Together towards the future
To kick off the event, Daniela Lager interviewed the managing director of Markant AG, Dominik Scheid, and the managing director of Markant Syntrade Schweiz AG, Jos Lanen, on current developments in the Markant Group.
«As Markant, we are constantly growing and are currently experiencing a very strong development of our range of services with even greater utilisation for and by the industry,» Jos Lanen explained by way of introduction and announced the news that Rossmann has now also been welcomed as a Markant retail partner in Switzerland. The market is currently extremely buoyant – but the dynamic consumer environment also offers the opportunity to support the industry even better: «Our partners demand reliability, efficiency orientation, process optimisation and increased productivity. We take these requirements very seriously,» emphasises Dominik Scheid.
Markant has therefore now developed a broad portfolio of services that provide support along the entire value chain. As a data-driven company, special attention is paid to the topic of cyber security: «We have a high level of resilience and continue to work on our resilience every day – both for ourselves and for our partners,» says Scheid. Customer satisfaction is always the focus, emphasised Lanen: «We need to know where our partners' needs are, offer very good solutions and respond to changing conditions.» The Markant marketplace of services also deserves special mention. Over 2,500 companies are already using the service platform, and the number is increasing daily.
The omnipresent topics of sustainability and artificial intelligence also play a major role for Markant: With the help of various services relating to the Supply Chain Sustainability Act (LkSG) or the Regulation on Deforestation-Free Supply Chains (EUDR), companies gain more transparency in the context of compliance. And thanks to the founding of the start-up Retail.ai, AI services are no longer a dream of the future: «Generative artificial intelligence can become a game changer for the entire FMCG sector,» says Scheid. Despite the dynamics and innovations in the market, one thing will not change: «Our culture of partnership will remain firmly in place. We are a participatory company in which progress is created through trust and cooperation. Join in too!» the managing directors jointly appealed.
Top-class speakers
Christina Tönniges, Senior Consultant Advanced Solutions, and Dr Amata Ring,
CPS Business Development Director Switzerland, gave the partners an overview of the current consumer situation in Europe in her presentation: «Crisis(es) – what was that again? The DACH shopper's path to the future».
«A normalisation of crises has become established – this has an influence on consumer sentiment,» Ring explained by way of introduction. However, inflation is forecast to fall further in 2024 and consumers are feeling more relaxed again. There is a general recovery in consumer confidence in the DACH region. The Swiss are buying more branded goods again and are also showing a slightly higher general willingness to buy premium products.
In a study conducted for the event, a third of Swiss respondents stated that they were critical of regular and conscious shopping in neighbouring countries. When shopping abroad, the respondents most frequently bring pharmacy and cleaning products with them, but also fresh staple foods such as meat, milk, fruit and vegetables. Swiss who are also shopping tourists like to buy fresh food in Switzerland as well.
He then moved from consumer behaviour to space: Prof. Dr Thomas H. Zurbuchen, astrophysicist and head of Space ETH Zurich, divided his presentation «How NASA is exploring the secrets of the universe and improving life on Earth» into three topics: How space research is changing, what impact this is having on observing the Earth and how the topic of AI is opening up new markets.
«All of us are on this planet together. Nature influences us all, no matter where we are», says Zurbuchen. Earth observation satellites give mankind an impression of the Earth that has never been seen before in human history, and they can also be very valuable in relation to climate change. With today's possibilities, they can send down radar signals from space and identify how ice moves, for example. «85 per cent of all climate data in assessments now comes from space. The accuracy is incredible». These measurements play a particularly important role in forecasting major storms, but also in fighting major fires. Satellites can also be of great benefit in Switzerland: Slopes are not only mapped, but also measured using radar.
The use of artificial intelligence offers a boost here: All trees, vines or even fields could be identified individually and AI could be used to calculate how to reduce water, fertiliser etc. and increase yields. «This data is increasingly needed to understand what is happening before the future becomes the present», Zurbuchen concluded his presentation.
The next lecture went from a big orbit to a small orbit: Prof. Dr Thomas Druyen, sociologist and futurologist, President of the opta data Future Foundation and Univ. Prof. Dr at the Sigmund Freud Private University in Vienna, provided insight into the greatest change in human history with «Learning from the future».
«AI was created to increase the limits of our perception», Druyen began. «We have an inner tendency to reject the new and feel most comfortable in familiar pathways.» However, change has always been a part of human history. The agricultural revolution changed people's relationship to nature, the industrial revolution changed people's relationship to labour and the digital revolution changed people's relationship to information. Now, however, artificial intelligence is changing the relationship between people and themselves. «AI will reshape the world in an unprecedented way.» This also shows the exponential nature of technology. It would therefore be an exponentially expanding disadvantage to rely on familiar things.
For retailers, AI will also result in shopping innovations of the future: automatic recognition and personalisation, virtual shopping assistants and shelves with robotics and automation. He therefore called for innovation to be seen as an opportunity and established the mindset of the future: Only decisions and implementation shape the future.
The high-calibre closing speaker Joschka Fischer, former Foreign Minister & Vice-Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, took the guests from the bright heights of the future to the dreary depths of today's foreign policy in his lecture «USA, China, Russia & the EU – Switzerland in the midst of an uncomfortable world», as he himself opened.
«What doesn't change is us. People remain as they are. They are not driven by reason, but by instinct, and politics thrives on the question of power. War is back in Europe, and we have to face up to this situation,» Fischer began. The world is currently experiencing a change in the entire order, which is leading to increasing military conflicts. The idea that weapons technology is being enriched with AI fills him with additional concern. «We are currently experiencing a dramatic situation in the Middle East, with the Iranian nuclear programme looming in the background. This is what we are currently dealing with – including Switzerland.»
He emphasised the danger of a rebirth of European nationalism, which endangers the supporting pillars of the European construct at a time of war in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear confrontation. He advised changing priorities and focusing on the defence of Europe and democracy: «This crisis holds a huge opportunity for us.»
Daniela Lager and Jos Lanen thanked the speakers for their high-quality presentations. «The take-home message is really big today, and we were given a wide range of information: There was everything from optimism to great realism today, and we obtained a lot of insights», Jos Lanen adds in conclusion. The topics were discussed and debated at a closing lunch together.
The 15th Information day will take place on 02.10.2025 again at the Lucerne Museum of Transport.
