Global Gurus will be speaking at Finland’s largest industry event, Manufacturing Performance Days, MPD, in Tampere in June 2019 – Superstar Speakers come from Germany and Japan

Press Release 21.12.2018

”This MPD will be even more international than its predecessors. Already last time in 2017, the MPD attracted key industry players from almost 30 countries. I strongly believe that these top global speakers will increase global interest even further”, estimates Tomas Hedenborg, the Chair of the MPD organizing committee and the President of Orgalime, the European engineering industries association.

Hermann Simon is the most influential management thinker in Europe 

Simon is a globally recognized German economist and businessman, and a guru on strategy, marketing and pricing. He has been voted in German language countries as the most influential living management thinker.

Simon is Honorary Chairman and Founder of Simon-Kucher & Partners which has been ranked by Germany’s most prestigious business magazine as the leading consultancy in Marketing & Sales. Simon-Kucher & Partners operates in 25 countries. Simon has published several worldwide bestseller books and over 35 books which have been translated to 27 languages. A good example of his global recognition is the business school in China which has been named after him.

Simon has worked as a professor at Germany’s Mainz and Bielefeld as well as at several other prestigious universities around the world including U.S. universities Harvard, Stanford and MIT. Simon has received numerous international awards.

Simon coined the term ‘Hidden Champions’ almost 30 years ago. According to his findings, the economic success of Germany is not based only on large companies, but on medium-sized world-class companies, especially the Hidden Champions which are, according to Simon, the spearhead of the German economy.

In the past years Simon has written significantly about the effects of digitalization on his favorite topics, i.e. ‘pricing’ and ‘hidden champions’. All of these topics will be discussed at the MPD 2019.

Kazuo Yano is a top name in AI and digital happiness

Kazuo Yano is a Japanese AI Guru who used “big data” in his work long before the term was coined and became ubiquitous. Yano works as a Fellow, Corporate Officer and Corporate Chief Scientist at Hitachi and is known for his pioneering works in semiconductor field. In his work he utilizes the measurement and analysis of social big data, especially with the usage of wearable sensors. He is also a top name in digital happiness research.

Dr. Yano has been working for 15 years in multi-purpose Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems which have been applied to over 60 cases in 14 industry domains. He has applied for over 350 patents and his papers are cited by academic papers all over the world. Kazuo Yano received his PhD degree from Japan’s Waseda University, and he has received numerous international awards.

The MPD 2019 offers participants a unique opportunity to enjoy Dr. Yano’s exceptionally comprehensive AI experience and his personal views on AI challenges, opportunities and impacts in industry and the society. This will be one of his rare visits to Europe.

Ecosystem Economy is a super interesting theme

The business opportunities created by digitalization rely heavily on ecosystems. This makes MPD 2019 even more interesting.

”MPD 2019 also attracts global interest because the significance of ecosystems is increasing all around the world. Additionally, Finland is a highly attractive location because we have strong ecosystem expertise and strong ecosystems”, emphasizes Hedenborg.

MPD is organized by DIMECC Ltd, Finland’s leading ecosystem for digitilazing manufacturing industries. Read more: www.mpdays.com.

More information:

Tomas Hedenborg, Chair, MPD Organisation Committee, +358 50 310 1999, tomas.hedenborg@fastems.com

Reijo Tuokko, MPD Programme Chair, +358 45 248 1167, reijo.tuokko@dimecc.com

Harri Kulmala, CEO, DIMECC Ltd, +358 40 840 6380, harri.kulmala@dimecc.com