The AWK Group is an international, independent management and technology consultancy with offices in Zurich, Bern, Basel, Lausanne and Luxembourg. With over 400 employees, AWK supports the digital transformation of organizations from a wide range of industries from strategy to implementation and is familiar with the technologies of the future. Its services range from the development of digital business models, data analytics, cyber security and IT advisory to the management of complex transformation projects.

Similar services - complementary customer orientations

Now the AWK Group is joining forces with Ginkgo Management Consulting, a Hamburg-based consultancy with more than 135 employees that also specializes in digital strategies and transformations. Together, the two companies are now focused on developing and implementing digital business models from a single source. Both companies are very similar in terms of their service offering. In terms of customer focus, they complement each other perfectly, according to the statement. "Our internationally oriented clients are increasingly demanding on-site consulting expertise from the AWK Group outside Switzerland. With the merger with Ginkgo, we are taking the next step by first internationalizing in the direction of Germany and at the same time establishing a presence in Asia," said Oliver Vaterlaus, CEO of the AWK Group. "For Ginkgo, AWK is the ideal partner," adds Lars Godzik, founding partner of Ginkgo. "Through the merger, we gain competencies in the area of public administration and strengthen our service portfolio, for example, in the area of cyber security & privacy."

Part of the AWK Group's strategy

AWK's strategy is to build a leading international management and technology consulting group that is characterized by size and independence, subject leadership,
know-how and relevance and can support globally active customers in their digital transformation with country-specific expertise as well as across borders. At the same time, AWK - already a "Great Place to work" - wants to attract the best international talent and offer them attractive job and career prospects.

Source and further information

Clariter and Bureau Veritas have joined forces to conduct comprehensive testing relevant to the chemical recycling of industrial plastic waste. Clariter, as an upcycler, has developed a process that it says offers a large-scale solution to the world's plastic waste problem and an innovative business model. It paves the way for the circular economy, the company writes. The patented technology converts unwanted plastic waste into high-quality, pure industrial product families: White Oils, Paraffinic Waxes and Aliphatic Solvents. The company has an in-house research and development centre and two laboratories to develop innovative chemical recycling products.

Bureau Veritas is an excellent partner for Clariter, as the company is a world leader in the testing industry and has a global presence, according to a statement published on February 15, 2021. This is in line with Clariter's scaling plans, the company adds. Clariter is able to leverage Bureau Veritas' vast network of state-of-the-art laboratories and global team of experts to work on samples from Gliwice, Poland and East London, South Africa. Bureau Veritas, founded in 1828, employs over 75,000 people in more than 1500 offices and laboratories around the globe.

Source: Clariter

Under the motto "FIT@IVF", which is still valid today, IVF Hartmann, one of the leading Swiss companies for medical consumer goods with 330 employees, started 10 years ago with small steps into the company health management. These included the establishment of a relaxation room and the first sporting activities and events for employees. The impetus for this came from HR Manager Nicole Egger, who already had positive experience with occupational health management measures from previous jobs. The management was quickly won over by the argument that healthy employees lead to a healthy company and thus also to healthy finances. In addition, the corporate vision "We are going further for health" - not only for customers but also for employees - complemented perfectly.

Corporate culture as a supporting pillar

Against this background, the support of an employee-oriented management and corporate culture was given from the very beginning. "The sustainable implementation of a systematic BGM needs a strong cultural foundation so that it is permanently a fixed agenda item in the corporate strategy and in the continuous development process, at least that is what our experience shows," explains Ines Marusic, HR Business Partner and BGM Officer at IVF Hartmann since 2015. "That's why I recommend companies that want to introduce BGM and establish it successfully in the long term to get the management on board as the relevant decision-maker from the outset and to involve HR, so that implementation is aligned with HR development. In addition to our internal competencies, we also make continuous use of the external impulses of the experts from Health Promotion Switzerland, who are a valuable sparring partner for us."

With a holistic approach to the label

In 2015, the decision was made to further professionalize the previously created internal BGM package of measures. In the interests of efficient and targeted implementation, the individual components with a spectrum ranging from management training for employee discussions and burnout prevention to a wide range of health offers were brought together in a holistic BGM model (see graphic) and recorded in a concept.

