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When we reached out to digitalswitzerland members to find out how they were responding to the COVID-19 crisis, we were overwhelmed by the range of positive impact stories. From small but significant tweaks to the daily business, to shifts that will bring lasting benefits, the measures adopted demonstrate Switzerland’s flexibility, adaptability and digital capability.
So far in this series, PwC, the University of St. Gallen and IMD have shared some of the ways they’ve responded to the crisis with innovative thinking and digital technologies. World Vision and Salesforce told us how they’re making a difference in communities around the world. And Heads! International and Daimler explained how they turned adversity into opportunity. As we emerge from the acute phase of the crisis, we explore how some of our other members’ innovation efforts could support a new normal.
American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) strives to be at the intersection of technology and human service. Since the beginning of the novel coronavirus outbreak, the company has helped hundreds of thousands of travellers with rebooking, cancellations, refunds and repatriation. As people begin to cross borders again, there will be a ‘new normal’, with an expectation for disruption and uncertainty. GBT has been helping clients gain visibility on forward bookings by proactively pulling data, identifying and communicating with clients and their travellers that need support. This will continue as travel returns and companies will want to closely monitor travel plans and analyse the impact of travel on budgets, cashflow and planning.
The ZHAW University of Applied Sciences switched seamlessly to digital teaching during the coronavirus crisis. To support planning certainty and protect student and staff health, the university has moved all teaching online until 31 July 2020. ZHAW has underlined its commitment to innovation by pledging CHF 500,000 from its Digital Futures Fund (DFF) to support projects that provide a greater overall benefit during the pandemic. From over 109 applications, ZHAW digital selected 27 proposals in digital transformation at the ZHAW as well as externally. Some of the projects address immediate concerns such as ways to host events digitally. Others support a longer-term collaboration and networking within the ZHAW digital community.
Besides an innovative mindset and willingness to adapt, a strong digital infrastructure is more important than ever in the post-pandemic world. As an important pioneer of technology around the world, Huawei implemented many innovative solutions from the very beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Many of the solutions to fight the pandemic in China used 5G to enable AI-powered services. Use cases cover various different scenarios, from comprehensive telemedicine and remotely controlled medical equipment, to unmanned spraying devices – so collaboration with other expert partners is important
Despite the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 crisis, our members have embraced digital opportunities to adapt to life in lockdown, maintain business operations and support staff and customers. If this crisis has taught us anything, it’s that collaboration and communication powered by digital enablers are a powerful mix. In a post-pandemic world, we’ll be ready for whatever comes next.
Heads! International, a leading international Executive Search company, worked with a major banking client to design a global female talent pipeline on the Managing Director level – during the lockdown phase. While many companies were ordering hiring freezes or postponing new campaigns, Heads! International identified an opportunity: launching this big campaign to coincide with lockdown had a number of positive aspects.
“It may not feel like the right time to be focusing on anything but survival in the COVID-19 climate,” says Claudio Lupi, Partner at Heads! International in Zug, “but now is actually a unique opportunity to increase female leadership globally.”
The disruption people face has forced an openness for new horizons. In agreement with the client, Heads! International decided to trigger this talent pipeline for senior female managers just as many women in the candidate population would be thinking about their future in a post-COVID-19 world. With many people working from home, it’s easier to connect with female talents, reflect with them and communicate in new ways. “As we already have various digital channels built into our business model, we were able to roll out the campaign very quickly,” says Claudio Lupi.
Developing a pipeline of female talent during the crisis means that Heads! International’s client will be well placed in a post-COVID-19 world to deliver fresh perspectives and a more diverse leadership.
As government measures forced all but the most essential of businesses to close for an undefined period, the automotive industry was particularly hard hit. From factories to sales floors, the sector had to adapt rapidly to a new normal. At Daimler, the response across the organisation has been as varied as the teams and departments affected.
Alex Rey, Head of Retail Training & Coaching at Mercedes-Benz Schweiz AG, explains how the organisation has been supporting sales staff, mechanics and customer service advisers from 130 Daimler dealerships around Switzerland: “Nobody knew how long lockdown would last so we were keen to explore new ways our dealers could connect with customers at this difficult time. It meant rethinking what has typically been a direct customer-facing business and developing a new digital dialogue.”
As soon as it became apparent that face-to-face training would no longer be possible, the Daimler training team, together with an external training partner, set about designing two video series. The first taught ways to stay in contact with customers by phone, while the second focused on how to present a vehicle by video for interested customers. The aim was to support dealers in their main activity – connecting with customers – rather than making any kind of sales push. In order to benefit dealers and customers in the whole of Switzerland, the tutorial was translated into three languages. It was important that the resources be easy to access, so Daimler chose to share them via youtube. The entire concept was developed, realised and implemented within five days.
Daimler has been embracing digital learning for some time, but the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated use of distance learning tools. Alongside its specific new training series, the company has put together a package of around 250 relevant tutorials, videos and e-trainings so that dealers could spend time away from the showroom effectively.
By focusing efforts on dealers, Daimler wanted to empower those who would otherwise not be able to work during lockdown. Feedback from users has been overwhelmingly positive; people are keen to get back to work properly, but are grateful for the chance to brush up old skills and learn new ones in the meantime.
Taking a longer-term view, connecting with stakeholders and upskilling throughout the crisis will help kick-start business once restrictions are fully lifted.
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The Powercoders programme is open to refugees with high potential for a career in IT. Since its launch, more than 118 people have followed the association’s programme. All participants start by attending a 13-week IT course that focuses on the basics of web development and prepares the students for the next phase: practical internships. These are offered by over 80 participating IT companies, including Swiss Post, UBS, Swisscom, Mobiliar and Cognizant. The Powercoder (student) receives support from a coach throughout the 6 to 12-month internship. The goal is a full-time position, an apprenticeship, or a trainee programme combined with part-time studies
“Every day when I left my house, I was unsure if I would get back in the evening.” These are the words of Izzatollah Amani. The 26-year-old was forced to flee his home country Afghanistan but was able to take refuge in Switzerland. Here, he started a new life quickly by learning German and completing two trial semesters at the ETH Zurich. However, he wasn’t allowed to continue his studies. He applied for technical schools but was not admitted as he was unable to provide the necessary documents from his university back in Afghanistan.
Fortunately, Izzatollah heard about Powercoders and was selected from 120 applicants for the first intake in Zurich. After the 3-month Powercoders boot camp he was chosen by the IT company Cognizant in Zurich and successfully completed a 12-month internship. He was offered a permanent job as a junior software engineer immediately afterwards.
Today, Izzatollah is still at Cognizant part-time – the rest of the time he’s able to continue his studies in computer science at the Fachhochschule Rapperswil. For Izzatollah it’s a dream come true: he does not need to claim welfare, he studies in the field he loves and – best of all – he resides in a country where he is safe at last.
