Purpose – Why attitude will decide

KatharinaEvents, News

Engineering Artist Thomas Schönauer and André Paetzel, Head of Brand, Kienbaum Consultants

Engineering Artist Thomas Schönauer and André Paetzel, Head of Brand, Kienbaum Consultants

Special event organized by Creative Hive and Kienbaum

Under the motto “Purpose – Why attitude will decide”, a very exciting get-together of the format Creative Hive took place on May 28 in Düsseldorf. In addition to the co-organizer Fabian Kienbaum, engineering artist Thomas Schönauer, CEO of the Metro AG Olaf Koch and Dr. Ing. Sarah Hintermayer of Evonik Technology & Infrastructure were invited to give a fresh impulse to the audience. Attitude was the core topic of the event, as the title already promises. This topic was discussed from different angles: philosophical, personal, socio-critical, political, entrepreneurial and strategic.

Demonstrate attitude also in art

Thomas Schönauer made no secret of the fact that he is criticizing the contemporary art scene. There, mainly economic considerations count. Demonstrating a special attitude towards societal changes is of minor importance. To him, however, art is the result of an intellectual attitude. His concern and creative impulse is geared towards the good of humanity. What he does not like are the too often badly designed public spaces. This is something he would like to change for the better through his work as engineering artist. From his point of view, art should stimulate the process of societal change. First of all, the context, the landscape planning, should be considered and then architectural design comes into play.

The customer benefit as an “uncut diamond”

Olaf Koch described very impressively what attitude means to him. When he took over the lead of the Metro Group in 2011, he raised the follwing questions for his employees: “why are we here?”, “who is actually our customer?”. As a result, he discovered the “uncut diamond” of his group. The main benefits for the two major customer groups: independent catering and food retail. This is how the new USP “Your success is our business” came up. Combating system catering by offering fresh regional products is one of the core goals for which the company stands today. Along with this process, Olaf Koch achieved to increase the identification index in the last 7 years from 60 to at least 78 percent. “Trade is made by people” is his credo. Each individual employee is part of the value creating process. This genuine top down-appreciation of the human resource led to the desired result.

Actions show a clear attitude

For the biochemical technician Sarah Hintermayer, Evonik Technology & Infrastructure, attitude is conceivable in actions. An attitude may also be modified or changed in a flexible manner and any thought as audacious as it may be, should be allowed. She got the “Go” from the parent company Evonik Industries to push ahead with her business idea and to sustainably increase the durability of concrete with WallCraft. This is a nice proof of the innovation culture at Evonik. WallCraft is a promising new technology with a tremendous potential for the future.