Smart Business Day 2019: Digital Business Innovation
Zurich / Frankfurt, 29 October 2019
The development of innovative and novel business models
Namics, the leading full-service digital agency from Switzerland, hosted the tenth Smart Business Day yesterday. Under the motto "Digital Business Innovation", speakers from international companies talked about the development of innovative and new business models. The focus was on how established companies produce business innovations to compete against new technologies, digital offerings and start-ups on the market. Presentations were given by representatives from business and science (Siemens, Scout24 Switzerland, V-Zug, Tamedia, Bossard and IMD Business School). The Executive Tech Academy offered executives the opportunity to acquire a basic understanding of technology in a compact programming course - as a basis for better recognizing and evaluating the challenges of digital transformation in their own companies.
The symposium sees itself as a networking event aimed primarily at high-ranking executives in Swiss and international companies. It is one of the most important information platforms on digital change in Switzerland.
Executive Tech Academy: Basic Programming for Executives
The exclusive first half of the day was dedicated to the motto "Must the trainer have practiced his sport himself? Answers to this question were provided by the Executive Tech Academy - a compact programming course for managers. The focus was on the examination of thought patterns, concepts and technologies. In this way, the event provided participants with important basic knowledge for decisions in digital initiatives. It provided insights into computational thinking, programming and Internet technologies, such as components and protocols for Web sites.
Smart Business Day 2019: Digital Business Innovation
Stefan Michel, Professor for Marketing and Service Management and Dean Executive MBA at IMD in Lausanne, opened the actual event with practical presentations by various company spokespersons. What do companies need to be digitally successful? The answer: not a transformation, but a real strategy. The speaker demonstrated this using the example of the trading and logistics company Bossard. "If it doesn't hurt, it's not a real decision," concluded Michel. "Anything else is not a strategy, but at best planning or simply wasted time. Subsequently, Stephanie Chalmers, Head of Content & Newsroom, and Mark Seall, Global Head of Digital Communications at Siemens, spoke. They explained how Siemens creates transformative capabilities to engage its stakeholders. Christoph Tonini, CEO of Tamedia, explained how the Zurich-based media group is meeting the challenges of a disruptive market - the prerequisites for this are not only technology and willingness to invest, but above all curiosity. Which formula is necessary to bring talents, technology and transformation into line? Gilles Depas, CEO of Scout24 Switzerland, answered these and other questions in an interview with Tim Dührkoop, Client Service Director at Namics. In his speech, Depas focused on the potential of data and called on companies to finally make use of it. The lecture series was rounded off by Sandra Emme, who spoke on the role of directors in digital business innovation, from her experience as Industry Leader Cloud Enterprise at Google Switzerland and board member of several listed Swiss companies. Emme concluded: "Innovation is a change that unleashes new value".