His employer is also delighted with Izzatollah’s success. “As an IT company we struggle to find qualified talent in the market,” says Stefan Metzger, Country Manager of Cognizant Technology Solutions AG. “When we heard about Powercoders we were excited about working with an organization that would enable us to develop people in-house whilst also giving individuals an opportunity to ‘re-start’ their professional life and regain their dignity. Izzat is the first ex-Powercoder to stay on as an employee and we couldn’t be more proud that he is now also able to study and follow his dreams.”
It may read a bit like a fairytale but Izzatollah’s is not the only success story. Fellow-Afghan Jamila Amani, who completed the programme in 2017, is now a System Engineer at Swisscom AG. Another graduate from 2017, Sri Lankan Gajendran Packiyanathan, works as a Software Engineer at Migros Aare. Meanwhile, Rami Jumaah, from Iraq, is the first Powercoder to have graduated with an EFZ (apprenticeship diploma). He is now working as a Performance Engineer at Firmtec. These stories are just a few examples of the many Powercoders who have turned their careers – and lives – around. And all before the age of 40 or even 30.
The numbers speak for themselves: so far over 118 refugees have taken part in the Powercoders programme, with 97% finding internships and over 60% successfully managing to secure job integration. This proves that Powercoders’ concept works in practice. Stefan Metzger would encourage more IT firms to get on board:
“We strongly recommend this programme to all IT companies and we look forward to developing more talent together with Powercoders.”
Powercoders is also committed to helping the next generation of IT specialists and is developing its school concept further. To offer more stability and safeguard the programme’s continuation, the organization has set up two permanent schools, one in Zurich for the whole German-speaking part of Switzerland and one in Lausanne for the French-speaking part. The association has also built an international organization to scale the impact of its programme worldwide (starting with Europe and the MENA region). A first pilot has already taken place in Istanbul, a second is now running in Turin, Italy, and other international intakes in the EU are in development.
As part of the digitalswitzerland Challenge, Powercoders has pledged to establish two “Powerhouses” (in Lausanne and Zurich) by April 2020. These brimming community hubs should make learning digital skills accessible to people of diverse backgrounds including refugees, children, parents, IT professionals, and social entrepreneurs. By 2021, these Powerhouses will have become sustainable and will generate collaborations and projects as well as train new professionals for all of Switzerland.
When people hear about our mission, they want to help too. There are two main ways to get involved.
Offer IT internships: Meet candidates at our Career Days, then decide which ones to invite for interviews.
Corporate volunteering: Support your employees to volunteer as job coaches or IT trainers.
Contact for companies in German-speaking part of Switzerland: hussam.allaham@powercoders.org
Contact for companies in French speaking part of Switzerland: magaly.mathys@powercoders.org
Although most people these days possess some degree of digital literacy, it’s a skillset that needs to be developed and maintained as part of a commitment to #LifelongLearning. The right mindset, combined with awareness and know-how, are vital to navigate the digital world effortlessly. Many people have had a crash course in digital technologies recently as offices moved en masse to kitchen tables, and meetings were squeezed onto smartphone screens.
PwC is embracing the potential of digitalisation and actively works to strengthen public trust in a rapidly changing digital world. In recognition of the particularly important role digital skills play right now, PwC Switzerland is offering its Digital Fitness app free of charge to all private users and companies until the end of July 2020. With a host of user-friendly features and targeted content, the app empowers users to stay relevant, boost their digital prowess and navigate the digital world more skillfully.
Andreas Staubli, CEO of PwC Switzerland says: “As the leading audit and advisory company in Switzerland, it is a given for us to support society and the economy. With the Digital Fitness app, we are offering a resource which users can easily integrate into their everyday lives.”
With so many of us staying home right now, it is the perfect time to dive into the digital world and develop new skills for the future.
Learning hasn’t stopped just because educational establishments are closed. Higher education institutions around the country have adapted fast to the situation. In fact, for some, the crisis has served to accelerate ongoing digital transformation projects. The University of St. Gallen (HSG) is one of them. Having launched a new Learning Management System last year, HSG was planning to focus on digital collaboration win the second half of the year. But the time plan was radically redefined as the crisis unfolded.
HSG quickly mobilised blended learning options like web-conferencing to support students and lecturers in quarantine. Throughout, HSG has tried to anticipate and stay one step ahead. When the lockdown announcement became imminent, capacity for online lectures was increased rapidly through a web conferencing tool suitable for our cohorts of 500+ students. The final testing phase is now underway to enable online exams for students no longer able to travel to Switzerland. On a wider scale, this could also be relevant if campus exams are not possible in the summer session.
At HSG, willingness to engage with new tools almost instantly was exceptional. But while the pace of change was welcomed by digital pioneers, it felt like an avalanche for digital rookies now and then. Various video tutorials, regular live Q&A sessions, and an online community “HSG stands together” helped everyone keep up and deliver a smooth continuation of classes for students.
Disruption – like we’re seeing in the Covid-19 crisis – is a great accelerator of change. “People get used to the day-to-day and when something shocks the system, people get out their comfort zone and think about what they can do better,” confirms Louis Leclezio, IMD’s Chief Technology and Customer Experience Officer. The business school has developed a hybrid auditorium (HUB), which blends the 100% virtual experience with the in-situ classroom. Programme content is being adapted to accommodate the vision, with some courses already being taught using the newly designed virtual technology.
IMD is also supporting colleagues through its spirit@imd initiative. Via a dedicated intranet page, employees can quickly find news on coronavirus initiatives involving staff, updates on virtual wellness sessions, plus easy access to a multitude of working tools and information. Louis Leclezio summarises his organisation’s efforts: “We don’t get worried, we get busy.”
These stories highlight what can be achieved with the right attitude, a commitment to solidarity and effective digital enablers.
Many of our members, thought and industry leaders in Switzerland, have shared how they handle the extraordinary situation we face today. They are stepping up once again to show that every challenge can be overcome. But only if we are proactive, creative and collaborate not only as organizations but also as citizens of this world. As a top priority, virtually all companies have taken proactive measures to protect their employees and halt the spread of COVID-19.
Keeping a physical distance is one of the best ways to stay healthy. While banning handshakes is now a common practice some organizations go beyond and ask their employees to work remotely. I see no reason why people who can work remotely should have to go to the office – social distance is ultimately what’s going to save us.
The concept of remote work isn’t new, however the speed at which companies are equipping their employees with the necessary tools is unprecedented. However, we mustn’t forget that there’s a large group of people, including knowledge-workers, who are afraid of technology or don’t know how to use it. Now more than ever it is the responsibility of all of us to help those who aren’t as digitally literate and to continually educate ourselves.
