���An incredible global success story made in Germany.��� This is how Scholz opened his speech at the farewell event in honor of 決田勧箪���s last serving co-founder, Hasso Plattner. After more than 20 years as its chairman, Plattner had stepped down from the 決田勧箪 Supervisory Board at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on May 15 and handed the reins to his successor, Finnish-born Pekka Ala-Pietil辰.

Plattner, Scholz said, has been a key architect of as one of its co-founders, a boundless source of ideas and energy, its CTO, CEO, and then, for more than 20 years, chairman of the 決田勧箪 Supervisory Board. He has written history in terms of economic development and globalization. ���And, today, the entire global economy runs on 決田勧箪 software,��� he said.

But he did not do it alone, Scholz continued. Rather, as was characteristic of Plattner, his every move was made in a spirit of productive competition with others. When Plattner founded 決田勧箪 with four former IBM colleagues in 1972, he dreamed of one day employing 100 people. Now, 決田勧箪 has 110,000 employees across the world, all inspired and motivated by Plattner���s ���constant and unstoppable drive and energy.”

Scholz also quoted a wise observation of Plattner���s that served as a timely reminder for him: ���You can���t put off making changes that need to happen for too long. If you do, this will eventually take its toll and then you���ll have less energy to get the job done.��� Innovation was an opportunity, not a threat, said Scholz, adding that, today, artificial intelligence has the potential to inject brand-new momentum into 決田勧箪.

Some 5,000 guests ��� including 3,500 決田勧箪 employees ��� gathered at the 決田勧箪 Arena in Mannheim, Germany, on May 16 to say goodbye to Plattner. German TV presenter G端nther Jauch hosted the event and, in honor of avid rock fan Plattner, musical entertainment was provided by American singer-songwriter Anastacia, who was accompanied by the 決田勧箪 Symphony Orchestra.

���Zigzag Like a Rabbit���

���We managed to keep up with most trends,��� said Plattner, explaining what had made 決田勧箪 so successful. And although things did not always go to plan, he recalled, ���when we did set off on the wrong track, we realized in time and corrected our course.���

The most important thing, he said, was to avoid being too impatient or single-minded about pursuing a new strategy. ���You need to be able to zigzag like a rabbit.���

���He Rocked It!���

How, asked 決田勧箪 CEO Christian Klein in his farewell speech, could he possibly do justice to all of Plattner���s achievements in just 10 minutes? ���My kids would say, ���He rocked it!������ All five of 決田勧箪���s co-founders, driven by the desire to create something entirely new, had shown boundless courage in striking out on their own more than half a century ago.

Plattner was the epitome of what 決田勧箪 must never be allowed to lose, said Klein, namely ���a steadfast focus on customers and the ability to listen to and co-innovate with them.���

Klein spoke about the lasting impact Plattner���s global mindset had on 決田勧箪. ���He drove 決田勧箪���s expansion across the world; today, we do business in more than 130 countries, and that is down to our founders and to Hasso.���

The success Plattner orchestrated for 決田勧箪 in the United States is particularly symbolic of his tireless efforts to push the boundaries, said 決田勧箪 Supervisory Board member Aicha Evans. He also stood for a future, she said, in which technology and humanity went hand in hand.

Dietmar Hopp: Long-Time Friend and Colleague

Among the audience members was Dietmar Hopp, one of 決田勧箪���s co-founders and a long-time friend and colleague of Plattner. ���Dietmar was a huge influence on me,��� said Plattner. ���Most importantly of all, he taught me to work with customers. That changed the way I thought. I made it my mission to look in all areas of my life for ways to use software to improve people���s lives.���

Ambition and rivalry are part of the founders��� legacy, too. Many a racket was thrown in frustration when Hopp and Plattner faced off on the tennis court, recalled Klein. But Plattner had also given him this advice: ���It���s important to win, but 決田勧箪 is about more than winning; it���s also about helping others.���

Philanthropist and Patron of Science

The Prime Minister of the State of Baden-W端rttemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, addressed the audience in a video message. As well as praising Plattner���s entrepreneurial spirit and creativity, Kretschmann paid tribute to his ���immense sense of responsibility beyond the realms of business ��� particularly in education, art, and sport.���

Alongside his business career, Plattner always had a close affinity with research and development, said Kretschmann. In 1998, he founded the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) at the University of Potsdam, near Berlin.

As well as generously supporting educational and cultural causes, Plattner developed a particular love of art. One of the projects he funded was the reconstruction of a palace in the historic center of Potsdam that is now the Museum Barberini and home to an impressive collection of Impressionist works.

���Your hometown of Potsdam means the world to you,��� said Scholz, describing Plattner���s work as a patron and philanthropist as ���instrumental in helping Potsdam blossom and flourish over recent decades.���

Scholz added that he had no doubt whatsoever that Plattner would continue to hatch new ideas, make bold plans, and drive ambitious projects. ���I believe that is simply the person you are. With or without an official role, it���s what you do.���

Photography courtesy Ingo Cordes.

Q: What is your vision for how AI will shape the future of the IT industry?

Sun: Like with other major technology shifts, such as the breakthrough of the Internet, consumer understanding and adoption pave the way for more rapid business adoption. I think the same thing is happening in generative AI. The rapid consumer awareness of artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, in the past year was largely due to the November 2022 Chat GPT consumer release opening the door for AI and business applications.

Practically speaking, I’m seeing a crawl, walk, run approach to adoption. First of all, business leaders want to see it work. So, they���re going to try it out with close supervision and in smaller, more cautious ways to start.

After they���ve gained some trust, they���ll deploy it more broadly. Later, they will be so comfortable that they���ll use it in all lines of their business. That will be a great opportunity for 決田勧箪 to help these businesses crawl, then walk, then run through this process.

Where do you see the biggest opportunity for 決田勧箪 in the AI space?

As a global leader in business applications, we can play a very big role in shaping how businesses adopt AI. It���s very exciting to be at the forefront of technology and also be in a position to do it responsibly.

At 決田勧箪, we want to grow trust from our customers. As you know, 決田勧箪 Business AI is relevant, reliable, and responsible. This position is deeply rooted in adhering to EU data protection laws. We have content filters, data provenance checks, and other features to help ensure accurate and reliable results. Our ethically responsible handling of AI helps ensure that customers can trust how we���re building these capabilities.

