Munich Top Event 2010

At the exclusive location of the Hotel Kempinski Vier Jahreszeiten, Henley Alumni in Germany celebrated its first of two 2010 Top Events on "Trust in a Networked World".

The Voice of  the Alumnus: Jürgen L. Sommer, Channel Management Expert and Entrepreneur: Starting with a definiton of trust and the question about who trusts whom, Jürgen presented us some interesting conclusions of his longstanding experience. According  to him trust is something which is produced through competence, predictability , accountability, and values. Having trust can avoid the effort of continuous control. In a networked world, personal trustworthiness can be increased by more authenticity competence, and recommendations, claimed Jürgen.
Members please click here to have a look at his presentation.  

The Voice of the School:  Professor Moira Clark, started with a view on the 21^st century customer who is becoming more planless , fragmented, and female. Henley research shows that new models of customer experience need to be developed. According to Moira, there are new customer experience factors which count in today’s business world. In B2B for example, the extent of personal contact, flexibility, and an implicit understanding of customer needs become more and more important. Social networks have changed the way trust is created between companies and their customers. There are more and more people who trust recommendations from friends rather than the companies they buy from.  Social networks and web search play an important role when checking companies messages for correctness. Companies themselves have detected social media as an important marketing channel. As the become inevitably parts of these networks, they will no be in complete control of their brand and products. Trust and governence become important factors for network management and customer retention. 
Members please click here to have a look at her presentation.
Henley Research Report: Customer Experience
White Paper Cisco Report

The Voice of the Boardroom: Jürgen Samuel, CEO of sicap AG, a subsidiary of Swisscom and its locomotive of innovation, explained why trust is an important prerequisite for organisational change programmes. He explained the paradox of organisational turnaround situations  where on one hand results are needed but on the other hand unconventional behaviour is required. Innovative, competent, coooperative and shaping action needs to be taken even though pressure seduces people to act differently. Jürgen coined the term of “in-spite-of people” who have courage, take responsibility, build trust, and act with confidence in spite of pressure, insecurity, and the need for quick results. Members please click here to have a look at his presetation.