THE SHIFT GUIDE.
A vibrant collection of speakers content that brings together the
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DISCOVER THE LINE UP FOR THE UPCOMING SHIFT DAYS SEPTEMBER 20TH & 21ST, 2024
From A to (Generation) Z
Held for the eighth time in 2024, the SHIFT Conference provided wide- ranging and exclusive insights into the world of entrepreneurialism as well as solutions for dealing with crises, keynotes examining societal trends that break new ground for top managers, and thought-provoking stories of new ways ahead, ways out, and ways around problems and challenges.
The roof terrace of hartmann campus overlooking Munich’s Frauenkirche cathedral was thronged with people at the networking aperitif as DJ Pitzekind played the popular dance hit by Alle Farben, with lyrics “Bad ideas make the best memories.” At one stage the Hartmanns must have wondered whether their idea of renting and expanding the roof terrace above their offices in 2019 to create a conference space was a risky idea. The project was certainly no simple task. But this extension to their executive and board search consultancy business, founded in 2008, has enabled them to hold content-focused get-togethers that create unforgettable memories. “Thank you for bringing us all together twice a year!” announced SHIFT co-initiator, program director, and presenter Dr. Marc Schumacher, to Simone and Nick Hartmann in his opening words.
Of course, SHIFT also tables constantly recurring topics; many radical changes do not take place from one day to the next. For example, what is our current position on artificial intelligence with respect to its ability to change the world of business? At the previous SHIFT, an exploration of ChatGPT and future applications and the potential they offered had been at front and center. This time, the focus had moved to more specific consequences of AI for consumers and to specific fields of application at company level. Vanessa Stützle, CEO LUQOM Group, outlined how AI was used throughout the company’s entire value chain, and described the quarterly analysis identifying the next areas destined for the launch of AI applications.
A perennial topic was the hotly discussed Generation Z, both asparticipants in routine daily work and as a target group. On Thursday evening, René Ruhland outlined his success story with the Myposter Group. He noted that general prosperity had led to a mood of saturation, combined with a decline in capacity for leadership and a lack of the self-sacrifice needed to drive a company to success with boundless energy.
Ruhland is a man with assertive views, including the desire to carry out ambitious plans without resorting to outside capital. Our interview with Sören Börner, the creative mind from Caya, it became clear that the much-debated generation is not so easy to crack after all. In this and other areas, the Caya Think Tank, an arm of Trendbüro and Avantgarde, has set out its goal of lifting the mystery around target groups with a view to better understanding consumers, trends, and subcultures.
At SHIFT, Börner described the issue as “being about a sense of belonging” amid our “super-fragmented society” and warned companies operating in the VUCA world that in their quest for deeper understanding of “people out there,” they need to step up their focus on approaching precisely those people. A possible approach is to understand cultural connections. Alongside Sabine Rogg from Trendbüro, he asked: “Every agency has its Chief Digital Officer, But where are the Chief Cultural Officers?”
Miss Germany is a clear example of striking out along new paths. Starting with the event itself, in times where the ideal of beauty has evolved radically from its traditional one-dimensional origins. The revamped event now delivers dynamic winners, like Apameh Schönauer. The victory of this Iran-born engineering graduate triggered what she described as a “hatestorm,” an outpouring of racist attacks from right-wingers and threats from religious fanatics.
But Schönauer refused to be intimidated, with a battle cry of “Empowerment for all!” As she pointed out, “I’m an architect doing a traditionally male job, as well as a migrant. It provides plenty of food for discussion, starting with the need to constantly explain myself!
That’s what we’re taking as our starting-point to motivate young people.” An approach that works fine in the analog world; the phenomenon of hate is primarily driven by social media. And with an eye to current trends, this inspired questions presented by Trendbüro on Friday morning. Have we reached digital maturity? Or is this an area where humanity is currently actually going backward?
