The second Stuttgart Competence Day took place in November last year, building on the success of the first event in 2008 and welcoming nearly 200 guests to a day-long convention on “Talent.Competence.Management – local.global”. The event opened its doors to experts from universities and business, who came to discuss the prevailing challenges of a society driven by skills and expertise.
After a welcoming address by the President of Steinbeis University Berlin (SHB), Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Johann Löhn, the Director of the School of International Business and Entrepreneurship at SHB, Prof. Dr. Werner G. Faix introduced the day’s topic: skills management, and conflicts on the global and local stage. The main issue was how society will cope with the challenges of the 21st century and recruit, retain, and network skilled employees.
Rainer Heck (IBM Germany) spoke about the special significance of global delivery in shaping global collaboration. Eleonora Peis (Siemens) und Dr. Johanna Anzengruber (Siemens Corporate Technology), demonstrated the role played by skills management in the field of research and innovation at Siemens. Torsten Bittlingmaier (Deutsche Telekom) gave a though-provoking insight into the world of “talent brokers”. Dr. Wolfgang Achilles (Jobware online service) underscored the growing significance of talent pools in an era of the global war for talents. Prof. Dr. Marc Drüner (Professor of Innovation Management at SHB) showed the audience the phenomenal impact and possibilities of Web 2.0, illuminating the contribution made by Web 2.0 to global “open innovation”.
Prof. Dr. John Erpenbeck (Professor for Knowledge and Competence Management at SHB) raised a number of eyebrows: According to him, there are no specific intercultural competences. Competence is the ability to act creatively in a self-disciplined manner in problematical situations where the outcome is still open – also absolutely crucial in situations dictated by intercultural “overlaps”. This concept of intercultural overlaps was also demonstrated by Dr. Gerhard Keck (Steinbeis Transfer Institute (STI) for Growth Management at SHB), who looked at cooperation between German and Brazilian organizers of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.
After a foray into skills management in MENA countries by Ahmed Elshahat Hassan (Society for Human Resource Management, Egypt) and Brazil by Prof. Dr. Nazem Nascimento (Universidade Estadual Paulista, São Paulo, Brazil) – where skills management is captured in the constitution and is truly Brazilian in its approach – Wilfried Telkämper showed how his training and development company (Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung GmbH) fosters executive development on an international level.
The day drew to a close with Prof. Dr. Dirk Engelhardt (Professor for Logistics Management at SHB), Stefanie Kisgen (STI International Management), Prof. Dr. Peter Dohm (Steinbeis Business Academy) and Annette Schulten (STI Corporate and International Programs) highlighting once again how SHB nurtures the competence of various target groups with their respective priorities, through its project competence degrees.
The theme of the next Stuttgart Competence Day, scheduled for 1 December 2010, will be “Competence.Personality.Education” (location: Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart). For the latest agenda and list of speakers, visit www.stuttgarter-kompetenztag.de