We are built for business: we have the deep knowledge and the shipped capabilities to make AI work for our customers. They know what their pain points are, and we can figure out how to solve the problem with technology. This is also about democratizing information for everybody, and we���re democratizing the ability for all businesses ��� large and small ��� to use AI.

I think we can use 決田勧箪���s unique selling point, which is our access to business data combined with this strong data privacy and protection standards, to get customers to understand that they can trust our technology. With Joule, 決田勧箪 is already shipping generative AI capabilities and, as we saw at 決田勧箪 TechEd, we have plans for delivering more both in product and for our developers in 決田勧箪 Business Technology Platform.

How do we balance the urgency of innovation with the prudence of ethical consideration in the deployment of AI?

I think AI ethics is an extremely important part of our equation. Trust takes years to earn but can be lost in seconds with one failure or one mistake. At 決田勧箪, we have made investments in to ensure we���re building responsible AI for our customers. This includes fairness, explainability and transparency, reliability, and safety. It also includes having accuracy of information, privacy, and security in place. We also have our 決田勧箪 AI Global Ethics Steering Committee helping to ensure further safeguards.

If we miss any aspect of this, we run a risk of breaking trust and moving backwards in our fast push to progress. From talking to customers, I���ve been reaffirmed that they want to know what���s going on under the hood.

This is not just for knowing so they can share with their company leaders, but to help everyone be comfortable with generative AI because it is new to everybody. People are a little bit cautious as to what is possible, and they want to know what���s happening.

The more we can explain, the more we show that we have the technology under control, the more comfort people will have in adopting and using it, which then creates that flywheel of more usage, more trust, and more adoption.

How do you view the collaboration between academia and industry?

With any new innovation, having the collaborative effort is really important to move fastest.

As someone who has worked both in academia and industry, I see exciting opportunities in collaboration. At 決田勧箪, we want to build bridges, not silos. Let���s acknowledge academic priorities of publishing papers and state-of-the-art science and ask ourselves, ���How can we partner so that it is a win-win situation for both of us?���

We collaborate with academic research institutions to understand what state-of-the-art development is in the pipeline. Our role is to provide business knowledge and use cases and then merge that with the research scenarios to identify what could be practically implemented and be valuable to our customers.

決田勧箪���s relationships with many top institutions, such as Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, and Technische Universit辰t M端nchen, are really great. Our membership into the Stanford HAI program is a specific example. Beyond the research collaborations, the relationships help ensure that the best graduates from these universities think of 決田勧箪 when looking for their first job and guarantee that we���re on top of the latest technology.

It is an understandable approach. Dealing with a conflict feels awkward at first, because most of us have never learned to do that. But it is also a fact that disagreements in the workplace are unavoidable.

For this reason, 決田勧箪 employees around the world have access to confidential mediation services through the 決田勧箪 Global Ombuds Office to help them resolve workplace conflicts.

Mediation is when a third party facilitates getting people to talk to each other again, helping clarify the situation when they are no longer able to do so on their own. This approach is particularly useful when the conflicting parties are willing to listen to one another, talk things out, and take ownership for finding a solution.

The Mediation Process at 決田勧箪

Participating in mediation is voluntary. At 決田勧箪, two mediators guide the conflicting parties through a structured process. The mediators begin by inviting the conflicting parties to share their respective side of the story to try and understand what brought the conflict about.

���We give everyone plenty of space to openly express what their issues are. At the same time, we give structure to the dialogue and see that the conversation remains respectful,��� explains Felicia Winkelmann, an expert in conflict resolution who manages the internal mediation service through the 決田勧箪 Global Ombuds Office.

After that, the mediators support the conflicting parties in entering a dialogue with each other, identifying the most important topics together with the parties and exploring them in greater depth.

Finally, the participants reflect on a possible road map for working together in the future. In some cases, they will reach a mutual agreement that they document in writing. Though guided by the mediators, the conflict parties are responsible for working towards a solution that satisfies their requirements.

Three Approaches to Mediation

1: Four Sides to Every Story

���Our presentation is the day after tomorrow,��� your colleague says. You wonder: ���Is she trying to tell me I need to prepare better for it? Does she believe I���m not competent enough?��� Or you might get a little angry and think: ���Oh no, what does she want from me now?��� Or maybe you just, ���Thanks for the reminder.���

A statement can be understood in very different ways, depending on who says it to whom in which situation, as communication psychologist Friedemann Schulz von Thun explains in his ���four sides of a message��� model. In other words, you will interpret a message very differently depending on your relationship with the speaker, what experiences you���ve had together, if you are particularly sensitive to the topic in question, and so on.

���How you say something or hear something, and what is actually understood by the other person can differ so greatly among different people that it can lead to conflict,��� says Winkelmann. That is where mediation can be a powerful resource.

2: Beware the Iceberg

When Winkelmann asks conflicting parties what they expect from each other, they very often talk about ���professional behavior,��� she reports. ���When I then ask them what exactly they mean by this, they always mention data, facts, and figures. But if communication was just about data, facts, and figures, we wouldn���t have a conflict to begin with.���

The iceberg model illustrates what many studies have shown: only 20% of communication happens at the factual level compared to 80% at the relationship level, where our emotions, feelings, needs, values, and moods are seated.

���If there���s tension at the factual level, you can safely assume that someone feels attacked at the relationship level, and that���s when the conflict arises.���

This can be the case, for example, if a person feels their performance is not being recognized or appreciated. Or they are angry or frustrated because they feel micromanaged rather than being able to work autonomously. Or vice versa: someone might be longing for more support and backing from their team instead of feeling like a lone warrior.

For many mediation participants, it is a breakthrough moment when they realize that much of our communication takes place subconsciously and is not expressed directly through words, data, or facts. ���When I start my working day in the office or online, I can���t just turn off my emotions at the flip of a switch. They are a part of us, and the reason why things touch or hurt us,��� explains Winkelmann. ���That���s why it���s so important that we talk to each other in mediation and see each other in a holistic way.���

3: Change of Perspective

In conflict situations it is also typical at first for everyone to think that the other is to blame for the problem. By extension, this also implies that the other person must change for there to be a solution.

At this point, it can be helpful to walk in the other person���s shoes for a moment. In a heated conflict, this is far from easy. By now, you���ve often built up so much internal resistance against the other person that you do not wish to walk in their shoes. That is where the mediators come into play, asking targeted questions to help the conflicting parties look at the situation from the other person’s point of view.

