Best Practice Day 2025: Operational Excellence and beyond

UNDERSTANDING INTERDEPENDENCIES.

How can values support us in bravely shaping change and staying on course in times of crisis?

In her encouraging presentation, transformation expert Maja Göpel emphasized that it is possible to find common action. Indeed, the social, economic and political instruments of strong democracies offer a reliable and sustainable basis for this.  

Rather than dividing society even further, the point should be to negotiate the path to future prosperity together. After all, humanity is currently in the midst of a huge transformation process. The volume of what needs to be dealt with, repaired and realigned appears overwhelming to many of us. In this complex situation, what can we do to find the right course and the necessary courage to face these challenges boldly and together? Maja Göpel drew a clear conclusion: the future can only remain stable if we stick to the transformative process and actively shape it instead of clinging to the present out of fear of loss and comfort.  

SHARPENING THE VISION.

Prospects for German suppliers on the Chinese market

Webasto Board Member and Chief Operating Officer Yanni von Roy-Jiang’s insights into the Chinese market were also extremely enlightening. 

The Webasto Group, founded in Esslingen, is now one of the top 100 automotive suppliers in the world with a staff of 15,000 at 50 locations worldwide. After almost 25 years of growth, Webasto was forced to close plants in China last year. 

This was partly due to rapidly changing consumer trends, increasing both the pressure to innovate and the time-to-market factor. Consequently, Webasto has taken the ambitious step of giving the Chinese plants more autonomy. A change of mindset for both sides. Headquarters must empower the Chinese organization to develop products on its own and launch them on the market. By contrast, the Chinese organization is challenged to learn to think bigger conceptually and, if necessary, to discuss controversial issues with Headquarters.  

Acting more quickly requires a loss of control from the German side; from the Chinese side, more personal responsibility and a positive attitude towards mistakes. Yanni von Roy-Jiang therefore concluded: “I stand before you as a cultural hybrid between China and Germany, confident that this combination is promising. On the one hand, German quality and innovative strength, while on the other, Chinese speed and cost awareness.” 

THINKING END-2-END.

Challenge accepted! Dealing with tight supply chains

Andreas Tielmann, appointed Vice President & CCO Aircraft Maintenance Services at Lufthansa Technik AG by the Managing Director of Lufthansa Technik Logistik Services on the day of the conference, gave a lively presentation in which he explored the performance-enhancing accelerators of a physical supply chain. 

Acting as a competence center for aircraft spare parts logistics within the Lufthansa Group and beyond, the global network’s main task is to ensure that aircraft spare parts are delivered to their respective destinations as efficiently as possible and in the shortest possible time. 

Yet what is a stakeholder to do in an environment marked by tense supply chains, a multitude of partners and network participants, in a highly regulated market in which many things appear to be immovable?  

In essence, there were three key questions that Tielmann discussed with a view to finding solutions:  

1. How do we manage to get more material into an existing circuit?  

2. How can we increase the overall speed of the network?  

3. How do we deal with volatile swings? 

In short, the conclusion was as simple as it was convincing: “Resilience is the team’s capacity to handle unexpected changes without any slipping performance.”  

DRIVING DIGITALIZATION.

How established industries are becoming agile drivers of the future

Steven Mc Auley and Barett Conway gave groundbreaking technology insights into the Google cosmos and highlighted examples of how established industrial companies AND their people are becoming flexible, digital drivers of the future using AI.  

“What is currently happening is a global game changer – following the Internet and the smartphone, AI is about to be the next big shift,” said Steven Mc Auley, AI/Machine Learning Manager in the Google Cloud team.  

Consumers have become accustomed to the convenience of Uber, Airbnb, and Amazon and want a similar kind of customer experience in their work environment. So how can companies use AI to benefit their employees and customers? Google Gemini is a powerful, multimodal AI model capable of processing and understanding text, code, audio, images, and video at the same time. Mc Auley says it can become a personal AI assistant for us by finding information on demand and compiling it in a way that is easy to consume. What’s more, Gemini can help to produce creative texts, support brainstorming, and generate images or videos. 

He concludes: “AI is here to stay. It will remain and change our work environment. We therefore recommend that you engage with AI, familiarize yourself with it for a few minutes every day and in doing so train yourself and the AI. 

INCREASE INNOVATIVE STRENGTH.

Become a Kidult – an ode to innocence

Christian Wehner, bestselling author and Senior Director Innovation Strategy at SAP, used this as a basis to show how important it is in the innovation process to rekindle childlike qualities such as curiosity, courage, and creativity. He reflected on an unusual career – from school dropout to innovation strategist at a global corporation – and enthusiastically shared why we should revisit the rules that children play by in our professional lives. He emphasized that many valuable skills wither away later in life as performance, acceptance of mistakes, and rigid rule structures prevail. 

Drawing on scientific findings and lively anecdotes, he demonstrated how organizations can foster creative spaces where empathy and unbiased thinking can prosper. For Wehner, cultivating a sense of innocence is not about being weak, but about driving innovation – it enables people to push boundaries and break new ground. 

According to a well-known NASA test, most children are “creative geniuses”, but only 2% of adults are. The good news, according to Christian Wehner: “It’s not that we’re becoming less creative, we are simply unlearning it.” So he called for these skills to be trained like a muscle – for a lifetime. As children, we have already learned everything we need for life. It’s time for us to reflect and rediscover these skills.

MAKING STRATEGY EFFECTIVE.

Innovation, resilience and digital presence for a sustainable future

ZIEHL-ABEGG CEO Joachim Ley outlined the journey of transformation that the manufacturer of air, control and drive technology has undergone from its Künzelsau site to become a forward-looking, globally active company with a clear strategic focus:  

“We cannot afford to compromise on quality and reliability as a supplier of premium products. Protecting our product and therefore our essence is therefore paramount for us as a premium manufacturer, which also means remaining as innovative as possible so as not to lose our edge.”  

Operational excellence is the only way to ensure this. Shop Floor Management helps to operationalize strategy and cultural change in production. Alongside regular communication on site, structured problem-solving and process confirmation, Shop Floor Management is the perfect tool for systematically empowering and developing employees, says Ley. 

Moreover, globalization is a must for almost every medium-sized company today and digitalization is the enabler for more transparency and better decisions. He had this wish for the guests: “Stay bold and try things out.” 

FINDING ENCOURAGEMENT FOR DAILY USE.

Respect is everything.

To mark the grand finale of the conference, Deniz Aytekin, top referee and entrepreneur, emphasized the importance of decision-making skills, respect and humanity in leadership roles. True to the motto “Lead. Decide. Stay human.” he demonstrates how important it is to act with confidence and reflection, even under pressure. Despite incomplete information, decisions often have to be made – both on the field and in everyday working life. In a practical manner, Aytekin explained how we can remain effective even under time constraints, using video material from professional soccer as effective and entertaining learning examples. 

He candidly shared his own personal journey from being the most unpopular referee of 2024 to being the recognized DFB referee of the year and highlighted how essential psychological safety is for teams to function. Leadership succeeds with clear communication, empathy and authenticity. Criticism and conflict should be used constructively to promote trust and further development. Respect is the foundation – it is the key to successful cooperation, both on the soccer field and in the company. Aytekin appeals to managers to actively model a respectful corporate culture, “because this is the only way to increase motivation and performance over the long term!” 

Day 2: Benchmark Live

In small groups on the following day, guests had the opportunity to either visit the factories of notable benchmark companies or invest a day in their own personal development. From Amazon to RECARO Aircraft Seating and AGCO Fendt to sports legend Joey Kelly and many more, there were ample opportunities to inspire AND shape the future.