Gütersloh, 12/19/2019

Tomorrow’s Managers Meet With Today’s Managers

At the end of November, 55 young potentials from within the Group met for the “International Management Associate Days” at the Corporate Center in Gütersloh and gained insights into the Bertelsmann businesses. They had an exchange with various Group managers, among others.

Sustainably retaining highly qualified young potentials is the goal of an entire series of measures, programs and events that have been organized at Bertelsmann for many years. “Perspectives – The Bertelsmann Management Associate Program” is one of them. At the end of November, 55 young talents from within the Group convened at the Corporate Center in Gütersloh for the “International Management Associate Days” and gained in-depth insights into the various Bertelsmann businesses. Supported by Corporate HR, the two-day event was organized by a group of participants of the “Perspectives” program.

Following the welcome address given to the young potentials at the evening event by Hays Steilberg, Executive Vice President, Corporate HR, Executives and Talent at Bertelsmann, in which he emphasized the importance of the Management Associate Network, the “International Management Associate Days” provided a broad range of insights into the strategies and business activities at the Group and divisional level as well as personal success stories of the invited managers. Rolf Hellermann, CEO Arvato Financial Solutions was first and presented an overview of the corporate strategy and growth potentials in international financial markets. Frank Schirrmeister, CEO Arvato Supply Chain Solutions, outlined opportunities and changes in the logistics sector based on the examples of selected clients. He also introduced the “Digital Transformation Journey”, which is built upon the pillars culture, talent, learning and cooperation.

On the second day, Adrian Thiessen of the Bertelsmann Education Group, explained how the corporate division is giving new impulses to the traditional education industry with innovative business models. Matthias Moeller, CEO Arvato Systems, then answered detailed questions posed by the program participants about strategy and the challenging acquisition of IT talents. Afterwards, Béatrice de Surmont, Head of Corporate Talent Management, introduced the talent management at Bertelsmann and especially the “Bertelsmann Exchange Initiative”. Jörg Dräger, physicist, politician and Member of the Executive Board of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, spoke about the extent to which ethics should create the framework conditions for artificial intelligence. The final speaker was Thomas Coesfeld, Chief Strategy Officer BPG DACH, who elaborated on how the Bertelsmann Printing Group division is able to perform successfully despite a difficult market environment. In addition to the presentations and lectures, workshops about the topics scrum, innovation and diversity took place, given by Björn Pippow, Director Business Integration, Accounting & Collection at Arvato Financial Solutions, Daniel Nagel, Senior Project Manager, Digital at Arvato Supply Chain Solutions, Laura Negrelli, Project Lead, and Katharina Bruck, Senior Project Manager at the Greenhouse Innovation Lab of G+J and Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, as well as by Nadine Müller and Nora Müller of the Corporate Responsibility & Diversity Management department. All of the participants provided enthusiastic feedback on the exchange with each other and the participating top managers.

Should you have any questions about the “Perspectives” program and the “International Management Associate Days”, please contact Béatrice de Surmont ( Send email ) or Annette Kroker ( Send email ) of Corporate HR.