���It���s amazing what a change of perspective can do,��� Winkelmann says. ���In one of my recent mediations, we looked at the situation from a bird’s eye view — as if from the perspective of an uninvolved third party. One of the participants was suddenly able to see what was causing the conflict and how both parties had contributed to it. That was wonderful to experience.���

Just knowing that the other person is making an honest effort to understand can be quite reassuring for many. ���Changing your perspective helps you see yourself in the conflict, and perhaps even build a bridge between the two sides. That���s why this method is so powerful.���

Does It Always End in Peace and Harmony?

Mediation is an open-ended process by design.

It is entirely possible that the conflicting parties reach an agreement and get along again. But that doesn���t always happen. It is already a huge win if they begin to understand each other better. ���For me, in an ideal world, the conflicting parties would appreciate and accept their differences and be able work together again on that basis,��� Winkelmann says.

Sometimes, however, they recognize during the process that it is simply not possible to work together in the long term. ���It still makes sense in that case to talk about this as part of the mediation and try to find a good way out of the situation together.���

Mediation is a strictly confidential process. No one except the participants and the mediators are privy to it. The mediators are bound to confidentiality and will not talk about the mediation with anyone, including people managers or the HR department. The 決田勧箪 Global Ombuds Office, on whose behalf the mediators act, is a neutral, independent body and does not disclose any information about mediations to third parties.

The participants themselves, however, may agree to share information on their agreement with others, such as their manager, friends, or family members.

When is the right time for mediation? ���As soon as employees feel uncomfortable and don���t know how to deal with the conflict, or they���re having a hard time continuing to work with the person,” says Winkelmann. ���The sooner, the better.���

There was plenty of reason to celebrate on Friday evening at the 決田勧箪 Arena in Mannheim, close to 決田勧箪���s German headquarters in Walldorf. Today, 50 years after it was founded, 決田勧箪 is the most successful German software company and the flagship of the German digital economy, Scholz said in a speech to some 850 invited guests.

決田勧箪’s founding in 1972 was in keeping with the spirit of the times, the chancellor said. Enthusiasm for technological innovation, a spirit of renewal, and a political thaw during the Cold War shaped the world when the five 決田勧箪 founders sparked their own revolution with an idea. With standard software that maps all of a company���s business processes and makes data available in real time, they turned their startup company into the third largest independent software supplier in the world.

���Today, once again, we are experiencing tectonic shifts at high speed,��� Scholz said. Russia���s war of aggression against Ukraine has far-reaching consequences for security, energy supplies, and the global economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has also caused profound social, political, and economic changes, he said.

At the same time, Germany is currently experiencing the biggest transformation of its economy since the beginning of industrialization. ���The transformation toward a digital and climate-neutral economy is both a challenge and a solution to current problems,��� Scholz said.

He appealed for cooperation between the government and the private sector to harness potential from research and innovation. The Corona-Warn-App developed by 決田勧箪 is just one example of the potential in digital solutions, he said.

Innovation Creates Hope

���The speed with which we are able to introduce innovation into society is of central importance to our competitiveness,��� Scholz explained. In crisis situations, there is always a danger that ���many cling to the past,��� the chancellor said. But now, he said, we are in ���a remarkable phase��� in which this is not happening. Steelworkers demand that their companies invest in new production technologies to remain competitive, he said. Workers in the automotive industry expect more commitment to electromobility from their corporations.

���If we can manage to move society forward with innovation, then we can create hope for our society, which is so existential,��� Scholz said.

Digital education is also an immensely important topic for mastering the challenges of the future, explained economics professor Ann-Kristin Achleitner. She took part in a roundtable discussion with Scholz and 決田勧箪 CEO Christian Klein.

However, digital education should not be reduced to equipping students with devices. Instead, it is about promoting digital skills, such as the ability to work in an agile manner. Like Klein, she is a member of the German government’s newly founded Future Council, which promotes innovation and dialogue between industry and science.

Klein, too, pleaded for close cooperation between government, business, and science. Only through cooperation can we find ���global answers to global challenges,��� he said.

“Democracy, Freedom, Peace”

Kretschmann, Prime Minister of Germany���s state of Baden-W端rttemberg, also sees 決田勧箪���s anniversary year as a turning point in history. The turn of the times is not leaving 決田勧箪 unscathed, Kretschmann emphasized. Europe must do everything in its power to control supply chains, become more independent in terms of raw materials and energy, and be independent and capable of acting in key areas.

One of those fields, he said, is information technology. ���We have to be able to imprint our own code on the algorithms, and this code is democracy, freedom, peace.��� In this regard, he said, policymakers are relying on close cooperation with the digital economy. For example, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who is working on a national security strategy, recently visited 決田勧箪.

���The future will demand a lot from us,��� the prime minister explained. But he added that good solutions can be found by taking one���s blinders off, talking openly to each other, and developing tailor-made solutions together.

Collegial Culture and the Courage to Change

Solutions and a customer focus have always been at the heart of 決田勧箪���s credo, Christian said. These values have made 決田勧箪 what it is today, and ���we must always hold on to this part of our DNA.��� He himself learned from the founders the courage to change, challenge the status quo and ���the ability to reinvent yourself again and again.���

In the past, technological advances, such as the , or global expansion have repeatedly required a bold approach from the company���s leadership. This is also true for 決田勧箪���s current move to a cloud-based strategy, which means a paradigm shift for the company.

It���s not always easy to convince customers of the need for change because they are so satisfied with their existing 決田勧箪 systems, Prime Minister Kretschmann explained, referring to customers that hesitate油when it comes to 決田勧箪���s shift to the cloud. ���The best is the enemy of the good, so 決田勧箪 has to beat itself, so to speak,��� he said.

Despite the current transformation we���re facing, Klein said, one must not forget to treat each other with respect and understanding, which is also a big part of 決田勧箪���s DNA. Referring to the company���s collegial culture as an inherent strength, he said only as a team can you meet the challenges that lie ahead. ���In these difficult times, we need more togetherness and the courage to change.���

Photos courtesy of Ingo Cordes

Whenever she mentioned her dream to her family and other people, their response was always the same: ���You���re just a little girl, you can���t do that, don���t you want think about something else?��� Although it was clear from her schoolwork that she was talented, people still doubted her abilities. Everyone, apart from her teacher, would tell her that studying math was a bad idea. Reactions like these were a constant source of frustration for Sarah: ���You have pull through that, even though it���s quite hard work. I knew that���s what I really wanted to do, and that���s why I moved forward, no matter what anyone else said. And now I���m pretty glad that I did.���

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In fact, Sarah completed a doctorate in mathematics and is now a data scientist at 決田勧箪. It is her job to help customers make the most of their data, gain insights, and create predictions, enabling them to make better business decisions. ���Basically, I���m living the dream I had as a little girl ��� I get to talk about mathematics the entire day,��� she says.

