The new podcast series "Zukunft Familienunternehmen" (Future of Family Businesses - in German) addresses the challenges facing family businesses and medium-sized enterprises in the age of disruption. The series is moderated by Prof. Dr. Nadine Kammerlander, Head of the Institute for Family Business and SMEs at WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management. The auditing and consulting firm EY is on board as a partner.
Kammerlander possesses extensive knowledge about the tension between tradition and transformation in family businesses due to professional, first-hand experience. "Practical examples and best cases - no scientific treatises!" promises Kammerlander, "quite the opposite - we stay close to life."
"German SMEs have become globally successful through innovation," says Michael Marbler, partner at EY responsible for SMEs in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. "The COVID-19 pandemic has sharpened the focus on topics such as digitalization, resilience, sustainability, succession planning, and cooperation with startups, and has once again brought to the forefront the need for swift and sustainable action. With this podcast, we want to show how these topics can be successfully employed for future innovations."
Topics of conversation in the first podcast episode are: sustainability - more important than ever in times of COVID-19 – and willingness to change, increasingly challenged by the high pressure of large platforms and new digital business models.
In addition, entrepreneur Reinhard Schneider, managing partner and owner of Werner & Mertz GmbH, provides expert insights from his own company: "Transformation must be a matter for the boss," explains Reinhard Schneider, manufacturer of the well-known sustainable-ecological cleaning and care products brand "Frosch."
The first podcast episode has been released April 13, 2021 on popular podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts and AudioNow. The episode, entitled "How to succeed in the transformation to greater sustainability?" can be found here.
Regina Körner and Migo Fecke, the faces behind professional-podcasts.com and winners of the European Newspaper Awards under the category of “Podcasts” for "Handelsblatt Disrupt", are responsible for podcast editing and production.