25.10.2021

Joint Intercultural Lecture on Hidden Champions between TH Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm and Nelson Mandela University in South Africa

The online joint session lecture was held on October 25 2021 from 17:30 till 22:00. In that first joined lecture there were over 70 participants (45 students from TH Nürnberg and 25 Doctorate students from Nelson Mandela Uni, PE), covering all around the world backgrounds - South African, German, Polish, Turkish, Bulgarian, French, Russian, Dutch, Italian, US American, etc.

The lecture was organized and held by Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Wellner, International Management Professor at TH Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm, Ms. Dr. Nomtha Hadi, a Strategic Management Lecturer in Nelson Mandela University, South Africa and the Namibian Ms. Sybille Kenny-Erb, lecturer at TH Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm, who provided a great intercultural training insights and practices to all students.

As during the session, especially big attention was given to working in groups, after starting with the respective lecturers, an introduction in overall 10 breakout sessions provided the opportunities of students to interact, discover various cultures, represented by the cultural artefacts, which were supposed to be prepared before the lecture and had a major influence as ice-breaker in these initial stages. After the Introduction sessions, which provided beneficial cultural insights, the official programme started.

Preparatory activities needing to be done by the participants beforehand, apart from the cultural artefacts. And that was beside reading several academic articles on Hidden Champions in the form of a Survey. Out of this Survey, the main topics were chosen and the lecture, consisting of 2 main parts - Intercultural competence and Hidden Champions in German Mittelstand began. The first part - Intercultural Training was presented by Ms Sybille Kenny-Erb and it introduced various interesting topics and discussions.

The second part of the lecture, held by Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Wellner showed the characteristics of Hidden Champions and their Model overall, starting from the bigger picture - Merchandise trade worldwide and in Germany over the years and then getting to the key players of German Mittelstand.

 After the 2 parts of the lecture were finished and there were no further questions, followed a practical learning, including group work in different cultural backgrounds in breakout sessions working on a task and  afterwards presenting it. The group presentations showed a variety of companies and characteristics found and included multiple discussions on the HC criteria, showing awareness and knowledge from Lecture 2.

Groups are described by sequence of presenting:

Group 1: German HC - Bühler Motor (Electrical drive technology) and South African HC - Gijima (IT- Solutions and Security),

Group 2: German HC - GROB (Assembly, Automation, Electromobility systems) and South African HC - Lumotech Ltd (Headlights for the automotive industry),

Group 3: German HC - Gerstacker Glühwein (Beverages industry) and South African HC - Nando´s (Food chain),

Group 4: German HC - Mühlbauer (High Tech) and South African HC - Sorbet Group (Beauty Salons),

Group 5: German HC - DELO (Industrial Adhesives) and South African HC - Sorbet Group (Beauty Salons),

Group 6: German HC - BarthHaas GmbH (Hops and Hop products),

Group 7: German HC - Diehl Metering (Ultrasonic metering technology) and South African HC - MA Automotive,

Group 8: German HC - Duravit AG (Sanitaryware) and South African HC - ZZ2 (Agriculture),

Group 9: German HC -ARRI (Camera and Lightning systems) and South African HC - SAPPI (Renewable Resources company).

Finally, it can be concluded that the session was an incredibly educating and eye-opening perspective not only on different cultures and differences, but also on different companies. Students had the ability to cooperate from different parts of the world and the result, shown in the presentations above, was impressive in every aspect - from research to presenting and discussion.

Furthermore, provided by the last comments, the session did fulfill its mission with great success!