Beating Stereotypes with Humor

Even as a professional, Sarah still encounters stereotyping. She is often the only woman in the room at customer meetings. Sometimes, on being introduced to clients, they automatically assume that one of her male colleagues must be Dr. Detzler the data scientist. ���Humor is the best way of handling those situations,��� Sarah notes. ���Knowing your stuff helps too. When I hold a presentation, after the first five minutes no one has any doubt that I am the data scientist in the room.���

The fact that data and numbers offer a neutral and objective perspective strikes a chord with Sarah ��� especially because she has experienced bias and is acutely aware of it. Erik Kandel, a neuroscientist and Nobel laureate, estimated that between 80% and 90% of our mind works unconsciously, which means that most of our cognitive processes are based on unconscious conclusions. Sarah says: ���Getting this neutral look from the data and seeing that there really is a bias and we can do something about it, or seeing, reflected from the data, how wrong our bias is, that���s something that really excites me and that I didn���t see in any other job.���

Teamwork with a Superhero

Sarah works full-time, her husband part-time. He stayed at home to look after their daughter for the first year after she was born. ���It was a natural decision for us, since I was keen to return to work and he enjoys working part-time,��� Sarah explains. Though they share tasks, her husband takes on most of the childcare and housework. ���My husband is my superhero,��� she says. ���We are a great team, the three of us, and this is the only way this can work.���

Being able to do her job from home and fit her hours around caring for her child makes life a lot easier for Sarah and her family. ���I really appreciate the flexibility, since it allows me to balance work and family, and spend a lot of time with my daughter,��� she adds.

Inspiring Girls to Think Big

She often thinks back to when she was six years old and mad about math. If only there had been female role models to follow and who she could point to and say that women are mathematicians too. But there were hardly any. At university, she was one of just two women on her undergraduate course, and later one of only three PhD students. It was a situation that left Sarah feeling isolated. That is why she encourages young girls whenever she can. ���I want to say to them: ���other women have made it and you can too.������

Sarah is keen for her daughter to grow up knowing that there are no barriers. She can be an ABAP developer in the cloud, become a data scientist, or embark on a different technical career. ���If she wants to do something else, that���s also perfectly fine, but I want it to be her decision. And for her to know that she can do whatever she wants in life.���

She started dancing at the age of five and was considered a child prodigy in her native India. Everything she did came easily to her: dance, school, her master���s degree in banking. At 22 she became the youngest branch manager to head a CitiFinancial branch in Mumbai. ���All I had experienced in my life was success and accolades. It felt like the movies,��� she says.

Then, about 10 years ago, her husband received an offer to work for 決田勧箪 in Germany. Divya agreed to the move without hesitation. In her childhood, her family had moved every two or three years because of her father���s job. ���Exploring something unknown has always been very exciting for me. This is part of my personality,��� says Divya.

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Never Give Up

But Germany was a different space. Divya didn���t know anyone and didn���t speak the language at first. ���I wanted to adapt to my new environment and also make sure my toddler felt comfortable and could make friends.��� Divya had become a mother in 2009 and wanted to be with her child completely in the first years of his life, enjoying every single milestone.

But when her son started going to kindergarten, Divya faced the toughest time of her life. The former child prodigy, the dancer, the successful banker felt, ���I couldn���t just be home, I had more energy to give.��� A piece of advice from her mother helped her come out of it. ���It will feel cold when you���re thrown into it, just stick around there, take it as a challenge.��� Determined to teach Indian dance, she navigated her way through the German bureaucratic maze to understand what was required to work as a freelance dance teacher. But she didn’t give up. She���s now been teaching classical Indian dance to local students for over 10 years.

Trying to get back into her career in banking also felt like swimming upstream. Rejection letters became a very common thing for her. ���I had to face that moment when I was going through failure at a rate that I had never known before, when I was being judged for what I was not, when I didn���t have a place to prove myself. This has given me so much empathy that I can really relate to people who are going through it,��� she says.

Learning Was a Constant

Divya has been a permanent employee at 決田勧箪 since 2019 and now works as a product manager in the 決田勧箪 S/4HANA Cloud area. Part of her job is to educate customers, partners, and internal colleagues on the value of 決田勧箪 S/4HANA Cloud. She has also recently started working on the product strategy side. ���Of course, I do need to understand the technology to be able to sell the value, but not having an engineering background should never be a showstopper.���

Bringing Empathy to Work

Divya���s art form, Bharatanatyam, represents nine basic emotions. The dancer���s role is to observe, understand, and explore every single layer of these emotions. For Divya, this is her bridge between the creative and the corporate worlds. ���Bringing empathy and emotion to work ��� or, as we say at 決田勧箪, helping the world run better and improving people���s lives ��� that’s exactly the strength I bring,��� she says. In conversations, she always tries to put herself in the shoes of customers or colleagues. ���It���s about showing the customer that you care. Most customers don���t leave a supplier because of the product itself, but because they���re feeling they are not being cared for enough.���

As in her art, she plays many roles in life. She���s a product manager, an artist, a teacher, a wife, a mother, and a daughter. ���And I feel that amidst all this, I���m still Divya,��� she says. ���I have this innate happiness within me that forms the core of what I am. And that���s helped go through the storm or calm. It���s this small little quotient of bliss that I have that���s always been my essence.���

Svea first trained as a business administrator. She then began a university degree ��� only to abandon her studies to try her hand as a tourist resort entertainer instead. That ended when she and her partner relocated from northern Germany to Heidelberg in the south, where, as a certified fitness instructor, she began teaching exercise classes. 油

After a while, it was time for something new油once again, and Svea joined 決田勧箪 in Walldorf油where油she worked as a team and management assistant油for 17 years. Being a great organizer, Svea loved supporting her team and manager so they could focus on their油main priorities.油It was油a油role that suited油her at the time.油With油a young family to bring up,油her油experience and routine油at work helped her balance work and family life.油

For 17 years,油she油was also the team���s chief problem-solver.油���Whenever someone wants to know how to do something, they ask the team assistant,���油she says.油She moved departments several times,油switching between being a management assistant and a personal assistant.油Until,油at some point,油it no longer felt right. Svea longed for a new perspective.油