However, remote work and digital collaboration is not available for all employees, especially manual labor workers. That’s why flexible work hours and alternating shifts are on the rise. Not only does this practice allow traveling to and from work outside of peak hours, it also exposes workers to fewer people during their shift, which lessens the risk of contagion.
The technology needed for that to happen, has been around for a while. This allows meetings and even some events to be held in virtual settings. Is this the push some organizations need to rethink excessive meeting culture? Is COVID-19 what could establish digital tools and remote work in organizations?
None of us can predict the future but I do expect 2020 to be the year of digitalization. More companies than ever before will introduce tools that foster connection and collaboration online. The workforce as a whole will have to not only tolerate but wholly accept digital tools. COVID-19 will be the largest driver of digitalisation in history. Not only in Switzerland but worldwide.
Self-serve, buffet style Cafeterias are common among larger organizations. After all they are cheap and easy to maintain and allow employees to control exactly how much of what they consume. From the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Switzerland, organizations like Bain & Company and Ringier have adjusted the way they serve food. To minimize the risk of contamination they have committed to serving individually packaged goods only.
The topic of hygiene will continue to be relevant. I am expecting to see a change in our lifestyle and therefore new opportunities for business – after all, the only thing stopping a virus is proper hygiene and social distance.
Again, physical distance is what will save us. Companies like Ringier have made layout changes to their cafeteria from the very beginning of the outbreak in order to minimize physical contact. This practice is now adopted to offices all over the world. Open floor plans, once all the rage, are now being questioned.
Right now is not the time to travel: Neither for business nor for pleasure. That’s tough for many corporations as big decisions have always been made in physical meetings. International companies are fostering exchange and connection with other employees and their organization through personal interaction. We are now forced to rethink this practice and find alternatives. But are there any? We are human beings. We need human connection. And while video meetings are excellent tools to foster connection, they will not be able to replace real-life human connection. That’s why I predict that air travel will pick up again rather quickly after we have survived the COVID-19 pandemic.
Start-ups are agile, the rest of us are not. Or are we? While the first statement might have held some truth just a few weeks ago, big corporations are now forced to rethink and accelerate their decision making process. Time is a luxury we don’t have these days.
It is remarkable how quickly large companies have responded to the crisis. That goes to show that all participants of the economy can make quick decisions if needed. If large corporations can keep making quick decisions, not only today but 12, 18 and even 24 months down the line, we will emerge out of this crisis stronger and more innovative than ever.
Stay healthy,
Nicolas
More companies than ever will introduce new digital tools, foster digital literacy and equip their employees with everything they need to work from home. The pace at which companies adapt a digital mindset is unprecedented, innovation is happening rapidly and with it we are entering a new era.
The term is a composition of global and local. It describes the act of thinking globally and locally at the same time. I am expecting that many production companies will start producing more locally. This allows them to monitor and adjust production constantly, be in close contact with local authorities and respond to the growing demand of society for locally produced goods.
Growth has been at the forefront of our minds for many years now. From one week to the next it seems we have switched into survival mode. Almost all companies are struggling, many SMEs are expected to declare bankruptcy within the coming year. What can save us now is creativity, adaptability and a positive attitude towards change.
Working from home is technically possible for a large number of people. But what about those, who aren’t as digitally literate? It is our responsibility as a society to continually educate ourselves on digital topics. Ask for help if you need it. We are all both students and teachers.
In terms of leadership the skills that will matter going forward are empathy, compassion and trust. If you are a manager of a team: stop micromanaging and let your team show you what they are capable of. Model discipline, communicate openly and show compassion. This is a tough time for all of us and we’re all doing our best. Going forward, leaders will be the ones who are able to motivate their teams in times of crises. Those who are able to cultivate a sense of community, purpose and belonging.
The next few months, maybe even years, will be tough. Possibly the toughest many of us have ever lived through. But they also hold great learning opportunities – after all, crisis is a great catalyst for creativity. Not only for businesses or employees but for us as a society, as citizens of the world. We will emerge out of this crisis stronger, more resilient and connected than ever.
Please reach out to me if you have anything to add, want to prove me wrong or would like to share your thoughts. This is just the beginning of our conversation.
Stay healthy,
Nicolas Bürer
Covid-19 triggers a push in digitalisation and thereby establishes a long-term hybrid future in which digital and analogue are seamlessly connected. digitalswitzerland, in cooperation with the Wissensfabrik, developed a white paper outlining five ways of how digital transformation can be continued. It focuses on the potential of digital infrastructure, idea spaces, institutions of the knowledge society, new interfaces and new forms of cooperation.
There are many different aspects of the Covid-19 crisis. The virus attacks our bodies, isolates the sick and the elderly, puts a burden on our healthcare system, triggers infodemics and seals up our echo chambers. We are all affected by an ill-defined fear of invisible danger.
If anyone gets too close to us at a railway station, we flinch. We hesitate before touching door handles, or when our shopping cost exceeds 80 CHF and we have to enter our PIN number using dirty buttons. As a result of social distancing, we have developed an unexpectedly intense relationship with ourselves, our living rooms and our nearest and dearest.
Not everything we learn from that experience is positive. From an economic point of view, a continued lack of customers is causing cash flow problems. We face the threat of a deep recession, which can only be overcome by creating new markets and jobs and which could see a withering of our cultural landscape. Ultimately, Covid-19 is a stress test for digital Switzerland. We are finding out where everyday life slips seamlessly into the digital world and where there is an abrupt divide.
The pandemic experience is exposing digital deficits. Without an online presence, revenues fail to materialise and poor digital solutions lead to a loss of image. This is why those companies and public authorities who have been involuntarily exposed are in a hurry to rectify their deficiencies. Not only could the pandemic experience soon be repeated, but the post-Corona world is also likely to see a more digitally conscious approach by customers, citizens and employees.
You don’t have to be a trend researcher to recognise that Covid-19 will trigger a boost in digitalisation and finally lead us into a hybrid future. In that future, we will consume, work, learn, love, and communicate in a way that is both analogue and digital. The transition between those worlds will only become seamless when all documents, identity papers, signatures, decision-making processes, customer and patient records have been digitalised. Security and data sovereignty need to be ensured at all times. If not, there will be a surge of resistance and a flourishing of cybercrime.
The stress test highlights where digital front runners will accelerate in future – digital shapers, disruptors from San Francisco and Beijing, FinTech companies and web designers. E-sport, e-shopping, Zoom meetings, home office, home-schooling and online university all give us a glimpse of how the transformation may evolve over the next few years. In some cases, it started some time ago. A simple mental exercise generated by Covid-19 serves as a key question as we look to the long-term future.
