This week, the newly founded advisory board for the Berlin School of Digital Business (BSDB) met for the first time in Berlin. In future, the role of the board will be to advise and support the school. With the help of the panel of experts, it is envisaged that the Berlin School and what it offers will become more interconnected with and more firmly rooted in industry and the economy. Due to the wide range of skills its members have in the area of digital transformation, the board provides considerable added value to the Berlin School of Digital Business, particularly in regard to the teaching content.

As digitization becomes increasingly important in all branches of industry, increasing importance is also being placed on the training and further development of managerial staff. This is because by training employees who hold leadership positions, these employees can take an understanding of the importance of digital transformation back to their respective companies, along with the associated methods and approaches. What are the challenges and opportunities that digitization brings for companies, and what are the requirements and training needs that emerge for each company’s employees? The members of the advisory board are constantly discussing these issues and their discussions form the basis of new content and formats at the Berlin School of Digital Business.

“As digital experts, it is our responsibility to oversee the training that relates to the topic of digitization and changed economic worlds,” says Dr. Karl Pall, who makes use of his many years of experience at Google Germany to support the advisory board. The other members are: Stefanie Waehlert, former Chief Digital Officer at TUI, Gabi Zedlmayer, former Chief Progress Officer at HP, Dr. Hans-Peter Kleebinder, Social Media Strategy at Audi AG and Dr. Christian Lüdtke, Founder and Managing Director of etventure. The chair of the advisory board is Prof. Dr. Utho Creusen, Professor for Leadership at the University of Eichstätt.

On the basis of the experience that the BSDB’s parent company etventure has been able to gain from the development and execution of digital business models, the team led by Dr. Birte Gall, Managing Director of the BSDB, designs individualized further education programs for every corporate client. These programs primarily focus on finding creative ideas but they also include the use of digital technologies. The training is not theoretical – it is based on the specific challenges facing the corporate clients. During the programs, the BSDB conveys the methods that etventure has used in the past to build successful startups and develop digital business models for companies. Many companies such as Deutsche Bahn, VW, Burda and the steel corporation Klöckner have made use of the BSDB’s resources. Not only have these resources helped them to prepare their employees for digital transformation, they have also enabled them to use the “lean startup” and “design thinking” methodologies to develop tailor-made ideas and approaches to finding solutions for the company.

At the first of the three advisory board meetings to be held this year, there was a mutual exchange of visions for and expectations of the school. The members also discussed important steps toward cementing the school’s market positioning with regard to content. “The advisory board is committed to breathing life into the school’s vision of being positioned as a ‘thought leader’ among the target group,” says Advisory Board Member Dr. Hans-Peter Kleebinder.

“Our next step will be to specifically fine-tune the profile of the Berlin School by developing new training formats,” says Dr. Birte Gall, Founder and Managing Director of the Berlin School of Digital Business. “I am extremely glad that we were able to recruit such prominent personalities for the advisory board. The Berlin School of Digital Business is characterized by having a very practical orientation – this is exactly where the advisory board comes into play. In future, it will serve as a panel of experts.”

“The Berlin School has now established itself as a think tank for digital transformation,” adds Dr. Christian Lüdtke, Founder and Managing Director of etventure and fellow member of the advisory board. “Examples of its success, such as the Escape Room developed for VW and publications such as the ‘compass’ for digital transformation in businesses highlight what makes the Berlin School special: relaying digital expertise in an individualized way that is easy to understand.”