Opening Remarks by DUSA European Association Suzhou
By Florian WEIHARD, Chief Technology Officer at ruhlamat Automation Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Chairman of DUSA European Association Suzhou
Key Note Speech I: The World Has Changed – Status and Outlook of German Business in China Dr. Sigrid WINKLER
The world has undergone substantial changes under the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years, followed by geopolitical turmoil and increasing global tensions in 2022. Companies are facing unprecedented challenges paired with an uncertain future outlook. This keynote speech explores how German companies in China are adapting to an increasingly complex global and local environment. How to address and cope with instabilities, what are business models for future success and which industries have a potential for future growth?
Dr. Sigrid WINKLER
Deputy Executive Director of German Chamber of Commerce China · Shanghai
After decades of constant growth, the Automotive sector in China is undergoing a fundamental change from Internal Combustion Engine vehicles to New Energy Vehicles like Battery Electric Vehicles, Hybrid Electric Vehicles and others. Those market challenges require businesses to continuously transform their organisation to the changing customer demands. On top of this, multi-national companies operating in Joint-ventures find themselves the particular situation to align strategic directions with tactical decisions with different stakeholders in China and abroad. How does the Controlling function contribute to the sustainable navigation of the company in ese demanding times maintaining a human touch to bridge the different cultures?
Xavier ALARCON
Chief Financial Officer at SAIC-Volkswagen Shanghai Sales company
Coffee Break
Workshop Breakout Session I
Workshop A: Controlling for value chain localization - practice of a small-to-medium sized company in a changing world – Airu GONG, CFO of Poclain Hydraulic (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
Workshop B: Leveraging government grants and tax incentives in the B2B sector after COVID – Richard Jiang, PWC
Workshop C: Digital upskilling - framework for implementation – Julien Boussu, CFO of Knorr-Bremse
Lunch Break
Workshop Breakout Session II
Workshop A: Digital transformation for business growth - experience and lessons learnt at ruhlamat - Lily Wu, CFO Asia / Ronnie Chen, Operation Controlling Manager of ruhlamat
Workshop B: Finance as business partner: only a business buzzword, or actionable and tangible? - Matthias Tschermak von Seysenegg, Freudenberg
Workshop C: Citizen IT enhancing efficiency in organisations with modern workflow systems: What Manager and Controller should know? - Li Haiguang, Schaeffler
Coffee Break
SAP S/4HANA Finance – Intelligent Finance Features and Use Cases from Controllers’ Perspective Andrei Li
Andrei Li
Cloud ERP Engineering, Accounting/ Senior Dev Manager at SAP Labs China
ICV Controlling China Survey 2023 results Dr. Zhen HUANG
Dr. Zhen HUANG
Chief Financial Officer at Poggenpohl Group / Management Consultant and Trainer
Panel Discussion
Workshop Breakout Session I: Workshop A "Controlling for value chain localization • practice of a small-to-medium sized company in a changing world" Airu GONG•Francesco INGARSIA （Moderator）
• Poclain Shanghai: development path of a small-to-medium sized company in China • Why more localization? Strategic, operational and financial considerations • Transformation for localization: what to and how to do • Challenges, experiences and lessons learnt at Poclain • Roles of and requirements on finance & controlling professionals
Airu GONG
Chief Financial Officer at Poclain Hydraulic (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
Francesco INGARSIA （Moderator）
Chief Financial Officer of Schaeffler Greater China, Leader of ICV Work Group East China
Workshop Breakout Session II: Workshop A "Digital transformation for business growth • experience and lessons learnt at ruhlamat" Lily WU•Ronnie CHEN
· Growth and challenges of ruhlamat and its controlling · Digital strategy and roadmap · Rolling forecast practice · Digital engineering practice . Practice of operation controlling · Roles of and requirement on controllers
Lily WU
Chief Finance Officer at ruhlamat Asia Group
Ronnie CHEN
Operation Controlling at ruhlamat Automation Technologies Suzhou Co., Ltd.
