CONNECTING

Collaboration in the age of connectivity 

Dear Readers,

Thank you for spending your time catching up with INDUS – it shows that we’re on the same wavelength. At the moment, this is just one-sided as I’m writing and you’re reading, but luckily there are occasions where that isn’t the case. If we come together during our everyday business or on the capital market, there’s two-way communication. We discuss and clear up issues, we negotiate and enter into contracts, we talk about projects and agree to cooperate.

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Dr. Johannes Schmidt
Chairman of the Board
of INDUS Holding AG
CONNECTED
WOOD WIDE WEB

Even the mightiest oak can’t survive alone. Trees boost their immune systems by living symbiotically with mycorrhiza fungi. Like little network connections, mushroom filaments wrap around the roots and thus there is a permanent exchange with the plants. This enables the trees to optimize their water and nutrient balance, and in return the trees offer up to a third of the sugar produced by photosynthesis. The mushroom filaments, which form a net under the entire forest floor, also allow communication from tree to tree. This helps with pest infestations, for instance. Researchers suspect that warning signals in the form of chemical messages are sent out to neighboring trees.

CONNECTED
POOLED POWER

The production of luxury goods flourished as early as the 17th century around royal residences. The English cotton industry formed an early industrial district in Lancashire in the 18th century – close to sources of hydropower. Silicon Valley became an important IT and high-tech hub in the 1970s. Numerous historical economic clusters show how companies benefit from competition, but also from collaboration in immediate proximity to one another. The Swiss watch-making industry is a prime example. In the 16th century, experienced Huguenot craftsmen, who fled the French Wars of Religion, laid the foundations for a center of ­precision watchmaking in Geneva. And watches made in Switzerland are still known for their quality and precision to this day.

CONNECTED
THE JOURNEY IS THE GOAL

Flexible personnel planning, efficient material flows and good route planning – the behavior of ants can serve as a blueprint for solving complex problems. Ants looking for food are able to instinctively find the best route. They use scents to mark their routes and this becomes an ­ideal path for their hungry sisters to ­follow. And route planning is built in – the faster the ant returns, the more intense the scent markers are. The other ants choose the fastest way without any superior coordination. The ant algorithm, a combinatorial ­optimization process that solves planning problems in production and logistics, is based on this swarm intelligence.

CONNECTING

We live in the age of interconnectivity. Not least because digitalization will soon connect everyone and everything around the world, but also because social and entrepreneurial challenges can only be solved through collaboration. The INDUS Group companies are preparing for this new world and are using it to boost their competitiveness.

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PROGRESS MADE BY INDUS

Strategy The PARKOUR perform strategy update focuses on collaboration and support at all levels. This creates a platform for the development of portfolio companies – and makes the Group attractive to new additions.

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CONNECTED IT – DATA INTELLIGENCE

Whether in warehouse management, factory construction or customer communication, the INDUS portfolio companies can network their processes in the right digital environment.

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COMPANIES HAVE TO BE MORE CONNECTED

Interview The rapid development of digital technology is revolutionizing the industrial landscape. It opens new horizons, but also poses a myriad of challenges. We talk to Prof. Dr. Isabell M. Welpe about the opportunities these technologies create and how they overhaul established success factors.

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MAKING CONNECTIONS

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INCREASING KNOWLEDGE TOGETHER

Innovation boosters: science and research In joint projects with external product and industry experts, INDUS brings the latest technological knowledge to those places where they are most useful to the market.

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[IN]SIDE

News from the holding company

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INDUS TICKER 2023

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