MBA Alumni discuss Digital Transformation and Digital Marketing

In November MBA-Alumni met at the Evangelische Adademie in Frankfurt for their annual Alumni-Meeting. More than 50 people from different alumni cohorts and guests from our partner program at the University Bergamo participated in a lively event. The main topic of the alumni day was the digital transformation and its effect on German industry. Two top speakers could be recruited who gave great insight into different aspects of the subject.

Mark Pralle, co-founder and CEO of Fabrik 19 from Giessen presented shifts in marketing due to digitalization. In general, dialogue, individualization and mobile applications are the key to reach customers. Mass marketing will become increasingly challenging due to decreasing attention and filter options of consumers. He also presented digital solutions his company is developing together with over-the-counter retailers to improve the shopping experience at the POS.

Stephan Bülle, Geschäftsführer at LUGATO from Hamburg presented the digital strategy of his mother company ARDEX, a globally operating building and special chemical company. Achieving customer centricity was one of the key ingrediences of his company’s approach. This was achieved by using the design thinking methodology. He pointed out that before a successful implementation of a digital strategy an organization must have a clear understanding about the right direction. However, due to the very high dynamic of digitalization implementation must be fast and flexible. He suggested “lean startup” where new applications are started fast and are further developed after implementation as one possible option to gain speed as a company.

Finally, the Alumni Master Thesis Award for this year was awarded to Eike Thomas who wrote on the topic of digital marketing tools for car dealerships in Germany. His conclusion was that dealers will have to react to the digital challenges and online retail in order to survive. However, not all dealers are willing to invest in new technologies such as digital assistance tools for the POS.

After a day of interesting and inspiring presentations and discussions the group visited the Communication Museum in Frankfurt before relaxing and enjoying the rest of the day at Trattoria i Siciliani.

Everyone agreed that it was another great event not only for networking but to get important impulses for one’s own work challenges.