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Jumping Over Career Hurdles油

When a chance to do something new came along, she jumped at it. At the time, she was working as a team assistant for 決田勧箪 Community, an online network connecting three million people who work with 決田勧箪 ��� customers, partners, and employees. One of the managers there offered her a job as an 決田勧箪 Community advocate.油

決田勧箪 Community advocates moderate discussions, share content, encourage community members to share ideas, onboard new members, and much more. Advocates need to be communications experts, but they do not have to be technology specialists.油

For the first time in her career, Svea was planning and devising projects all on her own.油She found herself on a steep learning curve.油���At first I油felt out of my depth, I simply didn���t know how to go about it,��� she says.油���Learning to work autonomously was the biggest hurdle. Now it���s what I love most about the job.���油油

The next油hurdle油was油holding presentations in her second language, English. When it comes to sport,油Svea油never turns down a油challenge. But speaking a foreign language in front of an audience油was the one thing that would make her nervous: ���On the outside, I���d appear to be totally at ease.油So油I���d tell myself that no油one could see that my heart was pounding.���油油

Today, Svea is just as confident when presenting in English. ���I never completed my studies, but I have seized every opportunity, worked hard, and faced up to every challenge. What I���m most proud of is the fact that I���m now in a senior role,��� she says.油

Finding Your Passion油

Assistants, especially management assistants, often油must油follow油their油manager���s schedule.油The role is still predominantly female, with油油showing油that 95.4%油of assistants油are women.油

The job as an 決田勧箪 Community advocate offers Svea greater independence and the flexibility to set her own schedule, which, alongside being able to work from home, is a big help when it comes to juggling family and career.

During the pandemic, Svea discovered something else that helps her deal with everyday life: ���Meditation helps me stay focused and calm, given the challenges of homeschooling and home office, and it lets me reflect on the day.��� It is now part of her daily routine. She is also active in 決田勧箪’s mindfulness program as an 決田勧箪 mindfulness ambassador and offers meditation classes.

Svea advises油younger people油starting out on their careers油to find their passion. ���Maybe that���s why I changed jobs so often ��� I wasn���t doing what I really wanted to do,���油she says.油���But now I am. I love working for油決田勧箪 Community because I���m in contact with so many people all over the world, and I really enjoy that.���

Svea has gotten to where she wanted to be.

���I come from a culture where women still don���t have the right to decide for themselves,��� she says. ���It wasn���t easy for me to come into a very free, open society — to stand up for myself and speak for myself, to feel independent, to feel confident. For me, it was a long journey.���

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Limited Career Options

Tannaz���s journey began in the Iranian capital of Tehran. As a child, she sometimes thought it would be much better for her parents if she were a boy ��� the eldest son rather than the eldest daughter. The message she got from society, university, and school was, she says, ���OK. You���re a woman. You can study, maybe work, but it���s not important to have career ambitions. The important thing is that you���re going to be a mother and that you listen to your husband.���

Contrary to social norms in Iran at the time, Tannaz���s parents were keen for their three daughters to study and work. Tannaz chose a career in accounting because she loves math and numbers. At the time, accounting was also one of the few professions that were acceptable for women in Iran. Today, reports the , more than 60% of university students in Iran are female. However, this is not reflected in equal representation in the workforce, as of Iranian women are employed.

After working for several years in Tehran, Tannaz decided on a life in Germany. ���I was important for me to have freedom and to move forward in my life, and I didn���t see the opportunity for that in Iran,��� she says, though she is careful to note that is purely her own experience and she can���t speak for other women and girls from Iran or the Middle East.

決田勧箪 Was Not On Her Radar

Tannaz met her future husband while still in Iran, moved to Germany with him, completed an MBA in international finance and controlling, and worked until her son was born.

When she was looking to return to employment a few years later, however, the situation was complicated. ���As the mother of a small child, I wasn���t able to work full time,��� she remembers. ���But the companies I applied to wouldn���t even consider part-time employment.��� Except 決田勧箪 in Walldorf, where she was offered a part-time (75%) post. ���決田勧箪 wasn���t on my radar at all to start with,��� she says. ���I thought they only needed software developers.���

Tannaz started at 決田勧箪 in project management and controlling. ���After a few years, I found that working as a controller and in reporting wasn���t the only thing I can do. I can lead teams and bring people together,��� she says. She tried her hand at various roles, working as a project lead and as a scrum master before exploring agile transformation and training at 決田勧箪 to become an agile coach.

Flexiblity for a Single Mother

That sounds like a smooth career journey. Rewind four years, when Tannaz and her husband decided to separate, and things were far from easy. Suddenly, in her late thirties, she was a single, working mother and completely on her own for the first time in her life. She and her son moved into a new apartment when his new school year began. The challenge then was that he wanted her to be there when he got home from school, often at completely different times of the day. The new situation required her to be very flexible, and Tannaz, who was back to working full-time, needed support from her colleagues and her manager.

���For me, and in my situation, 決田勧箪 plays a major role in my journey towards independence and in the way I live and the person I am right now. When I decided to live my life as a single mom, I knew that I���d have the support of my employer, and that helped me to make the decision and to go this way.���

Now, several years later, she says, ���I can organize my working day very effectively. My son is almost 14 now and much more independent. We���re a team.���

Managing People Is Her Thing

Today, Tannaz co-leads the 決田勧箪 S/4HANA Agile Center of Excellence, a role that includes managing people. ���Leading a team and achieving something together makes me unbelievably happy,��� she says. ���Right now, I���m really happy that I can decide on my own about my life, my career, my child,��� says Tannaz.

For her parents, who are getting older, Tannaz has become the go-to person. ���Now I can say that being a daughter and living my life the way I���m living it is a big help to them.���

As soon as participants arrive at the stables, they���re exposed to new impressions: grassy meadows, the scent of hay and stables, the sound of horses neighing. The place seems a thousand miles away from a work desk. The horses draw mixed responses initially; some participants are wary around them, while others approach them with confidence. But all are curious about the four-legged co-trainers.

Inhibitions fade fast. ���Just being around horses, stroking or feeding them, triggers positive emotions among the participants,��� explains Machmeier. That���s due partly to oxytocin, one of the happy hormones, which floods our bodies when we interact with horses or pets.

