In the afternoon, the 3rd semester MBA candidates visited their first company of this excursion - Ascensia Diabetes Care - and were welcomed by Pforzheim University alumnus Mr. Christian Doeringer (VP and Chief Human Resources Officer). The topics in focus were Ascensia’s global business in the field of diabetes management devices and solutions, as well as its growth and challenges in emerging markets.
Mr. Michael Maier (Senior HR Business Partner Switzerland & Nordics) shared about fierce competition for talent that is currently faced by local HR, and the appropriate measures taken by Ascensia to attract human capital. Following that, Ms. April Huang (VP, New Business & Domain Portfolio) introduced PHC Group’s background and business lines. She continued with Ascensia’s long history of innovation which is responsible for their market share gain. A more recent example of successful innovation of their product line is the non-invasive Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) device which boasts industry-leading accuracy. The topic of the relevance of emerging markets was addressed by Mr. Mike Smith (Head of Region Emerging Markets APAC) whereby he identified the dynamism of emerging markets. Not only are these markets vital for sustained growth, perhaps more interestingly is how similar players from emerging markets are becoming rivals in more matured markets. Mr. Smith cited the importance of growth and prioritization of investments for Ascensia to differentiate themselves and remain competitive.
Since some of the students had worked in the public sector in their home countries prior to their MBA studies, there were lively discussions following the presentations.

The first half of day two saw the MBA candidates visiting SAP Switzerland in Zürich. After briefly talking about his professional experience Dr. Gabriel Wiskemann (HR Director and Member of the Management Board), spoke about SAP Switzerland’s HR KPI which includes the female workforce as well as efforts to develop necessary talent to bridge gaps in certain functions. He also touched upon the concept of Flex Work in terms of time, location and space and how the organisation accommodates its employees needs accordingly to drive productivity. Further on, Mr. Alexander Finger (Chief Technology Officer) spoke about SAP’s vision of the intelligent sustainable enterprise which encapsulates key areas such as reinventing business models, interaction methods, technology, business trends and etc. Last but not least, Mr. Sebastian Kaczynski (Chief Sustainability Officer) covered the subject of global sustainability challenge and how SAP Switzerland advances and innovates within the ESG criteria. An important milestone is its commitment to carbon neutrality and how it moves towards that goal via (among many other methods) energy sourcing, energy utilization and SAP software usage by its customers.

On the agenda of the second half of Day 2 was IHSE GmbH, who, through their propriety KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) technology, provides secure and state-of-the-art solutions to a diverse array of industries from aviation (airports) to gaming worldwide. Our students were first treated to an office tour by Mr. Hannes Wonner (Marketing Manager) where they had the opportunity to observe first hand its sales office, R&D lab, production floor etc. A deeper dive into IHSE’s business model and operations was presented by its very own CEO, Dr. Enno Littmann. He emphasized the current and future significance of their cables signal extension and switching solutions in providing safety and security to both clients and end users. IHSE’s deep know-how in its competencies has allowed it to specialize in multi-site production which Dr. Littmann illustrated via a case study on ALFRIED (short for: automated and connected driving in logistics at the Friedrichshafen test site). The aim of the joint project led by IWT (Institute for Advanced Training, Knowledge and Technology Transfer) is to develop a comprehensive, complex mobility system by means of automated and networked driving. Inner-city traffic is to be relieved by optimizing traffic flow and routes. In this way, traffic jams will be reduced in the future and residents will be relieved.