Please introduce yourself.

My name is Christian Baudisch, German citizen. I was born and grew up in South-Western Germany in the city of Baden-Baden. I studied Business Administration in Germany and Korea with a specification in Finance. I started my career in the Real Estate and Private Equity Industry and worked in this industry for almost 8 years.

In 2016, I decided to quit my job at one of the largest US based private equity funds and came to Korea in order to make an MBA degree at Yonsei University. Since 2018, I am working at DB Schenker Korea as Head of Performance Management and Operational Excellence in Contract Logistics.

It is actually already my third time to live in South Korea. The first time I came to Korea was in 2008 as an exchange student. In total, I lived almost 7 years in Korea.

Tell us what was the background behind forming the ECCK Future Development Forum and what is your role within the forum?

ECCK Chairperson Dirk Lukat had the idea to create a new forum which focuses on a younger target audience. There is a lack in information sharing opportunities for future C-Level Executives in Korea. At the same time, it is one of ECCK’s strategies to engage future leaders in the advocacy work and focus on digitalization and innovation, both essential for our chamber future expansion and the economy that drives future growth.

I am the chairperson of this forum. At the beginning it was important to set up the initial structures together with ECCK. As we have just started the Future Development Forum, I am focusing on promoting this forum and form a group of people who are highly interested in exchanging ideas and sharing their industry trends on a recurring basis. In addition, I need to promote our quarterly events and attract ECCK member companies who are interested in hosting events. I am supporting our member companies in finding the right venue in case they cannot provide any space in their offices, organizing the whole event and selecting interesting topics together with the hosts for the events.

How did the first meeting go?

The response for our inauguration event on November 16 exceeded our expectations, especially considering the COVID-19 situation.

We had attendees from eight different industries with diverse backgrounds. The first event was hosted at DB Schenker Korea, under strict social distancing guidelines. The event had the title “contactless logistics and automation” with a focus on contract logistic trends and developments. I presented current and future challenges, trends and opportunities throughout the contract logistics industry and supply chain.

To be frank, one of our main concerns was a low response rate from our members to attend and host our quarterly events. However, within one day after the inauguration I received hosting confirmations for the full year 2021. In the meantime, we have even received confirmations until middle of 2022, some forum members even suggested to make events more frequent than on a quarterly basis. Thus, I can say the first event was successful.

What do you hope young professionals to gain from the forum?

First of all, it is important that we have created this platform for young professionals for our ECCK members. Through this platform young professionals can not only gain knowledge about different industries trends, but also meet people in order to discuss about career trends and career perspectives.

For me it is important to have a group of people who is meeting on a regular basis in order to connect, to learn and to grow ourselves. I am sure that after a few events, our participants will figure out that some challenges might be very similar, although they are working in completely different industries.

Some challenges might derive from external local factors, some others might be on a larger global scale. I think especially for similar challenges, it will be interesting to have in depth discussions and finding ways to turn challenges into opportunities or to develop even new business opportunities.

Where do you see the forum in the long-term?

As mentioned before, the focus is on growing and learning together. This is difficult to achieve in a short-term. The target for the Future Development Forum should be to form a group of people, people to consider themselves members of the FDF – and not just an open event like a seminar.

In short-term we need to create a platform were people meet on a regular basis and not just one-time. After these initial structures are well established, I want that we add value to each other but also for the ECCK member companies and among the different ECCK forums.

In the mid- to long-term I can imagine that we invite chairpersons and senior executives from other ECCK cross-industry forums to discuss and present ideas in order to create further synergy among the different forums and members.