The 2-day HANIEL Group Conference 2015, which brings together managers from all areas of the Haniel Group, targeting “Digital Transformation”. The aim was to challenge existing strategies while gaining new approaches and ideas. This year, Philipp Herrmann, founder and CEO of etventure was a guest speaker, inspiring with his presentation about “Digital Transformation with Digital Units”. The etventure startup mobileJob was invited as well and presented its mobile recruiting solution.

The Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH is a German family-equity firm, which has its headquarters, since it was founded in 1756, in Duisburg-Ruhrort. From there, the holding company, owned 100% by the family, manages a diversified portfolio. Currently, five divisions are part of the Haniel portfolio: Bekaert Textiles, CWS-boco and ELG (100 percent shareholdings), TAKKT (majority stake) and METRO GROUP (minority stake).

The presentations have sharpened the views on the various facets of the digitalization process. Philipp Herrmann has elaborated from the practice of etventure as Digital Consultant and Company Builder. His topic “Digital Transformation with Digital Units” was based on the examples of Klöckner and Wüstenrot & Württembergische. Steel giant Klöckner & Co is working together with etventure for more than a year already. Together, the Digital Unit klöckner.i was established in Berlin. Wüstenrot & Württembergische has established  a startup within the company with the support of etventure in spring, as well. The so-called Digital Workshop has already identified 50 concrete product ideas in the first step of which currently ten were prioritized for further development process.

The etventure startup mobileJob was also invited. The founding team, Steffen’s and Kai Daniels, presented their mobile recruiting solution for the professional job market. mobileJob forms a complete application solution with its express-CV and direct first contact through mobile devices – a real milestone in the recruiting process by employers.

Overall, the aim of the conference was to encourage the leaders to find new ways to address critical thoughts on one’s own business and also to see where they need to change. These impulses were given, absorbed and engrossed in personal interviews with both Philipp Herrmann and Philipp Depiereux.