Now for our third speaker. Don't worry, I'm not going to make that joke again. Cedric. Um, Cedric Nika of Seammen's Digital Industries. Hi there. Hi. Very welcome. Um, you Oops, there we go. It's just for safety reasons that we have these, but it might be more dangerous than anything else. Um, you are you learned business and business engineering I believe. Um, and you went to Zmens for a short time and then you changed to a very famous American company called Cisco. Um, you were there for something like 16 years or so and then you came back to good old Germany um to join Zmans again. Why on earth did you do that?
If you have two minutes, I'll give you the story. I mean, the first
I have them and I'm sure they have too. So,
I came to Seammens to become more German and I'll tell you the story later on because I'm actually half French, half German. I grew up in a French military environment and my father found me way too French. I said, 'How do you become more German?' There are three choices. You join the state, you join the church or you join Seammens. So I joined Seammens to speak
I went as an apprentice and I really enjoyed it. I went studying etc. And actually Seammens in that time is a representation of what's happening to Germany also. We were number one or two or three in the telecommunication sector. The CTO of Seammens put his arm around me. I was 28 and said, 'Look, this internet we've done for 100 years voice before the Americans will put voice over the internet a 100 years will go right.' And I left because the telecommunication sector was not looking at the changes coming.
Well I'm just computing which CEO it was.
I'm not going to share that. You can calculate.
You can do your own calculations. You can do the CTO.
Was the CTO putting his arm around me. The reality is Seammens had the biggest telecommunication business in 2000, six years later sold to Nokia and BenQ. I left, was super happy at Cisco. My wife is very German, she wanted to come back. I wanted to join a medium-sized company. Then I was asked to return to Seammens. I said no. Met CEO Joe Queser who needed someone who saw Seammens inside and outside to lead a dramatic reorganization. Did I intend to come back? No. Enjoyed it? Yes. Tough work? Yes.
Yes. Uh you are on the board, but your unit is digital industries. Can you tell us about what digital industries does and doesn't do?
Digital industries: 70,000 people, 20 billion. Two thirds is automation, a third of all factory brains worldwide come from Semens. Another third is software; we are one of the three biggest industrial software organizations. We help design, test, and produce products, even microchips.
People say Germany could still be an AI leader in industrial AI. Could we?
The US leads in consumer, Europe leads in industrial software. 80 to 90% of industrial data is unused. If we use it for AI, we have a chance. If too slow, we miss it.
Is that private or government?
I'm not a fan of government solving problems. Large companies and middle market must do it. Government can support, but regulation is holding us back.
So the state holds us back?
Is it also the mindset in German industry?
50% of hidden champions are European, mostly in Germany. They have amazing capabilities but are scared. We need a data alliance to share data and build joint models. The 'not invented here' syndrome is not scalable.
So you're building a big platform with other companies? Is that the way?
No. Building a platform first often fails. You build an application, then a platform. Google started with search. We need data exchange and a problem to solve first.
I talked to a founder who had to go to San Diego for laser development because German producers lacked courage. Is there still angst to invest all out?
Trumpf invested 20 years in high-speed lasers without return. Now every microchip below 5nm uses them. We need to support and replicate that.
Growth now comes from high technology. Correct?
Technology drives growth, but technology adoption also drives it. Globalization is dead, but technology can solve issues. Factories are now built where the technology is, not cheapest labor.
