Dear readers,
We stand for clearly formulated goals. They specify expectations, provide direction, and give us energy. Goals mobilize us, connect us with like-minded people, and give purpose to our actions.
Therefore, we are slowly bidding farewell to the year 2024 by setting goals for 2025 and making plans for their realization. The RWTÜV Group is well-equipped for this: we have trained our managers well and given them the best tools to tackle daily challenges. With the principles of new work formats, we give our employees space to contribute their strengths in their daily work. We not only keep an eye on trends and developments; with our innovation competition, we are actively shaping the future ourselves. We are globally positioned and in good contact with our employees, for example in Asia.
Read for yourself about the topics that occupied the RWTÜV Group in November. Or experience in the video „Meet the CEO Part 2,” which you can access via the link below this newsletter, a CEO who is successful and motivated, EVEN THOUGH he has not entirely fulfilled his childhood dreams.
Sincerely
Your
Thomas Biedermann and Dr. Fabian Fechner
Valuable
Especially when exchanging between cultures as different as Asian and European, personal contact is invaluable. The rapid changes, not only in the Asian market, make regular visits all the more worthwhile. RWTÜV managing directors Thomas Biedermann, Dr. Fabian Fechner, and Andreas Ehre experienced this for themselves, not for the first time, during their visit to the subsidiary Cetecom K.K. in Seoul, South Korea. Planning and further expansion of services were discussed in productive conversations with employees and team leaders. Customer visits were also on the agenda.
A highly motivated team also awaited the three travelers in Japan. The colleagues at the branch in Shin Yokohama want to quickly bring their expanded service offerings to market in order to strengthen their position against competitors and expand market share.
Andreas Ehre, Managing Director of cetecom advanced, drew a positive conclusion from the visits: „Similar to Germany and the USA, internal cooperation with Asia is developing very positively. Through close international networking, we can generate an expanded service portfolio for our customers, which is of course an additional incentive for everyone involved. These are good prospects for 2025 and beyond.”
Excellent
The current edition of the RWTÜV Group's internal innovation competition focused on the topics of artificial intelligence and digitalization. The challenge was to explore how new opportunities for the RWTÜV Group's working methods, job profiles, and services could be developed using ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot, how AI can digitally transform the group's services, make processes more efficient, or even attract new talent.
Forty-four suggestions have been submitted by employees, which are currently being reviewed and evaluated by the RWTÜV Group's management. The award ceremony will take place on December 4th.
The first winner has already been determined. Frauke Schell emerged as the winner of the community vote, in which suggestions could be liked by the entire staff.
The Enoplan colleague came up with the idea for an AI-powered knowledge management system for everyday work. It can not only make it easier for new employees to get started in their jobs, but it also supports long-term staff with quick and targeted answers to everyday questions.
„Frauke Schell calls the system, which is specially tailored to internal needs and can make processes more efficient through uncomplicated access to company-specific information, “Company GPT.„ With AI-supported answers to frequently recurring questions such as “Where is the expense report document?„, “Where can I book a company car?„, “Who can I call if my VPN connection isn't working?„, or “How many vacation days do I have left?„, not only can access to information be shortened and simplified, or onboarding for new employees be made easier. The workload of HR and other support departments would also be reduced. “This leads to increased efficiency and allows our teams to concentrate on their core tasks!", Schell promoted the advantages of her idea.
The colleagues in the group were enthusiastic about the suggestion, and they rewarded Frauke Schell with first place in the community vote. The winner also received a warm congratulations from the RWTÜV management, Thomas Biedermann and Fabian Fechner: „That's a great suggestion. Quick implementation is in all of our best interests!“
Ideal
Imagine if you always knew with a quick glance everything that needs to be done in your project and the available capacity of your colleagues, and then you could distribute both ideally. Utopian? No, a clear goal for project management in the RWTÜV Group!
In early November, RWTÜV headquarters hosted a training session on „Agile Work Formats“ for the second time, which included a discussion on a Kanban board. This agile project management tool aims to help teams align the work to be done with the available capacity of each team member, thereby avoiding bottlenecks and enabling rapid success.
Agility as the core of this method describes a company's ability to quickly adapt to new situations and respond flexibly to new challenges. Changes are seen as opportunities, therefore agile working requires not only a change in thinking but also the courage to break away from established processes and comfort zones, and to try new things.
Sebastian Trost, Innovations Manager at Enoplan, was a proven speaker and once again impressed the participants with his expertise and practical experience. The seminar also offered colleagues from the various companies an opportunity to network within the RWTÜV Group.
Optimized
For 2025, the RWTÜV Group's leadership team is well-informed and optimally positioned through targeted measures:
Over three events and a review meeting, RWTÜV F2 managers were prepared for all upcoming challenges this year. At different venues with many different speakers, a broad spectrum of topics was covered: from conflict resolution and communication optimization to labor law, from development coaching to time management, the
Team, group, or project leaders were given expert tips and knowledge. To conclude, everyone in the new Leadership Circle received a certificate before the training was appropriately celebrated at the Bonn restaurant Rohmühle.
The executive management of RWTÜV met with the executive management of its subsidiaries in October in Bruchsal at Enoplan GmbH and in Östringen-Tiefenbach for the annual Group Management Meeting. Thomas Biedermann and Dr. Fabian Fechner discussed the strategic direction for the coming years up to 2030 and planned activities around sharpening the umbrella brand with their colleagues. The conscious integration of innovation management into the workflows of the subsidiaries and the holding company was also discussed, inspired by keynote speeches from the new affiliate isn – innovation service network from Austria and the Cologne-based agency Valoress Strategieberatung.