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Be part of the network – 6th Mercateo Executive Summit

Create European economic networks now or surrender to the alternative: At the 6th Mercateo Executive Summit 2018 on 13 November 2018 in Berlin, a great plea was made for buyers to finally use platforms and networks to their advantage. Now is the time to shape networking according to European values and to exploit the possibilities of digitalisation via platforms. Networks and platforms alone are not enough. We need a completely new way of thinking within purchasing so that we can succeed in breaking out of old patterns. “We in Europe have a job to do,” said Mercateo board member Dr. Bernd Schönwälder in his welcoming speech to the more than 80 guests, “because platform does not just happen like that, especially not in 2018.”

According to Dr. Holger Schmidt, author and digital economist, finally translating good intentions into action is long overdue and without any alternative. “We should not allow what happened to us with the shift in value creation towards America in the B2C world to happen in the direction of Asia in the B2B world as this then affects our prosperity,” said Dr. Schmidt on stage. “The B2C platforms such as Google, Apple and Facebook and so on, which we know so well, alone withdraw 25 billion euros net from the German market every year and shift the money into the hands of the US platforms. This figure is growing by 30 percent every year,” he continued, underlining the urgency with which companies should approach the promotion of European digital platforms.

On the technical side, Mercateo supports communication and networking between companies with the networking platform Mercateo Unite. “The platform functions as an ecosystem. We are considering how we can create new opportunities so that you can participate in the platform from different functions,” said Dr. Schönwälder, referring to Mercateo’s mission. Ecosystem in this context also means branching out your own platform as far as possible in order to grow together. Benjamin Storm, head of partner management at Mercateo, explained how this can work: you no longer have to do everything yourself, but should instead use platforms to find providers who have what you lack. This would allow people to pool their expertise and increase the value of the network as a whole. The neutral networking platform Mercateo Unite offers the technical infrastructure for this. It gives manufacturers, suppliers and customers easy access to the digital market and enables them to operate in several functions. “A marketplace alone cannot do this; a networking platform is required,” says Mercateo founder and CEO Dr. Sebastian Wieser on stage: “We don’t need an intermediary, we need a networking platform in B2B, we need innovation from others.”

According to Kai Nowosel, CPO of Accenture, “technical networking via platforms is only one part of the solution that buyers have to rely on in order to revolutionise themselves.” Only with a fundamentally new understanding of what purchasing should do in the future can one contribute to competitiveness and thus advance companies, said Nowosel at the Mercateo Executive Summit. This also includes departing with old performance indicators: “Saving is not a business figure and not a number that defines competitiveness; negotiating payment targets is no longer the competence of a human buyer,” he said, algorithms could also do this. Purchasing must move away from control and compliance and work towards the competitiveness of the company, Nowosel continued. The best way to achieve this is to use many external contacts to discover innovations. Away from the desk, out from behind the monitor and “out, out, out” to “where the action is”. “If you were to take the time to be out there looking for innovations, networking at events like this, we’d be a huge step ahead.” Because innovation almost never strikes in a quiet room. It is the result of cooperation, discussions or newly discovered companies; in short: networking.

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