Major fashion brands have long been on the SHIFT guest list. Their search for new paths is particularly interesting to follow because they are able to carve out innovative ways forward at a relatively dynamic pace. Take Till Pohlmann, for example. Vice President Global Sponsorship, Culture & Collaborations at Hugo Boss, he joined SHIFT live from Miami on a Formula 1 race weekend in the city. Pohlmann has been with the global player for 23 years. In 2023 he took on the “amazing, brilliant role” of bringing together sponsorship, cultural, and collaboration-based activities under one umbrella. The combination is a clear demonstration of where Hugo Boss’ priorities lie: the plan is to become a leading digital provider with global sales at the five billion mark, achieved with other prominent partners that embody a similar lifestyle or complement the Hugo Boss image. The company itself is pursuing a dual-brand strategy to address two different target groups, with Boss aimed at millennials while Hugo is designed for Gen Z. The Formula 1 collaboration is merely one among many, but is an excellent example of the company’s flair for choosing the right strategy and identifying the areas where millennials and Gen Zers hang out before they became universally visible.
On Friday afternoon, the adidas team started their talk with a quiz that spanned everything from the company’s founders to Run DMC. Every correct answer was rewarded with a new EURO 2024 ball. But the main reason why Nikolaus Maas and Tobias Seemann had come to hartmann campus was to present their new project, adiclub: by linking up different apps, the company is creating what Maas refers to as “social glue,” a program with a high level of relevance for its users.
Like collecting points to get shoes—but not just any shoes: these styles are not available on the market, and the way to get them is by notching up running kilometers. In addition, the current adidas advertising campaign also taps into SHIFT’s overarching topic of Gen Z: Seemann described how customers are speaking out against the pressure of “higher, faster, further” and seeking to bring the fun back to sports.
Fairytale career
René Ruhland
Remember how there used to be company founders with a spirit of adventure? They’re still around. René Ruhland stood up to a whole lot of pressure to run his print company exactly the way he wanted to—without taking a cent of outside capital. Today Myposter has 350 employees, sales heading for the 100 million euro mark, and plans for further expansion. At the opening event of SHIFT, Ruhland told the fascinating story of how he launched his company.
It all started with 5,000 hand-painted oil paintings, but it’s doubtful whether even that number of canvases would be enough to portray René Ruhland’s exciting life as an entrepreneur. 18 years ago, the up-and-coming young businessman bought up the lot of fake van Goghs, Monets, and alike at a Chinese trade fair for the knockdown price of one dollar, and had them shipped to his home. He and his brother spent years selling them off “from their car trunk.” Although demand ultimately remained at modest levels, the experience inspired them to move into digital printing.
The idea was there; the willpower was there; all that was missing was the cash. Ruhland had to borrow 400 EUR to buy an engagement ring, and recalls, “I couldn’t afford to fill my fuel tank, often had to sleep in the car.” The startup was his salvation. Myposter went live in 2011, and today it is a family company run by Ruhland himself, along with his brother and his wife. Sales are rapidly approaching 100 million EUR and are predicted to soar beyond that figure in no time – But the path to that success started off extremely rocky.
The “ring thing” remained an absolute one-off; it was the last time Ruhland ever had the idea of asking anyone for money. Myposter is the ultimate example of a bootstrapping company. SHIFT presenter Dr. Marc Schumacher observed that stories like Myposter’s are becoming increasingly rare in times when financial controllers are the ones calling the shots and managers simply sign off on their instructions. Risks are Ruhland’s lifeblood. He values independence over security, saying that “What’s critical is whether I can make the decisions. If anyone thinks they know better than I do, I can get up and go.” Incidentally, Ruhland is convinced that Myposter’s growth trajectory would not have been any faster with outside capital.
Bootstrapping depends on a specific set of characteristics. The amount of sacrifices Ruhland has made for his company over the years would fill a fat photo album on their own—and the title certainly wouldn’t be anything like “Managing Your Work/Life Balance.” Another key requirement: “I think I’m a fan of competition.” But there’s no need for that “I think”; Myposter’s aggressive market presence is evident in the company’s treatment of its competitors. For instance, they destroyed a photo booth of rival Cewe for a commercial. Cewe sued them—and lost. Ruhland notes that the commercial is still shown in Oldenburg today.
