Theory meets practice – with exciting guests in the courses on International Management and on Retail Management

In his courses in this Fall Semester 2022, Prof. Dirk Morschett was glad to welcome six exciting guests from company practice who explained International Management and Retail Management from their own experience. Together, these presentations allowed the students to combine their theoretical knowledge with valuable practical insights.

Theory meets practice

The start of the presentation series was made by Katarina Lucic, Regional Strategy & Integration Manager, Sika Asia-Pacific, and Head of Distribution & Marketing for Sika Malaysia. She gave a very insightful and inspiring talk to our students. Katarina is an alumna of our faculty and since more than eight years with Sika. We are always happy and proud to build on the experience and insights of our alumni to teach our current students.

Katarina gave her presentation via Zoom because she is located in Singapore. She first gave an overview on Sika, its global strategy, its values & principles – and then described by a specific example, how the global strategy of Sika is implemented locally in the host countries with the support of the regional level. This presentation was a great extension of our course content because it showed the important step beyond the theoretical or conceptual level to the practical implications.

Theory meets practice

Guest Presentation by Katarina Lucic – via Zoom from Singapore

Then, we had the great pleasure to welcome Daniel Rust, Portfolio Innovation Manager, chweppes International. Daniel gave an overview on the international management of the Schweppes brand and its beverages portfolio, on the complex global situation with several independent brand owners, on the partnerships in several European countries, on consumer insights across Europe and, not at least, on the relevance of working with retail to distribute the brand products. Daniel is also an alumnus of our faculty and we are proud to build on the experience of our alumni network to contribute to the learning of our current students.

Theory meets practice

Guest Presentation by Daniel Rust

The series was continued with an excellent and insightful speech by Andreas Siegmann, CEO of Jumbo. When Coop acquired Jumbo last year, they decided to operate the former Coop Bau+Hobby stores and their new Jumbo stores under the common brand Jumbo, starting in September 2022. Andreas Siegmann explained the reasons for this decision, the process how the two organisations were brought together to offer the customer «the best of both worlds», the communication campaigns prior to the re-branding and the challenges in bringing together people, stores, assortments, store brands and the brand image. These were, indeed, deep insights into a unique M&A case in retailing!

Theory meets practice

Andreas Siegmann, CEO of Jumbo and formerly of Coop Bau+Hobby

As a further retail top-manager, the CEO of Aldi Suisse, Jérôme Meyer, presented the global retailer, its strategy, developments and innovations in Switzerland and the international management between Aldi Suisse, the HQ in Germany and the other Aldi country organizations to the students, combining the International Management perspective and the Retail Management perspective. Jérôme Meyer explained how the country organizations learn from each other and jointly develop solutions that are sometimes more leaned towards global size and sometimes more towards local responsiveness to the Swiss market. In particular, he emphasized the manifold sustainability initiatives that Aldi Suisse has implemented over the last years. The presentation was followed by a vivid discussion with our master students.

Theory meets practice

Jérôme Meyer, CEO of Aldi Suisse

In the remaining weeks of the Semester, we are awaiting two more valuable presentations: Thomas Roth, Co-Director of trafficking.ch, will raise the awareness of our students to a tragedy that is still happening around the world and also in Switzerland: Human Trafficking.

Fred Ritter, General Director of L’Oréal Luxe Switzerland, will describe the global cosmetics market and show the strategy of L’Oréal in it as well as the management of the Swiss unit of this world-leading cosmetics company.

In addition to these presentations that were organized by the Chair for International Management , the students had the opportunity to listen to another highly interesting guest presentation. Prof. Silke Bambauer-Sachse had invited Lukas Scheidegger, Head of Digital at Scott Sports, into her lecture on Digital Marketing Communication. He explained how Scott Sports applies “Social Listening” to analyse how people talk about the brand and its products on Social Networks and how this new technique adds an additional market research instrument.

The Chair for International Management is very grateful to all guests for the fascinating talks and the insights into these successful company cases! Website of the Chair

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