In conversation with Karin Fischer

September 2023: The Head of Business Development is talking about Artificial Intelligence

How long have you been with emineo?
I joined emineo in October 2019 as a Business Consulting Team Leader and was given the opportunity to immediately take over the management of our largest project at the time. With this kind of introduction, I quickly got to know and appreciate emineo’s employees, the corporate culture and the methodology applied at emineo. I was very pleased to be able to take on such a large mandate as a newcomer and to grow in this role as well as to be able to use my previous experience and skills in the best possible way, especially in the areas of program and project management as well as quality and risk management.

What is your new field of work?
After only 3.5 years at emineo, I took over the newly created position of Head of Business Development this year. In this role, I lead a virtual team of leadership personalities across all 4 emineo companies. Together, we are responsible for the strategic expansion of the business and consistently measure ourselves against a balanced scorecard that covers all relevant areas and topics. This is an exciting task, as the emineo team, our turnover and our portfolio have grown rapidly in recent years, while new technologies and markets offer extremely interesting opportunities.
This great new field of work offers me the chance to fully contribute my diverse experience as a consultant as well as a manager, in the customer and project business as well as strategy consulting, and in many other areas. In this role, I see myself as an initiator and liaison between the different disciplines. In my work, I attach importance to a holistic logic and consistent operationalization of the strategy in order to actually tap into planned added values.

What do you like about your job?
Driving change and transformation in our dynamic world is very appealing to me and is already the new normal. And as Head of Business Development, this is already anchored in the title of my new role and task.
Development always means the possibility to shape things. We have a wide variety of topics, technologies and aspects that we consider in our work. Envisioning the future together with the people at emineo is simply fun. I am excited by the combination of entrepreneurial and future-oriented thinking. Moreover, successful strategy work requires clear, convincing visions for companies and employees in order to appeal to people’s hearts, to motivate them and to direct all their efforts and thinking towards a common goal, even if things get difficult sometimes. Addressing and working all this out gives me pleasure and motivates me.

What do you see as the challenges and opportunities ahead?
The upcoming second wave of digitization and artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to significant changes in all areas of life. With the new possibilities offered by machine-understandable data, both our customers’ and our way of working will change dramatically.
In the future, we will interact with systems in a much more intense manner. This means a new balance is needed in how we do or work most efficiently and effectively along with the new opportunities. New business models such as “Everything as a service” (EaaS) will also gain in importance. Radical changes in existing markets will complicate tasks such as strategic analysis and the assessment of actual market developments, which will require a high level of agility in the strategy process.

To survive and grow profitably in this complex and challenging environment, organizations simultaneously need vision, endurance and consistent agility. This is because there is also pressure from the shortage of skilled workers, increasing competitive pressure and also slower growth in Europe. emineo also offers workshops here to show Customers how and why they can use AI in their processes.

What do you think makes emineo special?
emineo has managed to build a highly competent, quality-conscious team with a unique leadership culture. Together with our agile approach, our actions are consistently geared towards realizing tangible added value for our customers. And that in turn leads to a positive spirit – people want to achieve something with their work, help shape it and be appreciated for it. When we solve challenges together as a team, it strengthens our cooperation as well as our relationship with our customers who perceive us as a true partner. That makes our day.
The solutions developed by emineo often have the potential to set a standard in the relevant industry. At the same time, emineo is growing holistically: we now cover a wide range of disciplines with over 200 experts in Switzerland and Spain. This leads to more and more synergies, and we are ideally positioned in terms of both breadth and depth of expertise and provide expert support throughout the entire project and digital product life cycle.

Our claim is that “this is how digital works” – how do you perceive digitization?
I am a fan of digital and use it whenever it gets me to my goal faster, easier and more efficiently. I also like to try out new things and, with my PhD in artificial intelligence, I am now particularly looking forward to using and shaping the new technical possibilities for the benefit of our customers.
In my free time, however, I also like to pick up a printed book to immerse myself in fantasy worlds in a completely analogue way, far away from the digital world.

What do you wish for the future?
My wish for the future of emineo is that we will be able to react even better and faster to the changing markets and serve our customers better than now – thanks to the digital transformation. New smart solutions will become much more integrated into everyday life and the world of work. With the help of these technologies, I want to help our customers unlock new business value, become even more productive and at the same time make it more intuitive for people to work, for example by using voice input instead of a keyboard.
My wish for our employees is that we continue to succeed in shaping the new world of work in such a way that everyone can best tap into their potential. The office should mutate even more into a co-creation hub that nurtures our WE feeling and helps shape the digital future with fun and joy. It is also important to me that everyone finds the right work-life balance. Everyone should feel comfortable with us with their individual needs and facets and be as committed to the world of work as is right for them personally.