At the same time, this paved the way for the award as a "Friendly Work Space" by Health Promotion Switzerland, which took place in 2016. "The label is a seal of quality based on scientifically validated criteria. This label is therefore very important to us, because it sends a strong signal both internally and externally that the topic of (employee) health is firmly anchored in the company on a permanent basis and is handled professionally," emphasises Marusic.

Intelligent use of internal competencies

In line with the professionalization of occupational health management, a six-member steering committee with members from various departments under the leadership of the person responsible for occupational health management is now responsible for its implementation. If available, employees who have additional health-related training, e.g. in the areas of nutrition, exercise/sport or relaxation, and who are happy to pass on their knowledge to their colleagues, are also gladly included in the design of the annual occupational health management programme.

BGM brings measurable success

The commitment to this high standard of quality in occupational health management brings measurable success. These are reflected, among other things, in a significant decline in absences and a lower number of serious cases. As a result, absence costs fell by CHF 400,000 from 2017 to 2018 and remained almost identical at this significantly lower level in the following year. Encouraging savings for IVF Hartmann, which the company allows its employees to benefit from again via the return flow into the BGM budget. This also shows the high value of the time invested. For Ines Marusic, it is a good 25 percent of her part-time workload of 70 percent.

Last but not least, a look at the exceptional year 2020. Marusic is convinced of the positive effects of occupational health management in this context: "Thanks to our corporate culture, which has now been characterised for years by a high level of awareness of the physical and mental health of our employees, we were well positioned for this crisis. The existing relationship of trust, for example, has made it much easier to manage at a distance. In addition, our employees have already learned a lot about stress reduction, time management, nutrition, etc. thanks to BGM, and take responsibility for their health accordingly. That's why the lightning changeover to home office worked without a hitch and shows the maturity of the organization. We had no absences purely due to the stress of the crisis situation. I think that speaks for itself."

Health Promotion Switzerland

The foundation, which is under private law and supported by the cantons and insurers, initiates, coordinates and evaluates measures to promote health on the basis of a statutory mandate. This also includes supporting companies and organisations in setting up occupational health management (OHM).
Until 31.3.2021, Health Promotion Switzerland offers companies a simple and cost-effective introduction to occupational health management by means of partial financing.

www.friendlyworkspace.ch/anteilsfinanzierung

A survey conducted by the FHNW of over 1,500 physicians in Swiss hospitals showed that the professional group is particularly challenged in university hospitals and among young physicians in low functional levels. The study illustrates how great the effect of communication is on job satisfaction.

Communication: the most important factor for job satisfaction

The most important finding of the study indicates that positive leadership communication leads to significantly higher job satisfaction and improved well-being among all physicians. Three elements were identified that have a direct impact on job satisfaction: The greatest effect is the tone of communication, which should be as friendly, appreciative, transparent, helpful and equal as possible. It is clear that if the tone is positive, job satisfaction increases significantly. Doctors feel less stressed, are better able to separate private and professional matters and are less afraid to express their opinions.

The information behaviour and the quality of information from superiors have the same effect: If the information behavior is sincere, proactive and trust-building and the information quality is helpful, this significantly increases job satisfaction. In addition to the tone and the information behaviour, the leadership style is important, which should be based on mutual trust and promote intrinsically motivated work.

Young generation demands appreciative tone

Women, assistant doctors and Generation Y doctors are particularly sensitive to the way they communicate. This new generation of physicians, Generation Y¹ named, attaches particular importance to an appreciative tone and transparent communication. They appreciate and demand good team and management communication and like to receive feedback, which has a positive effect on their professional and private satisfaction. This is particularly important to note because this generation is particularly dissatisfied in their jobs, often resigned and significantly more stressed than their older colleagues. They often feel very emotionally challenged and often have too little time to do their work carefully. This particularly affects Generation Y women. Doctors of the Baby Boomer generation, chief physicians and doctors working in rehabilitation clinics are the most satisfied.

Source: www.fhnw.ch

Most people agree: data protection is important and one's own data should be well protected. Nevertheless, hardly anyone reads data protection notices. This is not surprising, because privacy notices are usually long and difficult to understand texts. According to a study by the New York Times, many privacy notices are more difficult to read than Immanuel Kant's work "Critique of Pure Reason".

