KICK-OFF #DCHH16
Embracing Change
After 5 years on the ISM campus in HafenCity, DestinationCamp moved this year about a kilometer towards the Binnenalster. In addition to the change of location, several other changes were explained to participants in an entertaining way at the start of the event – most notably the climate and water-neutral implementation.
As every year, the keynote was highly anticipated. Management consultant Florian Gold shared his ideas on success factors for modern corporate management. The most important aspects: focus, agility, and speed. In times of rapid digital change, we should prioritize speed over perfection. Organizations that want to remain viable here must adapt quickly:
"You can achieve restructuring in a matter of seconds if you turn your organizational chart upside down."
A central success factor in this is a non-demotivated, valued employee as the most important link to the market. Because:
"You don't have to be perfect – it's enough to find out what the customer perceives as added value and then implement that with focus and agility."
CHANGE ALWAYS BEGINS WITH A QUESTION - THE PANEL DISCUSSION TAKES A STANCE
Following the keynote, in the panel discussion, industry representatives from various parts of the value chain were again questioned on the main topic. This time featuring:
- Kathrin Dürr (Alpsee-Grünten Tourismus GmbH)
- Michael Buller (Verband Internet Reisevertrieb e.V.)
- Achim Schloemer (Köln-Düsseldorfer Deutsche Rheinschifffahrt AG)
- Olaf Stehr (1. Deutsches Kartoffel-Hotel Lüneburger Heide GmbH)
- Martin Spantig (BAYERN TOURISMUS Marketing GmbH)
- Thorsten Teschner (Hamburg Tourismus GmbH)
The topic of change was examined here from different perspectives. Among others,
Martin Spantig expressed an interesting hypothesis:
"For the term 'Change' or 'Wandel' (German for change), there's actually a beautiful German word: 'Leben' (life). I have the impression that we sometimes overcomplicate the issue. We have to implement change every day, perform leadership tasks."
However, everyone agreed that there is a need for action in light of increasingly rapid change processes. Market-oriented communication and innovative strength are two key success factors here. The possibilities for communication today are extremely diverse and complex – innovation, unfortunately, too often comes from outside the industry rather than from within. However, impactful communication and groundbreaking innovation are both nothing without a truly good product – that was the consensus among the panel guests.
We will now address this and other facets of the topic of change over the next two days and look forward to interesting results.
The 2016 video documentation is presented at the kick-off by Wilken Corporate Group & HRS Destination Solutions.