Post by Dr. Markus A. Will

Controlling is like Story Telling!   That was Lea Eberle’s key take away for my students: Of course, Controlling is about numbers, but you have to tell a story around your numbers. For what do you need money, where do you invest and allocate capital? The 32-year-old and recently appointed CFO of Ringier Medien Schweiz joined me in March as a guest in my Lecture on Media Management in a disruptive economy and environment at the UZH Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung (IKMZ) of the UZH. Lea told my students the evolutionary story of Ringier from its heritage to today and even looked a bit into future development around generative AI.  Ringier’s transformation towards today’s media, into sports media and into marketplaces requires investments into tech&data, but also into teams, who will still be key, even in the world of artificial intelligence. Human intelligence stills counts! And behind these investments, there is a story. And that is, what Lea meant by Controlling is like Story Telling. Guest Lecturer are somewhat the dessert of a menu, which has been cooked by the Main Lecturer. They shall be special, but fit to the entire menu composition. And Lea’s lecture did perfectly fit to my theoretical explanations, why Controlling is important. Modern Controlling is more than number crunching, but even more a coaching to business initiatives. Because in the end, you have to be profitable. Only profitable and innovative #businessmodel are sustainable ones. This is my mandate in Zürich – to give young students of #communicationsscience a bit of a management perspective. This is, why the term is a double noun, #Media and #Management! As simple as it is! My next guest will be Carsten Knop Knop, one of the four publishers of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung AZ. So, stay tuned … Annabella Dr. Bassler Ladina Heimgartner Oliver Gassmann Nadine Strauß Mike S. Schäfer