With privacy icons for more comprehensibility

Many users are overwhelmed with the reading of privacy statements. The association Privacy Icons wants to change this. The association of renowned Swiss companies aims to make data protection notices more comprehensible and to increase transparency in data protection. Its foundation goes back to an event for collaborative innovation by digitalswitzerland. The association is currently made up of BKW, Credit Suisse, Julius Baer, Migros, SBB, Swisscom, Zurich Insurance, the University of Zurich and the law firm Wenger & Vieli.

"Who uses my personal data for what purpose? People should be able to see that at a glance," thinks Florent Thouvenin, professor of information and communication law at the University of Zurich and initiator of the pictograms, which are intended to make data protection more comprehensible. "That's why we developed the 19 Privacy Icons."

Switzerland as a pioneer

Not only are privacy statements often difficult to understand, there is also no uniformity between companies. "The Privacy Icons offer the opportunity to establish a standard in Switzerland - as road signs for data protection, so to speak. This is unique worldwide," says Matthias Glatthaar, co-president of the Privacy Icons association and data protection officer of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives. Data protection law is designed to help data subjects exercise control over the processing of their data. In order to do so, however, they must first be aware of what is happening with their data. For this reason, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner Adrian Lobsiger also welcomes the initiative: "The pictograms provide orientation and help to make abstract data protection declarations easier to understand, but they should not replace them. They promote transparency, which is one of the central concerns in data protection."

Leading companies set new standards

Migros, Swisscom, SBB and Credit Suisse have been supplementing their data protection notices with the new data protection pictograms since 30 November 2020. BKW and Zurich Insurance also plan to use these "road signs". "We invite all companies to use the Privacy Icons and thereby increase the user-friendliness of their privacy notices," says Juliette Hotz, co-president of the Privacy Icons association and Senior Counsel Data Governance at Swisscom. The Privacy Icons are freely available and can be used by companies that process personal data, here downloaded and used free of charge.

Since 2005, the SWISS EXCELLENCE FORUM has honoured outstanding ethical achievements in business with the Swiss Ethics Award. The focus is on the achievements of organisations that assume responsibility in a special way and are actively involved in sustainable corporate management. Five outstanding projects have been nominated for the 2020 Award:

• Alternative Bank Schweiz AG, Olten Project: Climate Active ABS
• Arbofino AG, Männedorf Wood investment with biodiversity promotion
• Forma Futura Invest AG, Zurich Project: independent sustainable asset management
• Reckhaus AG, Gais with Insect Respect
• Vatorex AG, Wiesendangen with Bee Together Bee Alive

Award ceremony at the Museum of Transport Lucerne

The award ceremony will take place on 23 September 2020 in the Museum of Transport in Lucerne as part of an exciting programme. Dr. Marc Holitscher, Member of the Executive Board at Microsoft Switzerland will talk about "Artificial Intelligence: why we need an ethical compass". He will be a guest in the subsequent panel discussion together with Dr. Regula Pfister, entrepreneur and board member, and Dr. Michael Fürst, Head Social Innovation & Strategy, Global Health & Corporate Responsibility at Novartis International AG.

Jury of the Swiss Ethics Award

The projects will be judged by a top-class jury consisting of ethicists as well as representatives from business, science, theology and politics:

• Stephan Baer, Baer Ammann GmbH
• National Councillor Corina Eichenberger
• Paola Ghillani, Paola Ghillani & Friends Ltd
• Prof. Dr. Markus Huppenbauer, Center for Religion, Economics and Politics, University of Zurich
• Prof. Dr. Hans Ruh, economic and social ethicist
• Prof. Dr. Peter Schaber, Ethics Centre of the University of Zurich
• Dr Christoph Weber-Berg, Reformed Regional Church of Aargau

Partner

The Swiss Ethics Award is supported by Holinger AG, Die Post, ibW Höhere Fachschule Südostschweiz, Luzerner Kantonalbank, Linkgroup AG, Zentralbahn, the organiser and Umwelt Perspektiven.

For further details please contact us:

Ruth Buholzer, SWISS EXCELLENCE FORUM

(r.buholzer@excellence-forum.ch)

www.swiss-excellence-forum.ch

The special circumstances due to the official measures against the preparation of the coronavirus have led to go new ways for the announced association meeting. For the first time in the history of the SVTI, the meeting was held in writing. The members of the association who had registered for the postal vote approved the proposals with a large majority.

