Innovation plus tradition: What long-established enterprises can offer young professionals

Enterprises rich in tradition – old hat already? No way! Many of them have exciting innovations to offer and this also makes them attractive for young professionals. Well-established companies that have been successful on the market for many years are often seen by young professionals as unattractive employers. The sweeping judgment is that they are not in touch with modern times. Innovations and exciting projects are hard to come by. Many of the enterprises that will be on location as partners at the new.New Festival from October 8 to 10, 2018 in Stuttgart are debunking this view. Their internal strategy is to promote the development of new ideas and they pursue numerous activities when it comes to innovation – both within the companies themselves and with the products and solutions they offer customers. 

For young professionals, the new.New Festival is a golden opportunity to network with these companies. Here are some of the diverse business models and projects of our partner enterprises:

Digital finance and pension services: Wüstenrot & Württembergische-Gruppe (W&W)

The success story of Wüstenrot & Württembergische-Gruppe (W&W) dates back to the year 1828. Today, the financial services group successfully spans two business units: BausparBank and its insurance division. The company continually extends its offer with innovative products, so as of May 2018 these activities have been bundled together to form a new, third business unit called W&W brandpool. The firm also has a new brand, Adam Riese, which the group uses to offer insurance services that are entirely digital – from the selection of products to suit specific requirements, through online conclusion of a contract, to fully digital claims processes. The group’s product portfolio also includes FinanzGuide and treefin, two data-based financial assistants, plus NIST – a digital companion for real estate purchases and a financing assistant.

Cleaning 4.0: Robots from Kärcher

A Swabian family enterprise, Kärcher was founded in 1935 and has been following the principle of “growth through innovation” to this day. To maintain its position as the world’s leading supplier of cleaning technology in the future, Kärcher is leaving no stone unturned in reinventing its product range. The cleaning equipment manufacturer launched the first robotic vacuum cleaner on the market back in 2003, and only this year this was followed by two intelligent cleaning robots: KIRA B 50 and RC 3. To develop new solutions, Kärcher has created its own Product Innovation Lab to provide an environment for methods such as design thinking, the creative problem-solving concept. Last year, the family enterprise also founded its own digital subsidiary, Zoi TechCon, an IT consultancy that concentrates on the development of digital solutions, cloud transformation, and electronic technology. And last but not least, it established Kärcher New Venture in 2016, a cleaning specialist that also helps business founders realize their own innovative business models and thus shape the cleaning solutions of the future.

Into the future with MHP

MHP is a management and IT consultancy firm founded in 1996. Its DNA lies in the automotive industry. With a current workforce of more than 2,300 people, MHP has advanced to become Germany’s leading consultancy in its areas of specialization. Further offices have since been opened in the USA, the UK, and China. MHP soon departed from the classic concept of individual lines of business, thinking instead in a more overarching context. Today, MHP is a pioneer of the mobility (smart travel) and manufacturing ecosystems. Its offering extends far beyond classic management and IT consulting, although these are still successful fields for the firm. MHP was quick to put its DNA to use in driving forward the topics and technologies that pave the way for tomorrow’s mobility and usher manufacturing into a “smart” future. But despite all this innovation, the company has never lost sight of its practical focus – whether it be platform economy concepts or, for example, the use of artificial intelligence. Its original consulting business has also been extended with the addition of digital services tailored to its target ecosystems. Innovations are therefore not only restricted to the MHP Labs in Berlin, Tel Aviv, and (as of October) Ludwigsburg, they also arise throughout the enterprise, often in collaboration with customers.

GFT advances digital transformation in the finance and industry sectors

GFT Technologies SE develops customized IT solutions and devises new business models with a focus on the topics of blockchain technology, cloud engineering, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things. Established in 1987, the enterprise operates in Europe and North and South America with around 5,000 employees. A technology partner with a solid knowledge of the industry, GFT accompanies world-leading financial institutions in modernizing their core banking systems. It also offers an interdisciplinary team of specialists who develop new business models for the financial world of tomorrow thanks to its Digital Innovation Lab. At the CODE_n Festival, GFT will be offering workshops on UX design, rapid prototyping, and design thinking. GFT founded CODE_n in 2012; this (now independent) innovation hub brings together startups and decision-makers from all over the world to promote digital innovation on a cross-sectoral basis.

AXON Ivy: Process digitalization as a core competence

Our smallest partner is AXON Ivy from Lucerne. Its approximately 700 employees support customers with the successful digital transformation of their companies thanks to a variety of tailor-made IT solutions. Particularly well known is its multiple award-winning Business Process Management Suite, which supports process digitalization and the introduction of new business models. Founded in 1994, this software enterprise continually investigates and develops innovations, among other things in the fields of robotic process automation, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing.

A creative room for new ideas: Lab1886

As a group of companies with a long tradition, for Daimler innovation has invariably been the driving force of its success story. Just over eleven years ago, the world-renowned carmaker founded a Business Innovation unit, which was pivoted in 2017 to form Lab1886. Its name is a reference to the year Gottlieb Daimler first installed his internal combustion engine in a coach and Carl Benz patented the world’s first automobile – the opening chapter of an international success story. This incubator of the Daimler group has staff in Beijing, Atlanta, Berlin, and Stuttgart. Their job is to identify business concepts even beyond the core business of the corporation, and to incubate these ideas and prepare them for market introduction. The aim is to move more quickly from initial ideas to actual products or business models.

We are very pleased to have these and many other exciting partners on board, and we invite students, young talented people, and young professionals to see for themselves at close hand how powerful innovation and transformation can be at long-established enterprises.

Further information on being part of the new.New Festival can be found here.

Early bird tickets are still available until September 14. Buy your festival pass here.