What will the future demand of us in which we no longer want to touch anything, where we can no longer physically meet other people, and where the internet is the only way out of our homes into the big wide world? Many of the technical and ethical limits of this scenario remain unclear. As radical as these changes could be, they also open up our eyes to new markets and social innovations that would previously have been deemed impossible. Is it not important for Switzerland to anticipate, discuss and process these opportunities and risks?
In order for this to be successful, we have to work together to write the progression of the digital transformation. In the last three months, we made things possible collectively that we needed several years to achieve in the past. However, our way into the digital future will continue. digitalswitzerland and Wissensfabrik show how we can continue to tell our digital story.
The excellence of a digital society is measured by the quality of its digital infrastructure. Upgrading this is clearly the first way of progressing the digital transformation. Over the last few months, it has been made abundantly clear just how dependent work, consumption, culture, science, communication, and democratic debate have become on cables, hardware, software, and platforms. People and companies are paying the price for not investing into a digital landscape. The pandemic experience is a wake-up call to improve this infrastructure.
Covid-19 has shown where slow internet speeds make our lives more difficult, how well our home office works, how synchronised our devices are, and how difficult it is to introduce an app for public welfare. Investing in our infrastructure means optimising the data exchange between people, companies, public authorities, and machines. It still demands tangible elements: new fibre optic cables in cities, fast hotspots in rural areas, secure data centres, and laptops for employees.
The virus shows us the importance of websites, online shops, social media profiles, customer relationship management, or simply digital contact opportunities. Without online access to archives, documents, databases and agendas, organisations simply stop functioning. Museums, mountain railways, gyms, and open-air swimming pools are now all introducing digital booking systems to ensure social distancing. They recognise how these systems provide knowledge about their businesses and flatten out visitor peaks. Instead of big data and AI, the next few months will require some digital foundation work.
We have identified the gaps in our ability to enable parliaments, law courts, universities, hospitals, public authorities and our employers to function on a digital-only basis for months on end, if need be. These findings are important, because sooner or later, there will be a new pandemic, and in recent weeks, new users have discovered the benefits of the internet. An excellent digital infrastructure protects us from viruses, a volatile economy and infodemics. It is part of our social immune system.
Corona has revealed our vulnerabilities in a number of ways. Legislation does not yet cover all areas of the digital world, which we need to address as a society. Without trustworthiness and IT security, sustainable digitalisation cannot succeed.
Doris Leuthard, former President of the Swiss Confederation & President Swiss Digital Inititaive
The ongoing lack of physical customer contact is forcing many companies to look long and hard at their business models and test offers from the subscription economy. Subscriptions for chocolates and haircuts secure cash flow from an economic standpoint and reduce the volatility of the national economy. The new wave of digitalisation strengthens delivery services and all sorts of home services. Instead of going out for a massage, to a restaurant, or to play mini golf, these services and experiences are delivered to our homes.
Unexpected events like Covid-19 show us how important it is to be able to reach your customers digitally and how customer-driven agility reaches a whole new dimension. As well as workplaces and management principles, it also adds a new dynamism to product ranges, profitability models, and customer relationships. Calida has started offering protective masks, the Berne-based gin specialist Matte-Brennerei produces disinfectant, and restaurants are sending out vacuum-packed 5-course meals. In order to be effective, customers need to be made aware of such changes in strategy.
From the point of view of sellers, platforms, and infrastructure providers, each digital interaction offers new opportunities for documenting customers’ stories, breaking down their preferences and segmenting them into target groups. For the customers, however, digital controlling could increase their desire to avoid being perpetually tracked. In data management, the issue of cyber security is every bit as important as digital ethics.
Our reality has changed in recent weeks and with it our behaviour. We are all becoming more digital by the minute, and this increasingly digital life needs a backbone, a technical system in the background that is more reliable than ever before.
Roger Semprini, Managing Director Switzerland Equinix
These issues should be discussed continuously in transparent and participative processes. Commercial aspects also need to be addressed. We still lack simple ways of storing our data decentrally, sharing it according to different situations, and deleting it upon request. Who sets up the all-important data custodians, exchanges, cooperatives, and vaults? Without trust in data management of providers, we buy books instead of e-books and visit dressmakers instead of buying our fashion online via Zalando. When it is poorly implemented, digitalisation strengthens the offliners.
A second progression story of the digital transformation deals with idea spaces. These are spaces in which we can reflect, recognise ourselves, develop new things, and explore options for the future.
While the whole world is navigating in unfamiliar waters, we should create new ways of thinking and solutions that benefit society and not only shareholder profit. This crisi has highlighted the need for digital transformation efforts and strategies that serve society, citizens and consumers.
Sophie Michaud Gigon, General Secretary of the FRC and National Councillor
More digitalisation means more machines, robots, drones, and artificial intelligence working with us and thinking alongside us. They relieve us of onerous tasks, are more efficient than we are, and have better memories and calculating abilities. We remain the masters of sensuality, invention and investigation, feelings, and entrepreneurship. If we don’t want to wake up in a dull world calculated entirely by algorithms, we need to invest in the skills that separate us from machines. Colourful, unstructured, networking idea spaces stimulate our imagination and empathy, our critical thinking, and our self-reflection. They include the places and platforms where we get to know other people, exchange ideas, share inspiration, and seek rest and relaxation. Idea spaces include political activity. If parliament is unable to meet in a digital space, the threat of emergency law always prevails.
In order for Switzerland to have a rich future of ideas, we need to be investing in restaurants, museums, botanical gardens, festivals, publishers, and theatres, large and small. Our senses are cultivated in places where humans come together. They intensify the moment and allow us to travel through time. We change our perspective, are freed from the constrictions of everyday life, and leave our echo chambers. In unfamiliar surroundings and in lively discussions, we come up with new thoughts.
Equally as important are moments of peace and quiet, when we devote ourselves to exploring a problem in depth. That’s where it gets exciting; that’s where things suddenly click. We need the analogue world in order to bring the digital world to life. This Corona period shows us the value of having time to think. We are allowed to lose ourselves in topics and search inquisitively for origins and progressions. As we slow down, we discover what we enjoy doing and where we stand in our own way. M
anagers who have matured through Covid-19 will allow their employees more time to reflect. Without this, we are not innovative, we can’t practice critical reflection, and the robots have nothing to do.
Innovation requires time and chaos. Work environments should be rambling English gardens rather than formal French ones. Every company is an idea space, where the future evolves through new technologies, materials, offers, and ways of interacting. Taking this vision as a starting point, we should rethink our working worlds. They will be hybrid, and it will no longer matter whether our collaboration is analogue or digital. Office life will fuse into co-working and home offices, and with periods of contemplation in the forest.