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���Working with horses for thousands of years has given us a special affinity with them,��� explains Anabel Schroeder, founder of油horsesense, which . ���People open up when they are around horses. Horses have a different brain wave pattern to humans and exhibit a Zen-like calm that humans can only reach through meditation. They also have a lower heart rate ��� just standing next to a horse and touching it makes you feel more relaxed.���

Experts in Human Body Language

At first, the coaching exercises don���t sound that difficult. Participants are asked to guide their horse around a short obstacle course or lead it from point A to B without using their hands. But there���s a catch: Horses don���t always behave how we���d like them to.

These exercises are very insightful for the coaches because, as Machmeier explains, ���participants always act exactly as they would in everyday life.��� Some quickly feel the pressure, become impatient, or pull on the lead rope. Others are timid and try to coax the horse around the course using friendly encouragement. ���In stressful situations, we cannot pretend and always revert to our familiar patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving,��� Schroeder shares.

According to Machmeier, ���Horse-assisted coaching is a really effective way to mirror such behaviors.��� With the exercises and joint reflection sessions, they help participants recognize what lies behind their outward reactions. ���It���s all about understanding why something triggers you or stresses you out,��� she says. The coaches often go through various exercises before they reach this point, and always following a four-step cycle: mirror behavior, encourage reflection, challenge, support.

Feedback from Horses Doesn���t Hurt

���Horses are sensitive creatures and have learned to read people; it���s their survival mechanism,��� explains Schroeder. With keen senses, they react to people���s body language and pick up even the smallest emotional cue. ���They gently mirror us without judging, and that doesn���t hurt as much as the feedback from our colleagues or managers. At the same time, people don���t resent the horse���s feedback, and that allows them to appreciate and accept it.���

Interacting with the horses can be an emotional learning experience. How does it feel when you complete your task perfectly, when the horse refuses to follow you, or when you fail to set boundaries? ���These things don���t just happen in your head, you油feel油them, and you anchor those feelings in a completely different way,��� Thiel explains.

���You���re more likely to remember what you learn through emotions than what you���re taught in a classroom,��� Schroeder says. The two 決田勧箪 coaches confirm that participants often still recall their experiences months or even years later.

���What���s really great is that when someone experiences an insight, wants to change a behavior, and we repeat the exercise, the horse immediately reacts differently,��� reports Thiel. ���Horses are always in the here-and-now and mirror the smallest change in behavior. That makes it very tangible for the participant.���

決田勧箪 employee Harald Monihart took part in horse-assisted coaching program while working for his previous employer: ���Looking back, horse-assisted coaching was by far the best training I attended at the beginning of my leadership career. The process of self-reflection that you experience when you attempt to communicate with a horse is a truly unique experience. Almost six years later, I still remember the positive effects.���

���Leading Blind���

Machmeier and Thiel offer coaching sessions for teams, managers, and individual employees, including colleagues who return to work after burnout. Individual coaching sessions often focus on dealing with stress, setting boundaries, defining priorities, or learning to say ���no,��� while typical leadership topics include managing diverse or remote groups.

Teams that attend coaching are often looking to improve collaboration, mutual appreciation, and communication, to get to know each other���s strengths, and to address areas of conflict. Another focus is psychological safety. A油油found that highly effective, high-performing teams have one thing in common ��� they nurture a culture of trust in which employees feel it is safe to make and admit to mistakes.

���One of the ways we help teams build trust is with the ���Leading Blind��� exercise,��� Thiel shares. Here, one participant leads both a horse and a blindfolded colleague. Navigating the obstacle course while leading the horse and the colleague is a complex task that doesn���t always go smoothly. It���s important to communicate well and look out for each other. This provides plenty of scope for joint discussion and reflection afterwards.

���Teams operate on a functional level and a relationship level,��� explains Machmeier. ���For a team to be truly effective, you need both levels to be strong.���

In coaching, it is generally believed that those being coached are responsible for their own growth, and horse-assisted coaching is no different. The participant is the expert, and he or she decides what topics they want to address or which insights they derive from the program. ���We can only provide the framework and give guidance,��� Machmeier says. ���Those being coached own the process.���

To round off the coaching session, participants are invited to reflect on what they���ve learned, how they plan to adopt the desired behaviors, and what the next steps are.

���You can really hear the mental cogs turning, it���s the beginning of a process,��� says Thiel. And when the participants go home? ���Everyone leaves with a huge smile on their face,��� Machmeier confirms.

Is one day of coaching enough? ���It���s certainly enough to provide an impulse,��� says Schroeder. ���People go home feeling deeply touched. Ideally, they will continue their coaching journey, but this doesn���t have to involve horses. This type of coaching is so powerful that even one day will set a lot of things in motion.���

The winds of change are blowing through the financial world too. One prominent example is Larry Fink, CEO of investment management company Blackrock, who said in that ���climate risk is investment risk.���

Businesses, too, are expected to operate more sustainably. So far, however, expressing sustainability successes in monetary terms — in the balance sheet — has not been easy. Enter QuartaVista, an innovation project led by 決田勧箪 and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

���The idea behind QuartaVista is to measure corporate success not only in financial terms, but to integrate other dimensions in the balance sheet, such as ecology, knowledge, and society,��� says Reiner Bildmayer, QuartaVista project manager at 決田勧箪.

The project ran from November 2018 to February 2021 and recently presented its results at a closing event in Berlin.

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Pioneer Work

The QuartaVista methodology was jointly developed by 決田勧箪 and Regionalwert AG, Freiburg, a citizen shareholder company that channels citizens��� money to build up regional sustainable enterprises. What���s new about QuartaVista is that sustainable business practices, as well as risks, are shown on the assets or the liabilities side of the balance sheet.

The first prerequisite for this was to translate sustainability efforts into quantifiable metrics.

���Within the project, we developed 180 sustainability KPIs, thus creating the basis to capture these values in the balance sheet,��� explains Christian Hiss, founder and CEO of Regionalwert AG, Freiburg.

One example is knowledge retention. According to the QuartaVista methodology, training new employees does not only incur costs to the company. Instead, the knowledge that is built up and retained can be booked as an asset in the balance sheet.

The partners involved in the QuartaVista project were seed producer油,油, organic grain product manufacturer油,油and . They tested the methodology in practice. 決田勧箪���s role was to map the QuartaVista accounting approach to a dashboard. In addition, , an artificial intelligence-enhanced software specialist and the charitable research and teaching organization visualized the KPIs in a forecast tool.

���QuartaVista has built a prototype that demonstrates how sustainability KPIs can be integrated in the accounting process and in corporate management as well,��� says Annika Woltjen, QuartaVista project lead at BODAN.

