Bertelsmann Supports Promotional Contest For Junior Managers

Whether print or digital, how can books be marketed innovatively in the future? What challenges will a sports car manufacturer be confronted with considering the trend towards networked and communicating cars? How will the typical mobile customer be behaving in the year 2015? 24 year-old Philipp Eska from Leutkirch in the Allgäu region had the most convincing answers to questions like these in the final of the renowned promotional contest for junior managers “CEO of the Future” last weekend in Kitzbühel. For the first time, Bertelsmann participated in the contest as a partner.

A jury of top German executives – among them Fernando Carro, CEO of the club and direct marketing businesses and member of the Group Management Committee of Bertelsmann, and Hans Demmel, Managing Director of the news channel and media partner N-TV – selected Eska, an economist who is currently enrolled in a masters program in Paris, as the winner of the contest. Alexander Lange, 25 year-old masters student of business administration and founder of a startup in Hamburg, placed second. Doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering Isabel Basse (27) from Aachen, and Katharina Helten (29), also a graduate mechanical engineer who is currently writing her thesis in Munich, shared third place. All four of them win personal coaching sessions from one of the jury members of the partner companies as well as career budgets amounting to a total of 15,000 euro, which they can use for training and further education of their choice.

Nico Rose, Senior Director in Bertelsmann’s Corporate Management Development, who took over the coordination of the Bertelsmann activities for the contest within his responsibilities for employer branding, comments: “For Bertelsmann, the top caliber event perfectly matches our ‘Create Your Own Career’ strategy and is a good opportunity to establish contact with a handful of extraordinary talents and get them interested in our company.”

Alongside Carro and Demmel, the jury of the “CEO of the Future” contest consisted of the following members: Richard Pott, member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG responsible for Strategy and Human Resources; Thomas Edig, Head of Personnel and Social Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management of Porsche AG; Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO Thyssen Krupp AG; Jens Schulte-Bockum, CEO Vodafone Deutschland; Frank Mattern, Director and Office Manager of McKinsey & Company Germany; Herbert Henzler, former Director McKinsey Europe; Detlev Mohr, Director at McKinsey; and of the two other media partners Martin Noé, Deputy Editor-in-Chief at “Manager Magazin” and Rüdiger Ditz, Editor-in-Chief of “Spiegel Online”.

Almost 2,000 young professionals and students of almost all departments had participated in Europe’s largest promotional contest for junior executives, which took place for the eighth time since the year 2000. Over the course of several months the top 20 of these candidates were selected; they participated in two training weekends in November and January. In five groups they prepared a case study under the direction of professional coaches about a subject stipulated by the appropriate partner company – the “Bertelsmann team” dealt with the future of books. In addition, they learned about various facets of leadership, discussed issues such as diversity and change management, and expanded their personal network with the new contacts.

At the final in Kitzbühel the participants had the opportunity to present their solutions for the set tasks to the jury in 20 minutes and to convince the top caliber executives of themselves and their idea. In the presentations, the candidates were individually evaluated – second-ranking Alexander Lange, by the way, came from the “Bertelsmann team”. He, like several other participants of the contest, are attractive to the company as young potentials: according to Nico Rose, several promising talks took place after the final.