Workshop Breakout Session I: Workshop B "Leveraging Government Grants and Tax Incentives in the B2B sector after COVID" Richard JIANG•Alexander Prautzsch (Moderator)
- How local governments are rebooting the economy of the COVID period? - What government grants and tax incentives are available for enterprises in the B2B sector and how are they allocated? - What are the key triggers for grants and incentives and how to best leverage the opportunities? - What should be on the action plan for people from finance and controlling team?
Richard JIANG
Associate Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers Shanghai
Alexander Prautzsch (Moderator)
Tax Director, International Tax/ German Desk of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consultants (Shenzhen) Limited
Workshop Breakout Session II: Workshop B "Finance as Business Partner: only a business buzzword, or actionable and tangible?" Matthias Tschermak VON SEYSENEGG•Alexander Prautzsch (Moderator)
No doubt, the finance function has evolved. 30 years ago, it was sufficient to provide financial statements and manage bank accounts. Nowadays, finance executives’ have taken over additional roles as business analysts, change agents in digitalization, and experts in internal control systems and lean administration methods, and much more. Additionally, business leaders expect their finance function to act as Business Partners, with many managers are not unwilling to accept this terminology. Yet: Business Partner – what does it really mean? While it appears clear that this rather points into behavioral dimensions, the term itself falls short of being measurable – a painful experience for a function that is all about numbers and classification. In this workshop, we explore one framework to make Business Partnering in an industrial context more tangible, ultimately also aiming to make the buzzword actionable.
Matthias Tschermak VON SEYSENEGG
Vice President Finance & IT at NOK-Freudenberg China
Alexander Prautzsch (Moderator)
Tax Director, International Tax/ German Desk of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consultants (Shenzhen) Limited
Workshop Breakout Session I: Workshop C “Digital upskilling • framework for implementation” Julien BOUSSU•Christian Kalkbrenner (Moderator)
Is digitalization a big buz word? Yes. Has it been already covered in many different occasions / angles? Yes.
Yet most of the coverage is dedicated to the What (the tech) and possibly not shedding enough light on the Who and How.
Many companies struggle quite a bit on the path to digitalization. The issues most preeminent being: - Digitalization is a very broad topic => not easy to scope, decide where to start from. - Digitalization tech appear and morph frequently. So companies would like to embrace the latest tech, but their implementation is slower than the pace of the tech evolution => selected solutions end up being constantly challenged. - Lack of internal true expertise, while having multiple internal “opinions” regarding digitalization => setting a clear path is difficult - Digitalization implementation task given as an additional job to existing staff => not enough as a top down vision for company wide adoption and not enough resources offered.
In fine, many companies report being engaged on Digitalization but can’t quite properly articulate their strategy. Some companies simple remain stuck at the conceptual phase.
At Knorr-Bremse has created a Group level workgroup aiming at establishing the digitalization framework. This workgroup is meant to be generalist, yet many of the topics are relevant for Controlling.
This workshop is about sharing and getting insights from other companies.
Julien BOUSSU
Regional Financial Controller at Knorr-Bremse Rail China
Christian Kalkbrenner (Moderator)
Finance & Administration Director of Zapp Precision Metals (Taicang) Co., Ltd.
Workshop Breakout Session II: Workshop C "Citizen IT enhancing efficiency in organisations with modern workflow systems: What Manager and Controller should know?" Haiguang LI•Ken Bian (Moderator)
The competition of the manufacturing company in China is becoming more and more fierce. Not only from product perspective but also the running efficiency of internal organization.
Today low code/no code workflow systems can improve efficiency of the whole organisation. Implementation of workflows only by IT department is coming history and power users, also referred to as Citizen IT take the initiative.
Citizen IT enhancing efficiency in organisations with modern workflow systems: What Manager and Controller should know? We will explore together to drive such changes and it is crucial to achieve successful results.
Haiguang LI
Chief Information Officer at Schaeffler Holding (China) Co. Ltd.;
Ken Bian (Moderator)
Finance Director of a listed Biologics company in Suzhou
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