Nonetheless, refusing all external support is a risky move in this industry. With Myposter’s production focusing on photo albums, it is heavily dependent on things like seasonal Christmas business and needs its technology to function flawlessly throughout that peak period. As Ruhland describes, there are days “when the technicians don’t go home; they sleep at the production facility to make sure the systems and machinery keep going.” When everything runs according to plan, they produce up to 50,000 books a day.
A little later on Thursday evening, Ruhland went on to talk about Gen Z, noting that many members of the younger generation have failed to develop leadership ambitions and that they are “sated.” Though he detests this attitude, he admits “It’s really tough being strict when you earn money.” Myposter operates out of two locations. Ruhland’s recruitment process is rigorous to make sure the company retains its entrepreneurial spirit in every area. “Ultimately, we’re entrepreneurs and want things to continue that way. Standing still simply isn’t in our DNA,” he affirms.
Today, Myposter serves customers in nine countries while preparing to tackle its next bold new leap: breaking into the USA. Olching, a small town on the north-west outskirts of Greater Munich, is home to a brand-new state-of-the-art print facility. Ruhland has calculated that shipping photo albums across the pond from there is cheap and efficient. So why is he convinced there are opportunities in the US? “Because we write good software.” A promise of success from the outset—provided you have the courage to embrace and tackle the risk.
“I’m a humble guy. I get up in the morning and walk through the company, and there’s nobody that can order us around.” States Ruhland, who is living proof of an entrepreneurial dream come true.
Time for the mind
Sabine Rogg
Digitalization and artificial intelligence have dominated debate in recent years. But Trendbüro CEO Dr. Marc Schumacher opened the annual Trend Forecast at SHIFT in May 2024 with a warning that natural intelligence should not be forgotten. So what expectations do today’s consumers have, and what is currently making people tick? Director Trends & Strategy Sabine Rogg is gradually coming to the belief that a whole host of biological clocks out there are jetlagged, and that we need to spend more time in the real world.
As the second day of SHIFT began on Friday morning, the conference delved into the big picture without further ado. Trendbüro itself is now in the mid-thirties. Experience is helpful when it comes to assessing trends realistically. The key is to pick out the relevant trends out of a mass of experiments in consumption that pop up at ever-increasing speed—and, in many cases, vanish as fast as they came—and to identify the trajectory of the zeitgeist. In other words, to see the wood through the many, many trees. As part of this, Rogg pointed out the importance of “shifting the focus back to human drivers,” because “technology is currently changing us to an extent that we may not even want. But here we still are.”
The overarching diagnosis? Post-future hangover. “We believed our time had come; everyone with equal rights, everything green, everything purposeful, everything going to be great. And then … nothing much happened,” summarized Rogg. Trendbüro has named 2024 “the year of social growing pains.” Like a physical body bedeviled by the aches and pains of growth spurts.
Oh, to be young again, to grow again! A dream which many are currently striving to live out in reality as best they can. Rogg noted that four out of ten adults take a soft toy to bed with them. On the flip side, their daughters are starting to wear make-up at an earlier and earlier age. Often, the boundaries of common sense appear to be trampled. Rogg called for a rethink, quoting the example of nine-year-old girls whose social media accounts are deluged with advertising for cosmetic surgery.
Shortly afterwards Sören Börner from Caya Group, Trendbüro’s subsidiary with a focus on cultural backgrounds, addressed the subject of cultural decoding. In his view, specific lifestyles are no longer the identifiers of individual generations, and any genuine mainstream is past and gone. Identifying a target group or planning the next marketing campaign becomes particularly challenging in an era where not even age can be relied on as an absolute parameter.
