The future of the German economy cannot be secured by machines, only by people. Cooperation is crucial for event organizer Sören Bauer. He says: If you don’t cooperate, you go under.
Pandemic, war, inflation: the crises that threaten the German economy are diverse and never let up. Because of their dimensions, it is clear that we can only overcome these crises together. Companies that think in silos and do not cooperate with other market participants will go under. This in turn is not only bad for their employees and our country in general, but also specifically for my industry. Because insolvent companies do not organize events.
In order to promote the exchange of knowledge among top decision-makers, we as Sören Bauer Events have therefore taken the lead and, together with the company Peter Kölln, have organized the first CEO dinner under the motto “The future of the German economy” in the Radisson Collection Hotel in Berlin. Around 50 business leaders and company owners had the opportunity to make contacts and receive exclusive insights and concrete recommendations for action from futurologist Erik Handeler and a group of experts from the fields of digitization, circular economy, sustainability and clean energies.
Futurologist Handeler explained that despite increasing digitization and the use of artificial intelligence, the amount of work will not decrease in the future, but that the type of work will change and, above all, take place in imaginary space: “No machine can do this fuzzy and unstructured work for us decrease, on the contrary: Knowledge work will increase.” Therefore, people in the form of well-trained employees are one of the scarcest resources that will be important in the future.
The conscious use of resources was also one of the central points in the subsequent panel discussion, which was made up of Dr. Sophie Chung, CEO and founder of the health startup Qunomedical, the former CDU politician and current management consultant Friedbert Pfluger, Anne Kathrin Antic, managing director of the waste management professionals at GlobalFlow, Andreas Enke, board member and co-founder of Geneon Vermögensmanagement AG, and Dirk Graszt, CEO of Clean Logistics SE.
Sören Bauer and his agency, Sören Bauer Events, have been organizing events for customers from 80 to 2,500 for over 25 years. Above all, Bauer is known for his own productions such as the media events “Movie meets Media”, Director’s Cut, the “EuroMinds” business summit or the “German Sports Journalists’ Prize”. In 2019, the entrepreneur founded the company Leaders Web GmbH together with investors and operates the business club and the participant management system www.Face-Club.com.
Anne Kathrin Antic explained how the use of material resources in the economy could be reduced: “We have to think at the beginning what we want in the end.” She emphasized: “We don’t necessarily have to consume less, we have to consume the right things.” himself Dr. Chung: “The economy should be set up in such a way that one is no longer dependent on material resources.” Instead, digitization and data-based work should be the key points of economic development in the future.
Friedbert Pfluger also supported futurologist Handeler’s thesis that prosperity now depends on the people behind the technology: “We have to use knowledge more effectively. We can no longer afford to waste knowledge!” CEO Dirk Graszt added that it was necessary for the boss to take a step back and put the employees first. When moderator Gudrun Dometeit asked whether Germany had made itself too dependent on global production, he answered in the affirmative and recommended that local production be used as an alternative in future in order to conserve resources. Andreas Enke agreed, emphasizing the finite nature of our earth as a resource. However, he expressed the hope that the upcoming supply chain law would enable the financial market to assess sustainability in companies and thus promote it.
Erik Handeler encouraged those who are a little unsure about the changes that are coming: “We all find it difficult to deal with change. No boss wants to say they’ve been thinking the wrong thing for the past 20 years.”
In order for an entrepreneur to get through the crises mentioned above in one piece, it is important to start with the change. Now. That’s why I will continue to do everything in the future to advance this process and network our economy even better. In my interest and in all of ours.
