MBA Summer Semester 2024: Excursion – Düsseldorf, Köln and Bonn Region
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LeanIX, The Google Maps for IT
On day one the first company visit took us to LeanIX, a leading Software as a Service (SaaS) company specializing in Enterprise Architecture, provides a software platform to streamline digital transformation for its customers. Their solutions enable IT and business alignment, making the digitalization journey efficient and collaborative.
We had the opportunity to understand LeanIX's journey from its founding in Bonn to its growth into a company with 600+ employees and 1000+ customers. We delved deeper into their EAM software through a hands-on case study and additionally explored how generative AI will play a pivotal role in their future initiatives.
Our sincere thanks go to MBA alumnus Shvetang Pai Angle and his colleagues Adina Aldea, Alexander Zieger, and Jonas Rathert for providing us with a valuable and informative start to our journey."
We spent the evening relaxing and exploring the beautiful city of Köln and got together for a team dinner at Herbrand’s Ehrenfeld Restaurant. Over drinks and dinner, over fun and engaging interactions, we bonded as the “MBA family”.
Henkel, Pioneers for the Good of Generations
Day two started with a visit to Henkel, an organization well known worldwide, for premium quality adhesives andconsumer goods. After a tour of their Insipration Center Düsseldorf (IDC), we went through how Henkel’s products connect, bond, fix and add tremendous value to the railway and automotive industry, batteries and electronic industry, solar energy industry and their sustainability initiatives like their cradle to gate approach, flexible packaging and much more. We were able to get lots of info on where Henkel can be found in our everyday life in the interactive Infinity Room, a fascinating 3-D space to showcase their products. A befitting conclusion to the experience was an amazing presentation of their Henkel Consumer Brands (HCB) supply chain innovation mindset of being a healthy business-case challenger, to focus on continuous improvement of their products in close collaboration with their Marketing team’s insights. A special thanks to our MBA alumni Jaime Rodea (Head of Supply Chain Innovation Fabric Cleaning and Green) and Leo Dyshelman (Strategic Key Account Manager) as well as Sebastian Förster (Customer Experience Centers Activation Manager) and Helena Smart (International Innovation Project Manager) for an excellent session.
september, Bringing Emotions into the Game
On the same day, in the sunny afternoon, we had the pleasure of visiting, september, a Market Research Analysis firm. The company focusses on leveraging the emotional aspects of the human centric insights from their research to enhance the quality and engagement of spot advertisements. Lukas Trottenberg (Senior Lead Consultant) took us through their recent project of using the emotional intelligence of the human brain and the heightened tunnel vision while playing online games to make an impact in advertising. He narrated how the company decoded the responses from survey participants and developed models to increase audience engagement. What a brilliant idea! A special thanks to Lukas Trottenberg, Christiane Münz and Tajanne Preßler for a memorable interaction.
NKT, Connecting the Greener World
In the morning of the third excursion day we were welcomed by NKT, an organization which produces and commissions high-quality power cable technology and cater to the energy requirement of the world. After an interesting facility tour of the warehouse which handles spare parts in Chempark, we dove into NKT’s portfolio, business lines, innovations in the cable systems and connectors, their immensely vast and critical projects, and their passion for connecting the green world. It was fascinating to see how the company manages its installations, servicing, prepare for risks, inspect leakages and failures, and repair them in extremely adverse conditions and environments. Many thanks to our alumnus Siddharth Uppal (Senior Product Manager – Service), Tim Rosendahl (Senior Strategy Manager) and Marco Lange (Head of Service & Installation Germany) for these extraordinary insights.
Dynavax, Learning the Science of Preventing Infectious Diseases
That evening, we met our alumnus, Parvesh Dabur, who heads the Operations Quality at Dynavax GmbH, a pharmaceutical pioneer in vaccines and medicines. Parvesh, in his witty and humorous way took us through what Dynavax does, how it produces vaccines by following the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), the certification process and how it is constantly on the quest of innovation through their rigorous research and trials. Upon being asked about his secret for a happy life, ‘stand for what is right, be positive in life and take care of physical and mental health’ was his advice for us.
After the session, Parvesh was so kind to take us on through Köln city. We were mesmerized by Cologne Cathedral and loved the Hohenzollern Bridge, where all the locks are, as a symbol of peace.
Our MBA alumni Shvetang, Parvesh, Siddharth and Bo later joined us for the Alumni Meet over dinner. We spoke about their college days, their most important learning, got their advice on how one can navigate through the MBA and most importantly what skills, mindset, and attitude one must develop for the corporate world in Germany. Mentoring indeed helps tremendously in setting the right direction for one’s career path. It was a fun and insightful evening, on the banks of river Rhein.
BAYER, Transforming Health and Nutrition
In the final leg of our excursion, we visited Bayer, a leading Life Sciences company in the area of Health and Nutrition at their headquarters in Leverkusen. Our MBA alumna Bo Cheung (Head of Business Partnering Procurement Sustainability) and Philip Mussgnung (Strategy Lead, Commercial IT & Digital ), an alumnus of Pforzheim University, welcomed us warmly at BayKomm, the Global Communication Centre of Bayer. Bo and Philip gave a brief overview on Bayer’s mission ‘Health for all, hunger for none’. They explained how Bayer´s commitment for sustainability such as decarbonization and supplier inclusion & diversity, enhancing patients and consumer’s lives, increasing crop production and preserving the crop quality while uplifting under-represented communities is embedded in the company´s approaches, objectives, and initiatives. Bo explained to us the experiences of IT procurement from her previous role and sourcing strategies in detail including the innovations taking place. Philip then took us through how the finances and resource allocation is managed for digital initiatives and how user experience as well as customer experience play a crucial role in the entire process.
We concluded the session with a delicious and healthy networking lunch.
A trip to remember, on the banks of Rhein! We visited organizations who are passionate and committed to make the world a better place and the lives of people healthier (which was very evident in the interactions), we explored new cities together, networked with our alumni, partied together, composed a theme song called ‘On the banks of Rhein’ and had loads of fun. Heartfelt thanks to Prof. Harald Strotmann and Prof. Markus Oliver Schwaab as well as the whole MBA team for organizing this enriching and fun excursion that allowed us to bond even more within our batch.