Positive business year 2019

The SVTI and the SVTI Group, consisting of the SVTI and Swiss Safety Center AG, can look back on a positive financial year 2019 with stable development. The consolidated operating result was increased. The leasing of the office space in the extension building has started successfully and is practically complete.

2019 - An anniversary year with inauguration of the extension building

The SVTI was able to look back on its 150th anniversary in 2019. One of the highlights of the anniversary year was the inauguration of the extension building in Wallisellen. With an open day on 17 May 2019, the SVTI Group, together with customers, suppliers, partners, authorities and employees, inaugurated the new academy and conference centre in Wallisellen and celebrated the completion of the modern extension building. The extension building in Wallisellen serves as a modern and attractive location for the training and further education of the SVTI Group. External parties also have the option of renting the seminar facilities for their own events.

Shaping the present as a guarantee for a successful future

In 2019, the SVTI Group drove forward several digitalization projects. In connection with this, the Group was also strongly committed to dealing with IT security. As a result, a successful information security audit and ISO 27001 certification were achieved in January 2020. The search for qualified specialists remained a major challenge for SVTI in 2019. New ways of recruiting are showing initial success.

"We are optimally equipped for future requirements".

This is the statement of Dr. Raffael Schubiger, who looks back on his first year as Chairman of the Executive Board of the SVTI. In particular, the large existing know-how forms the basis for the development of the SVTI and the Swiss Safety Center AG. Examples include non-destructive testing in the construction industry to check the structure of damaged buildings, or simulation proofs in fire protection, which open up new possibilities for the design of buildings, or the material-technical examination methods, which allow material damage to be traced or even prevented.

Although the economic uncertainty due to the current Corona crisis is weighing on the economic environment in Switzerland, the SVTI and also Swiss Safety Center AG are optimistic about the future. Thanks to the experience gained in recent years and by exploiting the potential in the various markets, the operating results should be further consolidated.

Further information under www.svti.ch

Marco Induti joins the "Modern Non-Destructive Testing" team at the Swiss Safety Center. The business area "Modern NDT" of the Swiss Safety Center is part of the Materials Technology division and offers services and solutions for the non-destructive testing of material properties, components or systems without causing damage during the inspection. As another part of the Materials Technology division, the materials technology testing laboratory with mechanical-technological tests, metallographic examinations and non-destructive tests completes the range of services. Further competences are: Expert knowledge for heat treatment issues, general materials science and corrosion; on-site materials testing as well as expert opinions and reports for industry, insurance companies, authorities and courts.

Marco Induti, who is now joining the company, is an industrial engineer specialising in automation and robotics and holds an MBA with a focus on economics and management. He brings experience, from an international environment, as a business developer and project manager for the development and sales of solutions for industrial image processing.

As a specialist in image processing technologies, it develops systems capable of analyzing any object from its images or videos and extracting useful information to make decisions. The purpose of these solutions is to provide powerful and automatic decision support tools that can be used in any inspection process.

With Marco Induti, the Swiss Safety Center gains proven expertise in the field of machine vision and now offers production companies customer-specific, turnkey visual inspection solutions. Thanks to these solutions, resources can be saved, quality processes optimised and thus productivity increased and quality improved.

Further information: www.safetycenter.ch/machinevision

This was the first time that SAQ Managing Director Marlyse Roulin had the pleasure of welcoming guests to the Swiss Quality Day. And immediately for this debut she found herself in a new situation: the TSQ2020, a traditional event that is usually planned for several hundred quality managers in the Kur- und Kongresssaal Bern, not only addressed new dimensions of artificial intelligence (AI) in terms of content, no, it turned into a digital, supra-regional live event, so to speak. Marlyse Roulin, spoke to few SAQ experts on site, but all in all the TSQ2020 was a great premiere for the SAQ CEO, as well as for the keynote speakers.

"AI: Opportunity or Risk?