���We broke it down into the smallest details, which is what ultimately sets this project apart,��� Bildmayer shares.

Holistic corporate management involves combining financial and non-financial key figures, adds Martin Heinig, head of New Ventures and Technologies at 決田勧箪, at the event in Berlin. ���You have to collect the data, make it assessable and comparable. In this respect, QuartaVista has taken a big step in the right direction.���

True Prices

One example of how QuartaVista might play out in practice is prices.

���QuartaVista gives us the opportunity to reach true prices,��� stresses Philip Luthardt, sustainability manager at Bohlsener Muehle. ���It is a chance for producers of organic products to show how much value we add to society as a whole.���

Isabelle Sanchez, commercial manager at Bingenheimer Saatgut, believes that price transparency helps to drive customer acceptance: ���When we explain the values we are creating and what goes into the product, then consumers are more likely to agree.” As an example, she cites organically created seedfast varieties, whose seeds spawn the same plants repeatedly. This saves consumers from having to buy new seeds in the following year.

���What is cheap today is expensive tomorrow,��� explains Jenny Lay-Kumar, QuartaVista project lead at Regionalwert AG, Freiburg. “Adding risks and damage to the balance sheet, as well as crediting efforts toward sustainability, means much more than just making products more expensive. It means realigning the market economy based on a new way of measuring success.”

QuartaVista does not necessarily mean making organically produced products more expensive. ���Sustainable management is an investment that is capitalized as an asset in the balance sheet. If QuartaVista is implemented, I can achieve completely different prices,��� Hiss concludes.

Experimentation and Thinking Space

Even though the project has now officially concluded, it is not the end of the line, but rather a starting point. The partners are determined to drive their methodology forward in collaboration with businesses, academia, and politicians. A lot of work remains to be done; the project was set up as an experimentation and thinking space.

���We have a tool with which we can practice thinking. We can do something and see the results of our actions. This is the beginning of a larger change, not only in finance,��� Professor Karin Graeslund from the Wiesbaden Business School and German-speaking 決田勧箪 User Group DSAG, said at the closing event.

���We opened up a wealth of potential with QuartaVista. We are determined to continue,��� Bildmayer emphasizes.

Two hybrid trucks pull out of the yard at BODAN, an organic food wholesaler located at Lake Constance in Ueberlingen, Germany. In addition to being more fuel-efficient than conventional vehicles, these hybrid trucks are also extremely quiet ��� causing less disturbance for local residents, especially at night.

These benefits don���t come cheap, and the additional cost of ���45,000 compared to a conventional truck hits profits. The fact that BODAN buys hybrid trucks anyway reflects the self-image of this pioneering organic business.

Given that conventional accounting methods only measure the financial dimension, businesses tend to perceive sustainability solely as a cost factor. This issue ��� particularly as it applies to agriculture ��� is what interests Christian Hiss, founder and CEO of Regionalwert AG Freiburg, a citizen shareholder company that channels citizens��� money to build up regional sustainable enterprises.

���I realized more than two decades ago that there is a disconnect between the reality of how agricultural businesses operate and how their operations are recognized in accounting and reporting, which fail to adequately consider social, ecological, and other factors,��� says Hiss.

At the same time, we���re witnessing a shift of values in society: The global community is setting new standards through the . On top of that, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragile nature of global supply chains and increased demand for regionally-produced, eco-friendly goods.

But if you want to incentivize businesses to commit to climate and environmental protection, regional production, and training and educating their workers, sustainability has to be more than an ideal; it has to be translated into the language of business: financial accounting.

QuartaVista: A Holistic Accounting Model

This is what the QuartaVista, or ���four perspectives,��� innovation project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is all about.

���I think we���re seeing the beginning of a movement,��� says Reiner Bildmayer, project lead for QuartaVista at 決田勧箪. ���Sustainability will become such a key business decision factor that, pretty soon, a traditional profit margin will no longer be considered as important as it once was.���

As an ���experimentation space,��� QuartaVista expands the view of a company from one to four perspectives: finance, ecology, society, and knowledge. The partners involved in the project are seed producer , , organic grain product manufacturer , AI-enhanced software specialist , charitable research and teaching organization , , and 決田勧箪. Together, they are looking at how sustainable behaviors can be translated into quantifiable metrics.

���What���s new about QuartaVista is that it shows achievements for sustainable management, but also risks, on the assets or the liabilities side of the balance sheet, encouraging more sustainable business practices,��� Hiss says.

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Visualizing Sustainability in a Way the Finance World Understands

But which targets and performance metrics need to be measured? And how, critics ask, can you put an objective monetary value on sustainability efforts?

Regionalwert AG Freiburg and other project partners have made a start and have defined specific KPIs (key performance indicators) derived partly from the 17 UN SDGs. Taking the example of Goal 4: Quality Education, you can ask, ���Do companies build up and keep their knowledge capital, or is it lost?��� Sustainability practices can be accounted for, says Hiss. ���The key thing is to identify the right way of quantifying them, the right account to post them to ��� in QuartaVista, we show how it���s done.���

決田勧箪’s role in the partnership is to map the QuartaVista accounting approach to a dashboard. The dashboard visualizes sustainability in a way that the world of finance understands. ���We���re trying to quantify sustainability efforts, to make them accessible to the financial community ��� and thus create visibility,��� says Bildmayer.

Fair Prices and Transparency for Consumers

If efforts in the three dimensions of ���knowledge,��� ���nature,��� and ���society��� are seen as business assets, they can be factored into prices. BODAN, for example, has been competing against businesses in the conventional food industry since it first began trading. Right now, if you only compare prices, eco-products come off badly.

Yet the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that , such as origin, freshness, and transparency. In spring this year, BODAN recorded revenue increases of up to 40 percent per month, which cannot be attributed solely to more home cooking and increased stockpiling by private households.

���If you factor the non-financial aspects of ecological farming into your calculation, such as soil conservation or water pollution control, then organic products are already cheaper today than conventionally manufactured ones,��� argues Sascha Damaschun, one of the managing directors at BODAN, which invests in organic plant breeding, sustainable seed development, and more.

���The genetic diversity of our crops is a relevant economic value,��� he explains. Sustainably bred plants are often more resilient to climate change than high-performance varieties used in conventional farming, and do not require synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. On the QuartaVista dashboard, BODAN can show sustainable investments of around ���70,000 made between 2014 and 2019.

