Stephan Deussen

Can finance drive revenue growth and meet sustainability goals? Questions like these are currently at the forefront of many conversations. So, I was happy to discuss at today’s Handelsblatt #CFOSummit2024 how integrating sustainability into our corporate strategy impacts the finance function. Some key points we touched: 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: We set ourselves ambitious sustainability goals, aiming at improving healthcare access for all, preserving our planet’s resources, and engaging our diverse #TeamHealthineers. 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬: Embracing these goals enhanced our organizational learning to include sustainability-oriented boundary conditions in our daily operations, along with a workforce dedicated to our purpose. 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞: Finance is pivotal in navigating and resolving conflicting goals. Integrating sustainability metrics into performance measurements ensures that our strategic direction is aligned with long-term environmental, social, and economic objectives. 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐬: Prioritization is key. As a market leader investing heavily in innovation, we carefully assess and balance our goals. This approach allows us to drive sustainable growth while maintaining financial robustness, ensuring our investments in sustainability and circularity yield tangible economic benefits.   Integrating sustainability into our corporate strategy is a moral imperative and a strategic advantage. I'm excited to continue the discussion and explore new ways to drive sustainable transformation in the finance function with #TeamHealthineers. Carola Backes   #Sustainability #Innovation #Finance #CorporateStrategy

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Yesterday - football Eurocup - Ch vs Ger: 1 - 1 I quote NZZ of today: "Berauscht vom Erfolg der vorangegangenen zwei EM-Siege, hatten die Deutschen den Siegeswillen und die Fähigkeiten ihres Nachbarlandes wieder einmal unterschätzt - und dann das Tor von Ndoye kassiert." ("Intoxicated by the success of the previous two European Championship victories, the Germans once again underestimated the will to win and the capabilities of their neighbouring country - and then conceded the goal of Ndoye.") What is this journalist talking about? How does our thinking influence on our actions? What can we learn out of this example? So what the heck is this journalist talking about? He demonstrates again with a very simple example, that -in fact- our thinking, our mindset, has an extreme influence on our behavior. ´How that?` you might ask yourself. You can proof this very easily by controlling one of your actual actions. Imagine you are to the point to enter a correction conversation with one of your employees, and you do not like that person - how will you behave during the conversation? On the other hand: imagine you do like the person, even though the shown behavior is not acceptable - how will you behave during this conversation? The conclusion here is: Our thinking, our perception, our mindset is dedicating our behavior. And here we are back again with the match of yesterday evening: The German Team probably already had the mindset: ´we already have won, there is no more need to win this match...` (we made it to the round of 16). So how did this way of thinking influence their behavior? Their actions were little concentrated. The ball did not want to finish in the goal. Or as Franz Beckenbauer once said: "Rumpelfussball" at its best. Only at the very very end the mindset changed, the team seem to have understood collectivly the consequences of not winning the match, and!: they made the goal in the 90 2nd minute of the match. What can we learn out of this example? If you want to achieve your goal, adapt your mindset from the first second of your actions to: I will win! With such a mindset, such a perception, there is a much bigger chance to reach your goals. Have a great day and enjoy your successes.

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Don’t fall into the “Never change a running system” trap.   It is easier to change a running system than a broken one.   See 🔒 Seal #2 – Reckoning everything is running smoothly of Post Merger Integration – a closed book!? Demystifying the world of PMI.   Link in the comments. 👇   By The Hardt Group GmbH – The #Transformation Agents   #PMIspective #PMI #Transformation #Carveout #Merger #postmerger #manda #mergerintegration #postmergerintegration