The chosen topic was also fitting: "Artificial Intelligence (AI): Opportunity or Risk?" - A question that Marlyse Roulin also asked herself in her opening speech, but not without neglecting the point of the actual opportunity in this topic. However, this is only possible if companies create more agile structures and move away from silo thinking. And it is important to keep up to date with the progress of AI. With this year's Swiss Quality Day, the SAQ made a contribution to this. Not only did Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin address the SAQ with a detailed greeting on AI, but also with interesting highlights on IT and QM practice.

In the first presentation of the morning, Dalith Steiger from SwissCognitive subjected the conference topic to a "reality check". AI is essentially an extension of the increasing networking of objects. It is no longer just about the pure exchange of data, but about "making something out of the data". Making more and more products "smart" is a great opportunity for companies of all sizes. AI makes it possible to let algorithms do what humans don't like to do. Saving time and eliminating dangers. This opens the gates for the actual human core competence: creativity.

Some of these aspects were addressed again in the subsequent panel discussion. Ewa Ming, Gregory Lukowski, Dalith Steiger spoke with discussion leader Andy Fitze about the question of what could make AI better - also in terms of quality. Finally, it was about the well-tried credo "garbage in, garbage out", which says that a computer is very likely (but not necessarily) to produce an invalid or non-meaningful output if the input is not meaningful.

Therefore, the participants in the discussion agreed, it is primarily a matter of differentiating good data from bad data. Dalith Steiger also pointed out that one should not think that AI technology will suddenly make the world work by itself. Creative and ethical approaches are still needed to control and use digital processes.

And what should companies plan as their first steps when they think about AI? Involve employees, know your own business, understand basic data, and understand what customers want. In addition, you should look for the right partners - preferably also people from other industries who initiate "thinking out of the box".

Why standardization for AI? 

Filiz Elmas has been Head of Business Unit Development for Artificial Intelligence (AI) at DIN since 1 June 2019. Her task, in cooperation with the responsible project managers, is to capture the synergies of all current AI projects and also to design future projects in such a way that the benefits of standardization for business, research and society in the field of AI are at the forefront.

The fact that artificial intelligence needs norms and standards has become clear not least through the AI strategy of governments, but also through the live-stream digitization of society in recent times. Elmas: It is the task of standardization to help structure the AI landscape and, together with DIN staff and the experts, to create a clear framework for action alongside other official regulations.

Digitalization in practice - for the benefit of quality

In the afternoon, the focus was on digitalization - not only in the form of AI - in practice. First, Ruedi Bigler provided an insight into his modern farming business. "My most important tool today is a smartphone," said the master farmer, who is also President of Aaremilch and Vice President of the milk sector organisation. He showed how, thanks to a high level of automation, cows can go out to pasture autonomously and be milked, or how GPS support can be used to sow, fertilise and mow with centimetre precision. However: Digitalisation probably increases efficiency in agriculture too, "but I still have to be able to look the animals in the eye to see if they are doing well", Bigler said.

Pascale Lenz from IBM showed how HR tasks are managed in a large corporation with the help of various tools. Here, too: It's all about data, data and more data. But thanks to this, employees can be developed in a targeted manner and prepared for further career steps. With the help of e-learning tools, IBM also provides the necessary training so that employees can achieve the goals they have set for themselves.

Dominik Weibel from eMDe Blechfabrik explained the production processes in his company: Based on Microsoft SharePoint and in combination with QR codes, large parts of the paper management are digitalized, which makes process management transparent and independent of different platforms. The customers themselves also play an important role: They are the ones who enter the orders directly into the ERP - via an online calculation platform that is unparalleled in the industry.

Stefan Keller from Bühler Uzwil then demonstrated that digitalization and AI applications are making products such as food safer. One of their solutions is capable of detecting 250,000 grains of rice per second and sorting out those that do not meet the quality criteria using a targeted air flow. Or the plans for a "Smart Mill": behind this is the idea of a completely autonomously operating mill. A pilot plant has been in operation for two years.

Human core competence "creativity

At the end, Gerriet Danz invited the audience to an "Expedition Innovation". He showed that change is a decisive driver of creativity. Using various examples, he demonstrated that something new and successful often emerges when things can be linked in a new way. He said that one can learn a lot from children: "They just start, while adults first discuss how a team should be put together". With creativity, boundaries can be crossed.