The vision now is a work environment in which we no longer meet physically. In video conferences of recent weeks, there has been a definite sense that we haven’t had the time and proximity to discuss issues in proper depth, to perceive our counterpart with all our senses, and to build up genuine relationships. At the same time, Zoom calls have shown us how many meetings and appointments could easily be eliminated. We should meet less often but make our meetings more deliberate so that we can focus on the dialogue itself. Machines should do the administration work for us.
A society of a thousand ideas needs a vibrant start-up scene. Covid-19 is a contrast agent. We recognise which digital applications will become significant. New markets are all about e-shops, delivery services, home services, telemedicine, data and privacy protection. Future technologies will make us smarter in the way we handle knowledge, energy, and resources. The digital and green transformations will intersect.
What does a vital Swiss entrepreneurship need in addition to tax breaks? Subsidies for start-ups, a government start-up fund, crowd-funded venture capital? How can we ensure the emergence of global players who can keep pace with the competition from China and the USA? If start-ups thrive, then the transformation of established companies and the digital fitness of our SMEs will be of the utmost importance. Together, the young, old, large, and small companies will form an ecosystem. It will only truly come to life if skills, knowledge, and data all flow freely.
A third progression of the digital transformation involves the institutions of our knowledge society. Covid-19 intensified the digital reinvention of all organisations who generate, distribute, and preserve knowledge. In just a few weeks, media, schools, libraries, and universities adjusted their operations. Securing their transformation in the long term will require evaluation, research, and digital strategies. It would be a shame if the future was not shaped and supported by the findings of this involuntary experiment. Universities and colleges who multiply and generate knowledge are particularly in the spotlight in this respect.
The quality of their research will decide how smart we are in future in terms of how we handle biological, economic, and IT-related viruses. Smart means identifying risks at an early stage, preventing new pandemics, and eliminating their root causes, but also offering orientational knowledge – to break down anxiety and make the economy more robust. It’s up to us to determine how much this horrible virus damages our health, our society, and our economy.
Digital teaching at universities is here to stay.
During the COVID-19 emergency, technology and therefore digital literacy have been more crucial than ever before. The ability to find, evaluate, classify and create information on digital platforms are key competencies critical for all. Lifelong learning is the cornerstone to develop and enhance such future skills.
Luciana Vaccaro, Rector HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland
Students want to be able to work through lectures as podcasts at the time of their choosing. Due to the endless Covid loop, which has kept us isolated at home for weeks on end, we have been forced into new interactive teaching and learning formats. Will students do more private study, coached by their lecturers in video conferences and on walks? Chat bots connect students with data-based networking and encourage mutual learning. Also, collaborative reading, in which students see the markings and questions of their classmates, creates a new interaction. Covid-19 offers the chance to test e-learning environments in a critical fashion and reinforce collaboration between universities.
Students should be able to study for one term at any university in the country without today’s bureaucratic hurdles standing in their way. This proves even more true given that lifelong learning implies that we will, in future, study more than once and at more advanced ages.
The need to access knowledge online strengthens the paperless society. The opportunities here include interdisciplinarity through links and simple networking, immediacy, and a lively culture of expert debate through visible discourses. These benefits also come with some risks: echo chambers, overburdening, congestion, the manipulation of knowledge, and erasure of the past. Theoretical, reflective, and manual digital skills turn risks into opportunities. A paperless society places demands on libraries that have not yet fully digitalised their collections. Does each person really need their own login?
Administration also has some homework to do. The moment has finally come to build portals, similar to e-banking, for taxes, pensions, and official business. The latter should be possible in a single click: certifications, change of residence, residence confirmations and self-employment. An electronic ID is essential in this case. In Switzerland, the government in the role of the issuer enjoys greater trust than private companies do.
Institutions of the knowledge society include medical clinics, dentists, and veterinary practices, hospitals, residential, and care homes. There is no doubt that Switzerland lags behind in this respect. It’s placed near the bottom of the rankings in the Bertelsmann Foundation’s Digital Health Index. Covid-19 could strengthen innovations in telemedicine, psychology, physiotherapy, and dentistry.
We are experiencing the hour of digital medicine. Up until now, the risks rather than the benefits have been the focus, but the corona pandemic is changing this assessment. The acceptance of digital solutions has increased dramatically and will enable more efficient processes, data exchange and communication during the patient journey. The real benefit of this development will be a more personal interaction with our patients and reallocated time from administrative tasks to medical care.
Thomas Huffler, Managing Director Balgrist University Hospital Zurich
Only fully digitalised medical histories can fulfil the promise of personalised medicine and, alongside it, artificial intelligence. AI prescribes medication, recognises patterns in symptoms, analyses images taken by dermatologists, oncologists, and radiologists. Data are also essential for controlling epidemics. As data providers, not only our bodies and our smartphones, but also waste water and exercise frequency can be analysed. This digital future medicine in Switzerland will require more co-operation between hospitals, start-ups, and the digital economy.
Covid-19 is pushing for the removal of interfaces. Interfaces describe the tools we use to operate machines and surf the internet. Not much has changed ever since smartphones were first introduced. The eleventh iPhone has more or less the same features as the first. Will we be seeing intelligent glasses, rings, and contact lenses next?
Researching and introducing new interfaces could be a fourth progression of the transformation. This would affect phones, tablets, and computers – but also ticket and coffee vending machines, payment terminals, and scales in supermarkets. New interfaces are being driven forward due to the poor environmental footprint of screens. The virus has suddenly given us a view of a society in which we no longer want to touch things and where we shy away from screens, switches, buttons, and keys. In order to prevent smear infections, payment, and ordering systems, doors and vending machines are moving towards gesture control and voice computing. In the first instance, we will have to learn a new language; in the second, we must overcome our reluctance to talk to machines.
Our voice is a powerful information carrier. Like our fingerprint, it is unique. It also holds secrets about our health and personality. Our faces are equally rich in data. It is hardly surprising that wary citizens and consumers eye intelligent cameras and loudspeakers with critical caution. They fear surveillance, constant supervision, and manipulative data leeches. The fact that a digital world with new interfaces – without paper and without the old touch-control options – causes concern is manifested in the debate about a cashless society.
For our digital future, we should, therefore, regulate our data rights before the ubiquitous spread of new interfaces. One alternative to the hyper digital public space would be hygienic mummery with sterile gloves and face masks. In this future, we may leave fewer data behind, but we would pay for our freedom with enforced concealment and a new distance from our fellow humans.
New interfaces will change the way we access knowledge on the web. Basically, the PDF format, like paper, has reached its end-of-life stage. After all, isn’t this a pre-digital format that doesn’t touch upon the requirements of hypertext, scrolling, surfing, and search engines?