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🇩🇪 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗚𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆’𝘀 𝗙𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗲? 💶 Much is written about Germany’s (explicit) public debts. However, it is neglected that besides of considerable public liabilities, there are also considerable public assets. These assets could be used to finance the fiscal gap. 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘀: € 𝟲𝟴𝟴 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 At the end of last year, the federal balance sheet showed assets of € 487 billion euros. An increase of € 44 billion since the beginning of the fiscal year 2023. Assets held by the Deutsche Bundesbank are not included. The 𝗴𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘀 should be mentioned here in particular. The market value of gold stored in Frankfurt, New York and London amounted to almost € 201 billion at the end of last year. The federal government therefore has almost 700 billion euros in liquid funds at its disposal. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗕𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗡𝗼 𝗴𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 But the sale of the German gold reserves only remains a theoretical option. Deutsche Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has already announced that no gold will be sold for solving the federal budget struggle. “Apart from small quantities for the usual collector coins, we are not selling anything,” says the central banker. “𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝘀𝘆𝗺𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲, 𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.” In view of the long-term development of the gold price, it was right “for us to hold gold permanently”. 𝗔 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 (𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹) 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 Even if Germany could go into debt, it depends on the 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆 and the 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗯𝘁 whether Germany should divest of state assets or borrow money from the capital market. If Germany cannot go into debt, the trade-off remains. If the return on equity is lower than the 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 than asset stripping is an option. In the meantime, the price of gold has risen by almost 18% since the beginning of the year. If there is really a public investment opportunity that should yield a higher internal rate of return than 18% over a 6-month period, it should be possible to find funds in the regular budget. In a final step, PIVOT Public Policy & Economics will summarize all shown options in terms of 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝘃𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 and 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 to adopt a compliant fiscal budget in 2025. Stay tuned! #germany #fiscal #federalbudget #publicfinance #ministryoffinance #economics #politics #finance

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Hot off the press FORBES: "Meet The World’s Best Management Consulting Firms 2024! [...] Eight firms on our list earned stars in all 27 categories, and they were the same top performers as last year. But this year, Accenture led that pack—bumping McKinsey & Company from the head of the list—with Accenture receiving 26 5-star ratings and one 4-star rating, while McKinsey received 24 5-star ratings and three 4-star ratings. For the second year in a row, Deloitte earned 25 5-star ratings and two 4-star ratings. The other five firms that received stars in all 27 categories (specifically, 4- and 5-star ratings) were Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain &Company, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and EY." We at (formerly) Vocatus, are especially happy and proud to have joined this amazing consulting powerhouse which just has been ranked #1 by the latest FORBES ranking! Christina Raab, Muqsit Ashraf, Michael Brueckner, Michael A. Meyer, Johannes Trenka 👏

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🚀 Our new Resilience Whitepaper is out! 🚀 ❗ Based on our experience of various projects we summarized our perspective and propose an approach to increase Operations Resilience in a sustainable way. 🤨 But why "Operations Resilience" and not "Supply Chain Resilience"? 💡 Of course - Supply Chain is impacted first, and deteriorating KPIs like delivery performance and stock-outs can be symptoms of a lack of Resilience. But: The solution is cross-functional, and the most powerful levers can typically not be found within the scope of a Supply Chain unit. Most prominent example is the influence that Product Design decisions can have on Supply Chain Complexity and Resilience. 🌟 As the solution is cross-functional, so is our group of Operations Resilience experts at PwC Deutschland from the perspectives of Product Design & Manufacturing - Jens Henning Krause, Dr. David Allaverdi Jochen-Thomas Morr - Procurement Erik Oberländer Dr. Jan Herrmann - and Supply Chain - Judith Schneider and myself. Enjoy the read and reach out for further discussion! And thanks to all the contributors! Lukas Böhmer Benjamin Siller Hans Kuehn

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Currently preparing our trend report for corporate partners and alumni startups and found a very interesting, really remarkable statistic from BVK Bundesverband Beteiligungskapital. According to this, 80% of the funds raised in the (German) #venturecapital and #privateequity industry in 2023 came from the public sector (e.g. European Investment Fund (EIF), KfW Capital , Sächsische Aufbaubank - Förderbank - or NRW.BANK etc.). Remarkable in an industry that sees itself at the core of capitalism and the free market economy. So I took a closer look: - the investment volume of the public sector was even >20% down from 2022 and on the level of previous years - so it was no intented takeover by the public sector 😉 and not a result of overarching political initiatives - the true reason (at least according to BVK) is that corporates invested only 1% of the year before. Considering the current pessimism, often bad statistical economic data and uncertainty of markets, this seams very reasonable. It shows that an economic downturn has substantial, not obvious side-effects only visibile in long-term - also Family Offices, banks and institutional fund of funds invested significantly less than in the last 7 years - what is threatening as well is that neither insurances nor pension funds are even visible investors according to this statistics. Although these both would be the highest leverage for the whole PE/VC industry and although politicians want to give them more incentives for years now. Actually, I hope there is also some effect that not all data for 2023 is available yet and there will be some more positive updates in that charts. Attila Dahmann would you expect any changes ? Source: https://lnkd.in/gWT3S9JF

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