This inspiring lecture concluded the exceptional Swiss Quality Day 2020. In his closing remarks, SAQ President Ruedi Lustenberger pointed out that developments cannot be stopped. "Development happens". But: "You cannot forbid intelligent people to think. Because without human intelligence, there would be no artificial intelligence either".

The next Swiss Quality Day will take place on 4 May 2021 - hopefully in a familiar atmosphere again. Despite the excellent organization of the live stream and the impeccable quality of image and sound, one thing was missing: the opportunity for networking.

The topic of cyber security can no longer be ignored today. E-banking, traffic, communication: our everyday life is shaped by digitalization. This also represents an ever greater challenge for companies of all sizes. The Swiss Cyber Security Days (SCSD) 2020 offer a varied programme on the topic of trust in a hyper-connected digital society. Around 70 speakers from all over the world and 120 exhibitors will contribute to the exchange of knowledge within the framework of presentations, panel discussions and special events for SMEs and students.

Exchange of experience has priority at the Swiss Cyber Security Days

A cyber attack can have serious consequences for companies or institutions, even if no data is stolen in the process. One of the SCSD's main goals is to benefit from the experience of others and to share its own know-how. The Danish shipping company Maersk, the luxury watch manufacturer IWC and Wetzikon Hospital all have one thing in common: they have all been victims of such attacks. Those responsible present the lessons learned from what happened and show what measures have been taken to avoid new threats. A special exchange program on best practices for SMEs is also part of the event.

5G and social networks: digital challenges

The introduction of 5G has triggered a great debate in Switzerland, especially with regard to health aspects. But what are the biggest challenges that 5G networks pose in terms of security? Nick Dawson, the Global Director Knox Strategy & Business Development at Samsung Electronics, and the Head of Security at Swisscom, Philippe Vuilleumier, address this topic in a keynote on hyperconnectivity.

The Swiss Cyber Security Days will also feature a surprise guest who will shed light on the dark side of social networks. "The Wiz" leads a double life: During the day he is a normal employee with a normal job, but in the evening he programs bots and reveals manipulations on Instagram and Facebook. In this way, he uncovers business models and tools that are used to influence users in their political or consumer behaviour.

A special program for the cyber specialists of tomorrow

In addition to technical presentations aimed at specialists in the field of IT and IT security, the SCSD 2020 programme also includes educational and innovation events. After all, there is a shortage of IT specialists and experts in cyber security and cyber defence in Switzerland.

On Wednesday, February 12, (future) students of computer science or cybersecurity are invited to attend the presentations of the various Swiss universities and universities of applied sciences at the Cyber Education Stage to follow. On Thursday, 13 February, (future) graduates can get in touch with innovative start-ups. For students, these two programme items are free of charge.

Cooperation with the World Economic Forum

For the first time this year, the SCSD have partnered closely with the World Economic Forum's Centre for Cybersecurity (c4c) to jointly offer a high-level international panel on Thursday 13 February 2020. There, experts from around the world will discuss possible solutions to improve cybersecurity cooperation and shed light on the contribution of individual states and private actors. After all, when everyone looks out for themselves in cyberspace, the risk of attacks increases, which in turn fosters rivalries and inequalities in society.

Fribourg once again becomes the capital of cyber security

The SCSD were held for the first time in 2019 and exceeded expectations with over 2200 visitors. On 12 and 13 February 2020, the most renowned experts in cyber security will once again meet in the bilingual city of Fribourg. The keynotes and presentations of the Tech Track will be simultaneously translated into French, German and English. In the exhibition area, you can expect the latest innovations on the topic of information security.

Online ticket sales and the complete program can be found at www.swisscybersecuritydays.ch.

Ensuring and maintaining excellent service is also a challenge in the industrial environment. The pitfalls of everyday life, the strain on employees, ever-changing priorities, projects, and last but not least, the much-quoted inner pig quickly cause the customer focus to slip out of sight.

Turning good conversations into excellent ones

Many service units hang on to that last, crucial 20 percent. They have good conversations, but not excellent ones. Service excellence is measured by the so-called NSP value (Net Promoter Score). This is the rating index for the degree of emotional customer loyalty and willingness to recommend. Only if the customer assigns a value above 8 on a scale of 1-10 is this considered high service quality. Excellent service is also becoming increasingly important for industrial customers.