The desire for longevity and the increased focus on health aspects may be expressions of the fact that freedom yet again topped the values ranking list, promptly followed by health. Surveys show stagnating results for values like security or recognition, and a decline in the desire for success.
Rogg offered a host of examples. The first disillusionment was one that hit home; the body positivity trend is over, and slimness is returning as a physical ideal. 15 percent of US citizens have already tried weight loss injections. This reiterates the question of social impacts; it could soon be the case once again that slim people are that way because they can afford to be, while the overweight return to being stigmatized. Rogg warned of the danger of a new two-class society.
Overall, consumer behavior is heavily fragmented as the desire for meaningful experiences becomes more extreme. Even normality has its turn in the spotlight; a corner of the home that has not been styled to the hilt in conformity with social media ideals is celebrated as “authentic,” when in fact it is simply “normal.” Naturally, pretty much every trend has its counter-trend, which not even the search for purpose can evade. The opposite of “purposeful” is the whoopee cushion, which has once again become a best-seller. A way to let off steam without needing to exercise the brain too much.
As another example, take the US politician John Fetterman on the one hand, who chooses sloppy casualwear even for his public appearances; on the other, the Netflix series “Mind Your Manners” is an etiquette manual for the 21st century which, as Rogg, described, is “going through the roof.” Strawberries for 20 dollars here, a fancy red wine to go with the Deliveroo pizza there. Louis Vuitton? Sure, why not. But fake is fine too. In fact, the boundaries between fake and real are currently being redefined, including where information intake is concerned.
It’s only logical that there are tech countertrends that go way beyond a cellphone blocker. In a return to 90s nostalgia, good old paper maps are making a comeback. A colleague of Sabine Rogg calculated that her scrolling notches up a distance of around four kilometers every day. That may be pushing the limits, not only where her thumb muscles are concerned, but also with respect to the amount of information her brain can absorb. The need to seek out more stimuli for the other senses emerges. “Tactile experiences are becoming more important,” pointed out Rogg, mentioning a rise in interest for crocheting.
To conclude, Rogg presented two diagrams. One was a picture of fish of different sizes in which the smaller fish—labeled “art”—was being gobbled up by a bigger fish labeled “entertainment,” which was in turn eaten by the “distraction” fish. Rogg’s prophecy was that if media consumption continues unchecked, the next fish will bear the label “addiction.” She warned that social media is triggering behaviors that “are no longer truly voluntary” and observed, “The ability to grasp topics, or even understand art, is eroding, and that’s a real ‘watch out’ signal.”
The other image depicted the life of an 18-year-old today as a table with 24 rows, each carrying 36 points. Eight rows are allocated to sleep, three-and-a-half rows for work and school. Out of the nine rows assigned to leisure, eight and a half are taken up by “screen time,” with just half a row left for social contact and conversation. In other words, the virtual world has long since overtaken the real world in terms of quantity. In a way, Rogg’s talk is also an appeal for a theme addressed by the “Guardian” in a series of features: “Reclaim your brain! Stop scrolling your life away!”
Flipping the switch
Vanessa Stützle
As Chief Digital Officer at s.Oliver Group, Vanessa Stützle played a major role in establishing one of Europe’s largest single-label stores before moving to Douglas and creating a market-leading beauty platform. Now CEO of the LUQOM Group, she is working to exploit the vast potential of this online supplier specializing in lights, lamps, and lighting solutions, The fact that this process is taking place amid a paradigm shift only motivates her all the more.
Sometimes the future takes longer to arrive than you expect. At the dawn of the smartphone era, Vanessa Stützle was convinced that digitalization of e-commerce would be a swift process; that by the start of the 2020s she would be receiving product suggestions sent direct to her living room; that clothing would be modeled for her by her personal avatar. But Stützle is someone who lives by the SHIFT watchword of “handle disruption.” As a keen-eyed observer of markets and key technologies, she is convinced that we are only months away from the rise of artificial intelligence as a gamechanger for the e-commerce sector. This digital pioneer left Douglas to become CEO of the LUQOM Group in September 2022. In her new position, she now strives to continue along her chosen path of bringing the future faster.