Form-filling with PDFs is particularly outdated. Conversely, web-based forms avoid media disruptions, increasing the quality of the data. Ideally, we would have better and more secure meta log-ins so that we would no longer have to enter our contact and key data anew on every website. The password has been searching for a successor for a long time now. If business transactions are to go digital, the digital signature will need to be established for reasons of legal security. Might this be an iris scan at some point, or a voice print?
These prospects show how important felt security is for citizens and customers, as well as access to digital expertise for those institutions of the knowledge society that are willing to transform. Their employer branding decides whether or not it will be able to recruit these specialists. It depends on creative possibilities, management styles, work spaces, and working conditions.
The interfaces of a networked society also include, in a wider sense, logistics. This describes the lines of connection between the analogue and digital worlds.
During the lockdown, the need for our services at Swiss Post was growing rapidly, going beyond the distribution of parcels and letters into the delivery of essential goods. Also the demand for our digital services and processes rose overnight – be it in combination with physical goods or as purely digital services. This required us to act quickly and to offer solutions that were implementable virtually within days to address the needs of our customers and employees.
Claudia Pletscher, Head of Development & Innovation, Post CH Ltd
Covid-19 opens a window of opportunity for rethinking environmentally friendly shipping methods. The virus gives us a sense of a future in which all age segments shop online even more frequently. We need to prepare ourselves for this scenario now and avoid future quota fixing by the government. One of the side effects of an increase in mail order is the resulting mountain of cardboard outside our front doors.
Preferably, we would see the use of biodegradable materials and a more sustainable recycling and returns system. In Scandinavia, Zalando is currently evaluating the returnable system known as Repack – with presently 40,000 reusable delivery bags in circulation. Here, too, digitalisation plays a role. AI-based fleet systems calculate the fastest routes.
At the heart of the digital transformation, the next few months should see a focus on increasing the digital maturity of SMEs, administration, and those institutions of the knowledge society that have not yet become digitalised. Without a basic digital infrastructure, all other scenarios for digital Switzerland will remain nothing more than dreams. One thing that is fundamental for the next steps into the future is the basic digital work of the government. Official paperwork, from vaccination records to e-identity, should be issued by the government itself. Digital IDs should remain voluntary, or data protection must be guaranteed and controlled.
The more digital the functioning of the government and the more data it collects, the more urgent the question becomes of how controls can prevent the rise of a surveillance state and how its development can be supported through inspiring and networking sounding boards. Overall, Covid-19 creates an opportunity to rethink co-operation in business, society, politics and science. It is needed where companies are unable to solve social problems on their own.
Digital transformation requires a transversal and interdisciplinary approach as well as collaboration to break silos and be adaptable and economically sustainable. This paradigm shift can only be managed if academia, politics, administration, business, NGO’s and civil society join forces.
Eric Saracchi, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Firmenich
Promoting this cooperation for and through digitalisation is a fifth way to progress the digital transformation. For this purpose, companies with little or no digital experience need to obtain advice from experts. This will prevent the same errors from being repeated for years to come. Co-operations bring added value, not just with basic tasks but also with data management and visualisation, artificial intelligence, and gesture and voice-controlled interfaces. Working together enables cost-saving and sharing expertise.
When vets support other vets or custodians support other custodians, cooperation merges with competition. Those who enter into partnerships can also exploit untapped innovation potential. This potential detects who is able to co-use data, employees, and infrastructure. One core rule of innovation applies: it arises through combinations. The more surprising the choice of partner, the greater the potential for innovation. Such partnerships demand a degree of sharing – including customer access and profits. Solutions range from project exchanges to co-working and data partnerships.
Covid-19 has made us more aware of how important a modular understanding of infrastructure and workforce is in extreme situations. When you think in a modular way, cinemas soon become storehouses for hygiene articles, and taxis become delivery services for freshly picked asparagus. The vision of a modular economy could be a flexible skills market. Overnight, dentists will become hygiene specialists, and hairdressers will become fruit pickers.
A democratic society demands this agility not through force but through financial safeguarding. In order to strengthen the robustness of the economy, we need to rethink the concept of agility. A company is not agile just by introducing Scrum methodology, offering a home office day, or the CEO turning up in trainers. Instead, radical agility demands overnight action to establish new offers and customer relationships using the infrastructure, the raw materials, the skills, and the networks that are available in the ecosystem.
The corona pandemic is a socio-economic as well as a disruptive driver of digitalisation. We have yet to see the far-reaching structural impact it will have on the demand for mobility and on the way we are working. Already we can see: Companies that are only now starting with digitalisation and new ways of working like WorkSmart are at a disadvantage. At SBB we are well positioned. Up to 13’000 employees have worked from home at the same time. This requires solid digital infrastructures, data protection and cyber securtiy. We are happy to see our customers coming back gradually, it is a clear proof that personal relationships will remain essential in the future.
Monika Ribar, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors SBB
Ultimately, the time-out of the last few months has given us the chance to create even stronger links between the mega trends of digitalisation, demographic change, and green transformation. They will be connected through future markets and social innovations in the area of personalised health, the ecological design of hardware or smart agriculture featuring drones, and the Internet of Things.
Neither the future markets nor the desired social innovations can be realised without a high degree of digital maturity in terms of the processes, structures, and cultures of the players involved. Just as important are the relevant skills of employees. They will become all the more relevant the deeper the recession is triggered by the virus. You can interpret the pandemic as an opportunity for Europe. We might not be at the forefront of the platform economy, but now we could take up a leadership role in green digitalisation or the digitally supported green transformation.
In recent years, a certain fatigue regarding issues of digitalisation has been creeping across the country. That is not surprising. There was hardly a workshop, a conference, a title page, or a bestseller where the buzzwords of digital transformation were not repeated. At the same time, many people had no reason to get involved in digitalisation, let alone actively promote it.
Why should they bother to increase their surf speed, shop online, talk to the machines, be examined by a doctor in their own living rooms via webcam, offer lectures as podcasts, or think about futuristic post-smartphone interfaces? Were we lacking persuasive reasons to progress the digital transformation? Has the stress test shown that so far, it has failed to live up to its potential to connect Switzerland?
Covid-19 changes the starting position to the extent that in the last few weeks, we have all intensively experienced, explored, and trialled the digital world. It was the biggest experiment in the short history of the digital era. Strengthened by this experience, we have been given the chance to choose a new narrative for our future.
The Covid-19 crisis has clearly demonstrated the importance of digitalisation for business, public administration and society. It significantly increased the pressure to act decisively and quickly. It’s obvious that we have to strengthen out digital infrastructure, further digitalise business processes, invest in digital innovation and develop new digital business models, which accelerate our transition to a digital economy and society.