The leap from a good conversation to one with a top level is not easy. The hurdle can often only be overcome with new, surprisingly different behavior. The leap in the direction of 10 (= excellence) was achieved at thyssenkrupp Elevators with a concept that puts the joy of conversation and empathetic customer dialog in the foreground.

New service concept at thyssenkrupp Aufzüge

Service24, the emergency call center of thyssenkrupp Aufzüge, is located in Berlin with its team. Here, the company's own service technicians ring through, as do passengers who are locked in, plus property managers and owners with their concerns. 90,000 calls come in every month, 85 calls per minute at peak times. Many calls are ultra-short and are purely for equipment checks. Others are very demanding in terms of content. Then there are the emergency calls from trapped people, which require not only speed from the service (90% of emergency calls are answered within 15 seconds), but also a high degree of empathy. The high call volume, the mix of short routine calls, demanding customer conversations and urgent emergency calls demand a lot from the staff. Added to this are the technical demands of the technology leader thyssenkrupp. Service communication is professional, friendly and objective.

The new service voices from the elevator

But that is no longer enough for the teams around department head Bärbel Rensch. In order to be able to respond more empathetically to customers and shut-ins and to better cope with the high emotional strain and stress in everyday life, Service24 has recently started working with the "Emotional Power" service concept from Top-Perform. The motto developed by the team leaders themselves for this purpose, "Drive the fun to the top" including the hashtag #fdsno, is the program: customer conversations should be easier, more enjoyable and more understanding.

Culture change

Because, as thyssenkrupp has also discovered: To touch customers emotionally, friendly conversations that focus on the factual solution are not enough. Instead, the aim is to create an empathetic, relaxed dialog with customers that puts everyone involved at ease. "The aim is to emotionally mirror the situation of the conversation partner and at times to pick up on it in a thoroughly humorous way" explains department head Bärbel Rensch. This is intended to improve the good service even more and also to make the employees more satisfied.

To achieve this, the atmosphere and attitude in the teams had to change. The cultural change was initiated by workshops, initially in the management circle, followed by impulse days for all employees.

Just do something different

The instructions are as simple as they are demanding: simply do something different, in which employees break out of the conversational routine again and again. Since then, the service technician has been made to laugh during the system test instead of fobbing him off with standard phrases. The effect: the service employee suddenly looks forward to the next call and finds the many routine phone calls much less stressful. "We can also turn the mood in the team around spontaneously," says team leader Martin Sahm, describing the concept, which also uses playful approaches such as phrase bingos to promote and maintain a good mood in the teams. The increased attentiveness and alertness in the routine dialogues help with empathetic communication with shut-ins or in difficult customer conversations.

Experimentation allowed

However, if you want to surprise in a conversation, you have to dare to test it out. This is no easy task for managers. After all, they have to allow employees to try things out in real dialogue. Team leader Mirko Ebel has done his homework in this regard: "I trust the employees and allow significantly more experiments than before," he says happily.

Service that is easy to handle and well received

The conclusion of department head Bärbel Rensch: "I was surprised by the very positive response of the employees, how readily they accepted and implemented the new impulses. My team leaders also did a good job." Overall, the atmosphere at the friendly service voices from thyssenkrupp's elevators has loosened up considerably. There is more laughter, positive conversations are perceived much more strongly by everyone, and the competent, surprisingly friendly new way of communicating is also excellently received by the interlocutors.

Authors:
Together with founder Helga Schuler, Ralph Lange developed the successful program "Emotional Power" for service organizations. Since 2019, Ralph Lange has been the head of the consultant and trainer network. www.top-perform.de

According to a study by Allianz Insurance, fear of a cyber incident is ranked second in the risk barometer of business risks in 2019 with 48 % of all companies surveyed, just behind the risk of business interruption (ranked first) with 58 %. Various cyber incidents this year, such as those at Meier Tobler AG, Auto AG Group and the trading company Offix, show that SMEs are also increasingly becoming the focus of cyber criminals. With the increasing penetration of digitalisation, a further increase in the number of cyberattacks and rising case costs are to be expected. Experience shows that the risks that arise are classified into three main risk categories.