It’s a goal that doesn’t hesitate to reflect her own entrepreneurial interests. “I anticipate that AI will help us to improve our efficiency,” she says, her eyes on the ultimate goals of higher profitability and improved cash flow. The lighting industry, and LUQOM as a heavyweight player in it, offers an ideal example of how much multi-level change is taking place in a short time, and how important innovation and creativity are becoming as a result. Stützle speaks of nothing less than a “paradigm shift” in the industry, kick-started by higher interest rates and rising inflation, leading to a cost-of-living crisis. This affects Germany in particular, and the crisis in the construction industry, which, as a logical consequence, is also impacting lighting manufacturers in the B2B sector. In addition we must not forget the e-commerce trends that triggered the “post-Covid blues.” With new players entering and new concep
ts bursting onto the market, vigilance becomes a permanent state of life.
However, the many challenges merely sharpen this top manager’s interest. In addition, the market is an extremely attractive one, perhaps even rather underestimated, generating European sales of around EUR 30 billion. The LUQOM GROUP, with its four companies, is the market leader on the continent, notching up around EUR 400 million. “Those criteria are why I joined the company. Because it offers the genuine opportunity to be one of the few e-commerce players with profitability as an intrinsic part of its business model,” affirmed Stützle. The vision is “The Home of Lighting.”
Stützle’s debriefing was very much on point, but still broad enough to casually drop constant references in relation to the recurring topics from the SHIFT agenda. Take the motivation levels of Gen Z employees, for example. “Over the first eighteen months, I worked hard on identifying where the talents were in the company and how I could develop them and bring them to the fore. I believe every company has employees with the knowledge of which product needs to be sold to which customer. You only have to find them,” she affirmed. In step with LUQOM’s regular reviews of its own AI fitness, the company naturally ensures employees are taken along on the journey. Town hall events with awards for the “best AI implementers” have become part of the company culture, said Stützle with a smile. “They get a travel voucher or an expensive LUQOM lamp.” Those lamps are already designed in part by artificial intelligence.
In response to Simone Hartmann’s final question about whether the “digital mindset” has changed with respect to product development in times of AI, Stützle stressed, “My mindset hasn’t changed at all.” She confirmed her dedication to the goal of understanding, not imitating. The flexibility to adjust to customer wishes makes it possible to gain the necessary speed “and generate a certain competitive edge.” – And, of course, illumination is helpful in any industry.
Driving fitness for e-commerce
Tobias Seemann
& Nikolaus Maass
How does a global company manage to align itself to the manifold needs of a nine-digit customer base spanning 50 countries? How do adidas’ fan communities differ from country to country? SHIFT interviewer Mohsin Qasmi asked these questions, and received a torrent of expertise in response, delivered with a seasoning of adi-dash by Tobias Seemann and Nikolaus Maass. The approach they have chosen for their lavish membership program reveals a new dimension, incredibly glamorized, and—quite literally–valuable.
Our battle with willpower is a daily ordeal. Who truthfully still wants to go for a run after a hard day at work? Sure, it’s the healthy thing to do, but there’s always tomorrow…
So, what if there was an extra incentive to get that inner couch potato sizzling and lace up the running shoes? Something like getting a whole new pair of shoes as a reward? This way, the sports outfitter could help its customers get fitter in the process, because an “earn to burn” program also involves torching calories.
The possibility of awarding sneakers that are not available on the regular market as an incentive to consumers in exchange for their runs, reviews, and purchases is just one trick in the toolkit used by the global player to build its digital ecosystem. The Three Stripes community is vast, with 385 million digital signups alone. Interesting enough, classic running is only one example of how adidas is harnessing consumer-centricity. Sports are one category out of many, and the incentives presented vary from region to region; Seemann noted that while discounts are a particular priority in India, innovation and hipness are essential for the brand to make its mark in Japan and South Korea, and personalized reward programs are especially important in the USA and Europe.