Ivo Furrer, President of digitalswitzerland
Should digital be an underworld that we retreat to in emergency situations? Does the digital world hold the roots of our economic, creative, and social evolution? Could we make better use of the web to identify damaging all sorts of viruses at an early stage and contain them using smart means? The last few weeks have made clear how little we know about our co-existence with plants, animals, and viruses. Does the internet not offer us the means to deepen, expand, and multiply our knowledge of the environment? Experts can easily share knowledge without institutional and disciplinary hurdles and publish their data. Plus, we can make direct contact with them.
Regardless of which narrative we choose, we need a Digital New Deal in order to make our infrastructure, institutions, and power of innovation future-proof. This new deal combines analogue with digital, digital professionals with digital beginners, natural sciences with the arts, the governments with its citizens, economy with society, nature with technology. The Digital New Deal must be part of the Green New Deal in order to avoid intensifying the dangers of climate change and a society of inequality.
As we embark upon the most digital decade to date, new education trends are sure to emerge. One of these is the ‘super-university’ – super because of high brand value, great rankings and, according to Dr David P. Baker of Penn State University, their ability to “produce unprecedented levels of science, technology, and knowledge about human society.”
The USA has taken the lead with high-performance super-universities, injecting generous private funding and adding tech transfer, patenting offices and publications to the mix. European nations such as Germany and Switzerland have followed suit.
Many universities today are internationalizing, creating campuses abroad. Lausanne’s prestigious school of hospitality, Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), has a campus in Singapore, while Boston University has been sending students to Geneva for a semester for many years. The European Union has created the European Universities Initiative. Their mission is to accelerate the transformation of universities so “young people are prepared for the jobs of tomorrow in a fast-changing society, and future generations are empowered to find solutions to big societal challenges that Europe and the world are facing.”
The fundamental difference between the USA and Switzerland is that the latter’s leading public universities are publicly funded and controlled.
The Confederation:
The cantons in Switzerland:
So are Switzerland’s universities super universities – and if not, could they be in the future?
Considering the size of the country, Swiss universities fare extremely well in a national comparison. This is thanks in part to the high overall level of wealth. The UK’s Times Higher Education World Rankings places 1 of Switzerland’s 12 universities in 13th place – just behind Oxbridge and a host of Ivy League school. All of the Swiss candidates feature in the top 600. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) does better on the female:male ratio than the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, while the Università della Svizzera Italiana is nearly at parity. According to Thomson Reuters innovation rankings, which include patent filing as one criterion, Switzerland is highly regarded. Four Swiss universities have made it into the top 25, namely the EPFL, the University of Zurich, the ETH and the University of Basel. Extending the list to the top 100 sees the University of Geneva added to the list of Swiss names. The excellent performance reflects Switzerland’s culture of innovation. As a nation, the Swiss submit the most patent applications per capita.
If Switzerland wants to compete in the global market, it needs to develop the right talents and work continuously to remain attractive. Super-universities play a vital role in this. They will help the country fill its pipeline with more women, greater research and impressive innovation – across fields. While STEM is a priority, the ivory towers of this country must preserve their capacity to think deeply, inspire greatly and create vocations. This means continuing funding at all levels of education, prioritising learning and development, and testing new teaching and learning methods. The good news is that we already on this journey to the future.
Imagine you woke up one morning only to find the entire economical landscape has changed. Welcome to survival mode, a podcast that explores how entrepreneurs navigate the COVID-19 crisis. In this podcast we explore how Swiss startups find new revenue streams, enter unexpected markets and sometimes reinvent their business model entirely.
How to communicate effectively with your team in an constantly changing environment that has never been seen before.
In this episode of Survival Mode Taha Bawa, CEO & Co-founder of Goodwall the career development platform that prepares over 1.5 million young professionals to enter the working world, illustrates how he set up his startup in a fully remote way, the importance of taking decisions even if you do not have all the answers and why transparency is key in times of crisis.
«The first idea of engineering skin started in the 1970s. The idea was grea«We have to be as transparent as possible! If I told you everything is fine, I would surely be lying.»
What would you do if all of a sudden people are too afraid to use your product?
In this episode of Survival Mode Arthur Germain, CEO and Co-founder of OneDoc the biggest online booking platform for doctors in Switzerland elaborates how he built and scaled a completely new service to help their struggling customers in times of Corona.
How do you keep your startup running when your surrounding is going into hibernation mode?
In this episode of Survival Mode Nicolas Durand CEO and founder of Abionic, the most rapid diagnostic platform to detect sepsis explains how he fights to keep his startup funded during a crisis and tackle sepsis, one of the leading causes of death in the world.
«Running a startup is like a rollercoaster, you have good news and bad news almost every day.»
What would you do if 70% percent of your revenue streams disappeared overnight? In this episode of Survival Mode Viktor Calabro, founder of Europe’s largest on-demand staffing platform Coople, explains how he tackles this challenge and finds profit in previously undervalued revenue streams.
«It reminds me of the start, where every single day was a fight for survival»
Would you invest in a startup without seeing its founders in person? In this episode of Survival Mode Pascal Mathis, founding partner at Wingman Ventures, talks about how the crisis affects investors, what the ups and downs of doing business from home are, and how he assists startups going through turbulent times. Wingman is a 60 million Venture Fund for early-stage investments in Switzerland.
«A crisis is like a filter»
What do you do when your customer base increased by a factor of 10 over the weekend?
In this episode of Survival Mode Jan Rihak & Jonas Leu, Co-Founder and Biz Dev Manager from Classtime, take us on their journey on how they handle rapid growth, work with customers with limited online experience, and what the impact on education could be beyond corona. Classtime is a digital platform that makes learning more fun and inclusive for everyone. In short, it enables the same learning experience for all students in and beyond the classroom.
«Schools closed on Friday and on Monday they needed a solution! So we had to work super fast»
How do you spot opportunities in times of crisis?
In this episode of Survival Mode Aike Festini, CEO & Co-founder of Luckabox, discusses what happens when online-delivery is all the sudden the only channel available, what are the effects of COVID19 to last-mile delivery, and how could the future of retail look like. Luckabox is a premium platform for last-mile deliveries.
«91% of retail is still brick and mortar. There is a huge shift and the crisis is just accelerating this trend»
What do you do when 95% of your customers stop operating? In this episode of Survival Mode Naomi MacKenzie, Co-Founder of KITRO, explains how COVID-19 impacted the hospitality sector, financing rounds and speaks about the importance of resource efficiency and sustainability on the way forward. KITRO is a Swiss startup that simplifies food waste management.
«People needed to see that taking things a bit slower can have a huge impact on the environment»
What do you do if you move from one crisis to another?
