AG remains in the hands of the Dürr family even after Heinz Dürr's death.
Heinz Dürr opposed the doctrine of pure profit maximization: "I do not subscribe to the economist Milton Friedman's statement that the only social responsibility of companies is to increase their profits." According to Heinz Dürr, profit is not an end in itself, "but a measure of whether the corporate social event is working. But it has to be, otherwise the company will be a burden to someone, usually the taxpayer." At the same time, he saw himself as a convinced medium-sized company. For him, medium-sized companies meant "personal leadership instead of technocratic leadership. The boss knows his people and talks to them." Dürr, a Swabian, always advised his employees to be modest: "If you think you are something, you stop becoming something."