On September 28, 2017, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Düsseldorf and Koblenz (IHK) hosted the 13th Petersberger Industriedialog in Bonn. As part of the program, Prof. Dr. Christina Günther moderated the awards ceremony, during which the Stiftung Industriefoschung granted scholarships for master theses and prizes for excellent scientific studies. The IHK-Chair of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises also participated in the Petersberger Industriedialog and represented the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management during the fair which accompanied the conference. The fair offered a platform for the exchange between industry representatives, academics, industry associations, and research institutes.
Under the conference theme “New ways of working in digitized companies”, more than 250 executives and entrepreneurs participated in the event and shared exclusive insights into their strategic approaches of managing the digital transformation within companies. The topics ranged from digitized supply chain networks and interfaces between humans and machines to new digital business models. In two panel rounds, six senior managers also illustrated how their companies developed new and more flexible work models in order to successfully deal with the rising demands of digitization. They further discussed which changes in leadership culture are required when facing a new generation of employees.