Technical risk factors

Imagine pushing digitization and automation to the max in your business. From the digitalization toolbox, you would bring technologies such as blockchain, cloud storage, collaboration services, interactive voice-controlled services and assistants, production robots, digital identities and sensors on board and integrate them into your company. This list is by no means exhaustive and can be extended at will.

To ensure that the technology used can develop its optimum effect, it is interconnected and supplemented and controlled by intelligent information and communication technologies. Processes are digitalized and automated across the board, not only within the company, but also through to end-to-end customer and supplier integration.

Modern enterprise software combined with RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and artificial intelligence (AI) will become the central element of your enterprise value chain. In its full digital form, everything is interconnected, the hardware/software and network technology used is no longer just within your company perimeter and interacts with each other.

Legal risk factors

Increasing networking has a very large impact on your data and its protection. You are not only responsible for your own data protection, but increasingly for the protection of your customers' and suppliers' data.

Rules, standards such as ISO 27001/2, NIST etc., guidelines, requirements, regulations and the law, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO) or the Federal Data Protection Act (DSG, SR 235.1), form the basis for the need for protection. The fact that you as a company have to provide proof of who had access to which data and when, as well as the safeguarding of the data lifecycle, are sometimes driving forces behind the spread of Identity Governance Administration (IGA) and also cyber security and cyber defence solutions on the market.

Human risk factors

The human being as the central link is the biggest risk factor in your company!
The increase in efficiency achieved through digitalization will have a strong influence on the tasks, responsibilities and competencies of your employees and will not leave your company organization unscathed. Job profiles will change as routine tasks in your company are increasingly digitized, automated and taken over by the system. This in turn will mean that your employees will have to take on more and more complex and demanding work and that not everyone will be able to keep up with this change.

The biggest cyber security vulnerabilities according to Deloitte's Cyber Security Report
According to Deloitte's "Cyber Security Report", careless handling of data due to negligence, error or malice on the part of employees and the use of mobile devices are the greatest cyber risks and security gaps within a company.

The insight from Dan Ariely's book "Thinking Helps, but Doesn't Help: Why We Always Make Unreasonable Decisions" shows us that we humans make irrational decisions much more often than is generally assumed. This, coupled with the increasing highly interconnected system complexity brought about by digitalization, is becoming a toxic cocktail of cyber risks that we should pay attention to!

Our task is to take measures to protect our corporate assets. Assets worth protecting (infrastructure, data, licenses, concepts, patents, customers, employees, suppliers, etc.) can no longer be viewed as isolated individual assets, but are increasingly merging into a large, very complex and no longer separable overall system that requires holistic protection.

Prevention is better than cure! Only through active cyber risk management can you effectively protect your business!
Investing in effective cyber defenses will therefore have to go hand in hand with your company's increasing level of digitalization maturity. Otherwise, you run the risk of cybercriminals exploiting targeted gaps in your overall system, leaving you vulnerable to attack and blackmail.

More and more often, people who have access to sensitive data are spied on, penetrated and even blackmailed by social engineering. The data and information gained from this often serve as the first step to a cyber attack, in which the attackers specifically try to penetrate and advance successively into your overall system via your processes and the technologies used. It often takes months for attackers to get to the core of their interests, and even more often, such attacks go undetected for a very long time or are not detected at all. A systematic, proactive and effective cyber defense is therefore of central importance.

Before you can act, however, you need to know which assets require which protection, which risks you have taken and which you want to take deliberately, or where you might want to take out insurance. Risks need to be identified, classified and the appropriate measures taken. For the initial start, we offer you a free quick check for your company.

Your Quick-Win!

Only continuous risk management, ongoing monitoring and optimization of processes and technologies will provide you, your employees, suppliers and customers with the necessary security and trust for the exchange of digital data and information.

WiB Solutions AG's Data Protection & Information Security Quick Check provides your company with an initial risk assessment based on a series of questions. This questionnaire enables your company to determine the current situation and shows you whether you are implementing the most important technical, organizational and employee-related measures for a minimum level of cyber security protection. The process only takes a few minutes.

Your answers will be individually evaluated by our cyber security experts and you will receive a free initial assessment of your cyber security status as a result. It should be noted that this initial assessment is based exclusively on your self-disclosure and cannot replace expert advice on cyber security.

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Disclaimer: WiB Solutions AG is an advertising customer of MQ.