One of adidas’ greatest strengths is clear: the company can offer apparel, shoes, equipment, and celebrity experiences that represent outstanding value to its customers. In fact, the brand itself could even be regarded as a cultural asset. The adidas representatives who joined us at SHIFT added a literal kick to their appearance by presenting new footballs to audience members who correctly answered their questions about the company’s history. As an aside, there were just five weeks before the European Championship would get under way in Germany.
On Friday morning Sabine Rogg from Trendbüro and Sören Börner from Caya Group outlined the theoretical foundations of how cultural trends can be reflected in a marketing concept. The visit from adidas promptly came up with a hands-on example. “We can modestly claim to be making an impact on culture and society,” said Tobias Seemann. In relation to this, adidas has identified a positive trend worthy of support and expansion that now has to be embedded in the digital ecosystem: “Pressure in sport has built up a high barrier, which we are trying to move away from. Our aim is to encourage consumers to say: It’s the optimistic mindset that counts! It’s about having fun! This is the message of our new campaign,” explained Seemann. While he makes no secret of the fact that companies strive to make money, it’s clear that positive vibes help smooth their path to doing so. Fortunately, the “You Got This” campaign, soundtracked by Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” clearly took off right from the beginning.
So once the values have been established, how can the ecosystem be expanded to maximize the opportunities to interface with the athletes—in other words, the customers?
Seemann and Maass explicitly left the door open for stationary touchpoints. Vast volumes of data are helpful in honing in on the approach. Seemann described the membership program as “glue,” to which Maass added, “If membership is the glue, redeeming points is the rocket fuel.” There is a clear correlation between the intensity of the customers’ bonding process, with the adidas ecosystem, and their customer lifetime value. Additionally, the points system is able to boost that correlation even further. Nothing new, admitted Maass, “but there’s plenty of life in it for us.” adidas is naturally aware that any rewards offered by the points system need to be valuable to users, so that revamping individual reward catalogs is an ongoing process.
The e-commerce experts at adidas have set themselves ambitious goals: “We want our membership program to be the most engaging,” stated Maass. As their enormous data volumes have revealed, it is well worthwhile to maximize the creation of touchpoints, to play a proactive role in shaping the customer journey, and to define values.
The May edition of SHIFT thus came to a dynamic close. Simone Hartmann declared, “SHIFT is powered by our sessions and our speakers.” One of countless takes that participants took home with them, is to do more sports to get fit for the next SHIFT conference on September 20/21… then make up the calories with a visit to the Oktoberfest! It’s a goal that doesn’t hesitate to reflect her own entrepreneurial interests. “I anticipate that AI will help us to improve our efficiency,” she says, her eyes on the ultimate goals of higher profitability and improved cash flow. The lighting industry, and LUQOM as a heavyweight player in it, offers an ideal example of how much multi-level change is taking place in a short time, and how important innovation and creativity are becoming as a result. Stützle speaks of nothing less than a “paradigm shift” in the industry, kick-started by higher interest rates and rising inflation, leading to a cost-of-living crisis. This affects Germany in particular, and the crisis in the construction industry, which, as a logical consequence, is also impacting lighting manufacturers in the B2B sector. In addition we must not forget the e-commerce trends that triggered the “post-Covid blues.” With new players entering and new concep
ts bursting onto the market, vigilance becomes a permanent state of life.
However, the many challenges merely sharpen this top manager’s interest. In addition, the market is an extremely attractive one, perhaps even rather underestimated, generating European sales of around EUR 30 billion. The LUQOM GROUP, with its four companies, is the market leader on the continent, notching up around EUR 400 million. “Those criteria are why I joined the company. Because it offers the genuine opportunity to be one of the few e-commerce players with profitability as an intrinsic part of its business model,” affirmed Stützle. The vision is “The Home of Lighting.”