The debate reaches far beyond the QuartaVista project. In an on German TV channel ZDF, Professor Maja G旦pel, political economist and sustainability scientist, insisted that, ���Prices must tell the ecological truth.���

So far, companies that externalize their environmental costs have been at an advantage, she said. So, how can we rejig tax and levy systems so that companies with sustainable business models can be competitive?

���One very, very important change would be to adopt environmental pricing,��� G旦pel explained. ���That way, ecologically sustainable companies could differentiate themselves from their competitors, and we���d see technologies that facilitate sustainable business entering the market.���

Sustainability KPIs as Strategic Management Tools

Companies like BODAN have engaged in sustainability reporting for years. But a sustainability report reflects the past and has not been an integral part of the corporate balance sheet. The QuartaVista model, on the other hand, offers insights at the point when investment decisions are made and provides a future perspective. As such, QuartaVista functions as a kind of navigation system that helps companies adopt a future-oriented management approach.

Bohlsener M端hle makes a point of deriving all of its raw materials from organic sources. Overall, 40 percent of its sources are regional and for grain, its main raw material, that figure is 85 percent. Sustainability has been part of the company���s DNA since its founding in 1979 and lies at the heart of its operating model, which includes using green energy. The company���s own spelt hull pellet heating system generates sufficient heat from the by-products of spelt wheat processing to supply 75 local households, producing a saving of 400 tons of CO₂ in 2019 alone. Bohlsener M端hle is also one of the many businesses seeing a rise in demand for regional and organic products as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The QuartaVista method is at the heart of Bohlsener M端hle���s business operations. It has defined KPIs for knowledge acquisition and retention, climate footprint, and quality of work in the supply chain. These sustainability KPIs should rank equally with economic KPIs in the balance sheet, says Philip Luthardt, sustainability manager at Bohlsener M端hle.

This is a big challenge for employees. ���Now, all of a sudden, they���re having their performance measured not only against sales and production targets, but also against sustainability KPIs.��� But at the same time, sustainability is gaining a new level of appreciation at the company. ���This is a new way of thinking that enables us to integrate sustainability into the key areas of corporate management and evaluation,��� says Luthardt.

Real Consequences Drive Real Change

Bingenheimer Saatgut has also made sustainability one of its company goals. ���You���re not just selling a product,��� says Commercial Manager Isabelle Sanchez. ���As a company, you need a culture, a guiding vision.��� In pursuing its vision, the company sources primarily from regional suppliers, uses renewable energy, and aims to reduce the number of employees on temporary contracts. The huge wave of orders it received during the pandemic ��� about twice as many as in the same period last year ��� shows that consumers are headed in the same direction.

If society truly wants a shift toward more sustainability, however, incentives must be put in place. ���A company that uses green energy, for example, should enjoy tax breaks or other financial incentives that are not open to a competitor that uses nuclear-generated power,��� says Sanchez.

The logical consequence of that would be a shift in the balance of power in the market. ���If companies are obliged to account for risks, if there are standards that apply to everyone and are audited, then every company will be forced to act,��� adds Sanchez. ���Otherwise, they would no longer be competitive.��� In the long term, Sanchez sees QuartaVista as an instrument ���that will help us get climate change under control.���

The project partners want QuartaVista to ���keep strictly to the logic of business,��� says Hiss, and thus create a vision for a genuine economic transformation. The project, which began in the fall of 2018, will run until the end of February 2021.

One new use case developed by 決田勧箪 supports employees at specific points in their working lives and receives feedback from them, with the goal of improving their experience.

Employee experience was a top priority in human resources (HR) long before 決田勧箪 acquired Qualtrics. However, with the company now part of the 決田勧箪 family, new possibilities have opened up. One result has been the joint project between HR and the Best Run TopX Experience Management program designed to fuel growth through improving the experience for 決田勧箪 customers, partners, end-users, and employees.

The project looks at how Experience Management solutions from 決田勧箪 can improve company processes; in this case, those that serve employees.

What X+O Means in HR

So far, HR has developed three use cases: candidate experience, onboarding experience, and employee benefits optimizer. More are planned to follow in the course of the year.

The HR team at 決田勧箪 in South Korea is already using the benefits optimizer to help rethink employee benefits by first finding out which benefits individual employees actually prefer.

These preferences ��� or experience data (X-data) ��� were captured, analyzed, and linked with operational data (O-data). As an example, operational data might include how far employees commute, their family situation, or their age group.

���By linking the two data sets, the Total Rewards team is able to tailor benefits to specific groups of employees,��� says Christian Liebig, global head of People Insights for HR at 決田勧箪.

What is good for employees is good for HR: Offering the right benefits helps retain people, the ultimate goal.

Feedback: Every Piece Is Valuable

Having a continuous stream of X-data means that HR will know what employees really appreciate as well as what they are less keen on.

From Liebig���s point of view, Experience Management solutions enable a completely new way of thinking and approach and thus offers a great opportunity for HR: ���It allows us to understand contexts and think systemically and systematically about them.���

Receiving feedback, of course, is not always pleasant, whether from employees or customers. As Oliver Staudenmayer, program manager for Best Run TopX Experience Management and head of Employee Experience Management at 決田勧箪, notes: ���You have to be open-minded in order to truly appreciate every piece of feedback and gain something positive from it, even if it may be unfounded.���

At the same time, he says, organizations must be set up for agile decision-making: ���If changes or decisions first have to pass a large committee, then you lose the very momentum that enables you to react to feedback and keep pace with users.���

Demonstrating Benefits to Customers

Using Experience Management solutions internally is good for 決田勧箪���s own business, but it is also the best way to show customers how it can benefit theirs too.

���We show customers how they can gain a new and highly valuable data dimension that aligns their company���s decision processes more closely with what their customers are really experiencing,��� Staudenmayer explains. ���If the user tells us at that very moment that something delights or disappoints, we know why they feel that way and can take action. This is not just an innovation in technology, but in culture too.���

Staudenmayer believes this can lead to more democratic decision-making.

���In the future, we���ll know what the majority of users want, not just those who make the most noise,��� he says. ���I believe there is a huge opportunity here.���

Staudenmayer also liaises closely with the Data Protection and Privacy Office as well as the IT Security department.油 ���We are guided by 決田勧箪���s rigorous policies,��� he confirms.

Where employees are concerned, transparency is key, according to Liebig: ���No one is forced to take part in any survey or disclose their data. However, if we are open and honest about what we���re doing, and people recognize clear benefits for themselves, then they will be happy to share.���