In this episode of Survival Mode Cyrus Fazel, CEO & Founder of SwissBorg, elaborates how the ICO and corona crisis affected the crypto & blockchain sector, how the different markets reacted to COVID-19, and what we should take out from this crisis as humanity. SwissBorg is a Swiss blockchain platform that lets you trade and manage your favorite cryptos by connecting multiple exchanges in one platform.
«The sentiments regarding smart contracts went from I love you to I hate you in a couple of months»
How do you lead a team working from home?
In this episode of Survival Mode Tobias Häckermann, CEO & Co-Founder of Sherpany, explains how going remote increased their companies transparency, how the new normal in online and offline work could look like and what accelerating effects covid19 had on leadership styles and megatrends. Sherpany is a Swiss startup that helps your company to get the most out of meetings.
«3D printing is an automation, soon we will be able to print all possible «If your employees are not active in a meeting think about the why. If it is creating value, engagement and motivation will come naturally.»
How do you sell if you cannot see your customer?
In this episode of Survival Mode Manuel Hartmann, Founder of Sales Playbook, elaborates how the crisis is affecting sales cycles, how remote sales works – even in Switzerland, and what is yet to come beyond COVID-19. Sales Playbook helps Swiss B2B startups to scale and hit their Product-Market-Fit faster.
«People think harder if they need to take a meeting in person or if there is a leaner and more efficient way»
What do you do if you just started your business right before the crisis?
In this episode of Survival Mode Silvan Krähenbühl, Host of Swisspreneur and a serial entrepreneur himself, explains how COVID-19 affected the travel and gym industry, why podcasts are a serious medium to watch and how this crisis can be a great opportunity to start something new. Swisspreneur is a leading podcast platform for Swiss entrepreneurs, from Swiss entrepreneurs.
«The society themselves will change over time and will accept and will recognise, this is not my devil, this is not my hell. This is something that ca«A crisis can be a great opportunity to start something new or bootstrap your business.»
In this weekly short-form podcast, we take you beyond the usual techie jargon, and teach you something new about the latest developments in technology with leaders from some of Switzerland’s most innovative Startups – all in around 10 minutes.
In other words, no tech-background required, your curiosity is all that’s needed!
A podcast from digitalswitzerland, hosted by Matthias Zwingli and produced by Tinka Media.
Sounds like something from a science fiction movie script? Believe us, it’s not…
Join us on a journey deep into the realms of biotech. How can you create the largest human organ? Why isn’t it possible to produce a human heart in the lab and what are the biggest challenges and opportunities in biotech? Daniela Marino, CEO of Swiss Startup Cutiss unlocks the fascinating challenges and achievements of creating human skin.
«The first idea of engineering skin started in the 1970s. The idea was great but it didn’t fly, because it’s difficult! To produce a large amount of skin, personalised, and on-demand is a huge challenge.»
Today we dive into the fascinating world of IoT (internet of things). Matthias Rebellius, COO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure and CEO of Siemens Switzerland unpacks how smart workspaces help you to work more efficiently. What role does IoT play in smart infrastructure and how does Covid-19 affect our working environment?
This week, we speak to Diana Engetschwiler, Senior Director/Head of Public Dialogue + Digital Days at digitalswitzerland. We find out how one of Switzerland’s largest events, Swiss Digital Days, has become hybrid, what role the public play in digitalisation and what the ‘new normal’ of events looks like…
«The future of events is going to be hybrid! The combination between online and offline will stay.»
Lea von Bidder is CEO of AVA Women, a Swiss Startup with a mission to revolutionise women’s reproductive health by bringing together artificial intelligence and clinical research. She tells us about her work focusing on the relevant data points, how to make digital health actionable and who she thinks will claim the future of digital health…
«The future of healthcare will be driven by data and data analytics.»
Head of CERN openlab, Alberto di Meglio takes us on a path to explain what machine learning is actually about, what the limitations of Artificial Intelligence and big data are, and what we can expect from the future of these technologies?
«There is biased data, a machine cannot understand that data is not ethically correct.»
Olga Dubey is CEO of AgroSustain, a Swiss Food Tech that makes crops last longer. Today, she takes us on a journey of what it means to bring fresh fruit to our table, how to extend the lifetime of produce, and what the current trends are in the food industry to keep up with quality and demand.
«Consumers want high fruit quality and little food waste, which is still a challenge to combine.»
Javier Bello Ruiz is the CEO & Co-Founder of Imverse, a 3-D graphics company and spin-off from EPFL in Lausanne. He explains what the differences are between virtual reality, mixed reality and augmented reality. Where the different industries stand and what we can expect will happen in the future. Furthermore, his startup makes hologram calls possible.
«I believe that the digital future is 3-dimensional, live, and social.»
Jan Wurzbacher is c0-CEO & Founder of Climeworks, a world leader in direct air capture technology. In this latest episode, he explains how Climeworks started to fight climate change by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere, why it’s more about saving humanity than saving our planet and what we can expect of the climate tech industry.
«Should we remove CO₂ from the air or should we stop emitting it? In my eyes, it’s not an either-or question, we have to do both!»
Patrick Griss is executive partner at Zühlke Ventures, a Swiss health tech venture investor. He elaborates on why healthcare will move from action-based to outcome-based medicine, how the consumer will become more empowered through technology, and the challenges that preventive healthcare and personalised medicine are facing.
«We are moving from action-based to outcome-based medicine, it is still in the beginning but it is a trend that will not stop!»
Martin Eichenhofer is the CEO and Co-Founder of 9T Labs, a Swiss startup that provides an all-in-one solution for digital composite production. He explains why the democratisation of manufacturing through 3D printing never took off, what the status quo and use-cases in 3D printing are and what we can expect from the future.
«3D printing is an automation, soon we will be able to print all possible materials!»
Edward Shone is Head of PR at ProtonMail, one of the biggest encrypted email services in the world. He explores the importance of personal data privacy, why the gathering of our private data and the accumulation of our digital identity will only increase and how to achieve a more privacy-friendly digital future.
«I believe data privacy is a human right and everyone should have access to it.»
Andy Fitze is the co-founder and managing director of SwissCognitive, a network of industries, organisations, enterprises and startups that discuss the opportunities, impacts and development of AI. He elaborates on why AI is a trending topic, what the international landscape looks like and what awaits us in the near future.
«The society themselves will change over time and will accept and will recognise, this is not my devil, this is not my hell. This is something that can help us to overcome some real problems of the world.»
Alberto di Meglio is Head of Cern openlab. He delves into the early beginnings of internet research at CERN that began more than 30 years ago. Why it takes time to adapt and trust in new technologies like the internet or cloud computing, and what technologies could next impact our lives.
«One of the latest trends that many companies and the research environment are studying is a new concept called confidential computing or private computing, where data is really secured end-to-end using encryption and special digitalisation.»
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