{"id":2877,"date":"2021-12-06T18:20:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T17:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/?p=2877"},"modified":"2022-03-15T14:57:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T13:57:44","slug":"better-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/2021\/12\/better-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In late September, the Freudenberg Preferred Partner event took place virtually for the second time. Wide-ranging information from the dealerpartners and interactive information-sharing took center-stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Representatives of 32 top commercial partners (Freudenberg Preferred Partners, PPP) from Europe, South Africa and Turkey were guests of Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) for a day and a half in late September. Even if the Freudenberg Preferred Partner event took place virtually, the participants still gathered in a familiar setting. The Industrial Services team brought FST\u2019s headquarters, Building 120, into the world of digital events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The team offered a professional presence \u2013 even virtually (from left): Jos\u00e9 Caro, Daniel Blender, Daniela Schulze, Bernd Koch, Jan Witte, Lars Haug and Jason Kohn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The dealers proceeded from the forecourt into the foyer and then were able to \u201cstroll\u201d from topic to topic thanks to integrated elements of the presentation. Individual lectures were broadcast from the green screen studio in the FST Academy. The opportunities for interactive dialogue were even more developed than they were for the event\u2019s digital debut \u2013 just as the dealer-partners had requested in their feedback at the time. In this respect, the latest event set a new benchmark for virtual events \u2013 just as its predecessor had done in 2020: The Preferred Partner event a year ago was the first-ever virtual event of its kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, it was a professional presence in a familiar environment this time as well. The event lived up to the Preferred Partners\u2019 value to FST and the high esteem that they enjoy. Under the slogan \u201cBetter Together,\u201d Jan Witte, Vice President, RBU Europe & Export, invited the participants to the event. \u201cBetter Together\u201d expresses the cooperation that FST and the partners have developed over decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lectures were broadcast live from the green screen studio of the FST Academy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Good beer, unicorns and dinosaurs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The evening event served as a welcome and warm-up and offered two extraordinary highlights. In one guest lecture, Prof. Bastian Halecker dealt with the question of what established companies can learn from startups. He provocatively called established companies \u201cdinosaurs\u201d and referred to startups as \u201cunicorns.\u201d Halecker holds the professorship for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Potsdam. A recognized expert in the \u201cdeep tech\u201d field, he was able to forecast interesting insights and outlooks and project them into future business models. A bit of background: \u201cDeep tech\u201d companies only use existing technologies to a limited degree. They invent new, mostly disruptive digital solutions as alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Halecker\u2019s lecture, along with a lively discussion, was accompanied by a virtual beer tasting. Days before the event, all the participants received a package containing five exotic, international varieties of beer, which arrived by standard mail. Completely alcohol-free packages were naturally available as well. An expert from the German Beer Academy in Bamberg provided information on the beverages during the sampling and gave the participants an overview of the art of brewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Industrial Services brought FST\u2019s headquarters, Building 120, in Weinheim, into the world of digital events.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trust has grown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the second day of the event, the content turned to the matter at hand, which was multifaceted and far-reaching. \u201cWe presented our Preferred Partners with our assessment of the current business and market trends, along with our strategy, organizational changes and key projects. More attention was paid to the current product and material shortages, which are also hitting dealers hard. Furthermore, the topics ranged from technical innovations such as the leakage sensor LeaCo, to reworked service offerings, all the way to new features from the digital business development area, such as eNext,\u201d Witte said. With the help of special lectures, the event gave selected FST Lead Centers a platform to acquaint the commercial partners with their current focuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was an open discussion in a large group about the current, largely pandemic-related uncertainties and the related challenges for on-time delivery and availability. It turned out that, in these times of crisis, the trust that has grown over decades in the partnerships proved especially valuable. \u201cOur Preferred Partners are an almost familial group with whom we cultivate close connections and share exclusive information. Our annual gathering also gives us an image of the market to integrate into our decision-making,\u201d said Jos\u00e9 Caro, Vice President, Global Distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The response to the event showed that FST\u2019s commercial partners appreciated the approach. The comment \u201cexcellent event, very informative\u201d succinctly sums up the feedback. Another participant praised the event\u2019s \u201cperfect organization\u201d and stressed the \u201cquality of the speakers and FST\u2019s wide-ranging expertise,\u201d especially during the Lead Center sessions and based on the services that were presented.<\/p>\n

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In late September, the Freudenberg Preferred Partner event took place virtually for the second time. Wide-ranging information from the dealerpartners and interactive information-sharing took center-stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,102],"tags":[278],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"class_list":["post-2877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-customers","category-global-en","tag-edition-01_2022-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2878,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877\/revisions\/2878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2877"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=2877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}