The industrial sector is an important pillar of the French, German and Swiss economy. Every year the Industry Day Southwest provides a great opportunity for industrial companies from the Baden-Württemberg region and across the German border from France and Switzerland to strengthen business relationships and learn from each other. We will be participating at the 10. Industry Day Southwest at the Karlsruhe Trade Fair Centre on July 12th. Our main focus will be to introduce Evidence-based Management as means for managers and professionals to move from speculation to impact and develop their companies to the next performance level.
High quality knowledge is one of the most important assets for managers and professionals nowadays. You and your organization can only be successful when decisions are taken based on most recent insights from research and science. This approach is called Evidence-based Management and has its origin in the healthcare sector which started some time ago with taking decisions by drawing on evidence rather than opinion. However, when you start to gather information to solve a business problem from outside your organization you'll mostly rely on two different sources.
The social sciences are, by design, intended to provide grounded, meaningful information and recommendations for various aspects of human life – from education, to criminal justice, to management, and many more. Yet for many years, social science research has yielded findings that are very limited in their relevance and applicability (Bornman, 2013). Small experimental studies and surveys, typically conducted on college students, cannot consistently tell us meaningful things about how people in the world-at-large think, behave, and feel. Furthermore, highly theoretical work that is conducted in a laboratory may not provide useful conclusions that extend to the office.
A while ago, I was talking to a friend who had a background in physics and told him I’d just received an MSc (Master of Science) in Psychology. He smirked slightly and I asked what he was smiling about? “Well, it’s not really a science though, is it,” he replied.
You live and learn. This applies to everyday life and in particular to your own job. Intragroup trainings are increasingly demanded in times of dynamic change. In our society, performance and competitiveness are defined through knowledge to a high degree. Those who provide flexible and efficient opportunities to their employees will have a clear advantage. As a result, hundreds of millions of Euros are invested in training activities every year. However, only a small percentage of the training content is reaches the trainees despite this tremendous investment. Studies show again and again that merely 15-20 percent of the content of traditional training programs such as lectures, video training, and group work lead to sustainable changes. This means a wasted investment for the company and a waste of time for the trainee.
The consulting industry is currently undergoing a radical change. Traditional strategy, restructuring, and implementation consulting agencies are more and more under pressure. The causes are manifold and can be anything from not meeting client requirements to new scientific findings and easier access to current knowledge via the internet. Alternative consulting approaches are focusing on the traditional consulting model’s weaknesses and become more and more important. We summarized four reasons for a reorientation of traditional consulting agencies.
Lernen ist der Motor für Weiterentwicklung. Dies gilt auf einer individuellen Ebene in gleicher Weise wie für Unternehmen und andere Organisationen. Auf den Punkte gebracht ist die Grundvoraussetzung für eine „lernende Organisation“ individuelles Lernen, d.h. der Wissensaufbau jedes einzelnen Mitarbeiters. Unternehmerischer Erfolg ist damit unmittelbar mit der Weiterentwicklung jedes einzelnen Mitarbeiters verbunden.
