Wrap-Up:
At the end of the virtual Corporate Transformation Day, as with a real all-day conference, a summary must be submitted in which the cross-block statements and key messages are presented in a condensed form.
These are as follows:
Firstly, the choice of topics for the Corporate Transformation Day proved to be the right one in retrospect, as both the specialist contributions and the corporate speakers confirmed that the combination of transformation topics we selected represented the most dangerous threat to companies.
Secondly, it was surprisingly apparent throughout the thematic blocks that the human and energy factors are the decisive factors for the coming years, as resources and enablers for future development.
Thirdly, people and digitalization can be understood both as necessary complementary factors and as antagonists. It is up to the management levels to decide which constellation is best.
Fourthly, all the blocks dealt with technologies and skills, and in some cases also with financial resources. It emerged that there is no lack of technologies or financial resources.
Fifthly, the availability of personnel, the preparatory processes for implementation and the implementation itself were identified as critical factors across all thematic blocks. Particularly striking was the final consensus in the block on the energy transition, where it was stated that although the technologies and funds for the energy transition are available, the implementation of the energy transition will be completed much later than currently planned due to numerous hurdles. The 2050 target year for German CO2 neutrality is therefore illusory.
Sixthly, industry has a driving role to play in digitalization. It must stimulate the government and administration so that they can accelerate their digital-networked transformation. Without this, Germany will not reduce its enormous backlog, but will actually increase it in view of the dynamics in other environmental regions. This would jeopardize Germany’s continued prosperity.
Eighthly: organic corporate reorganization and external restructuring of companies are essential prerequisites for the change that Germany must undergo. M&A itself must reinvent itself in order to compensate for the increasing pressure to perform and keep pace with the necessary change.
Ninth: Companies that are already digitized are both a driver and a source. They provide the lived experience that is needed to implement the necessary change. They should also be used as crystallization points for the digital-informational transformation of society as a whole.
Tenthly: in order to realize the above, considerably more openness and personal willingness for fundamental change is required in all sectors, from industry to administration, and in all areas of our industrial society. This requires a fundamental cultural reorientation of our country.
You can watch the recording of the event here on the BM&A YouTube channel.
