“I’m not satisfied with half measures,” says Silke Dieringer. But fun is also important to her, Immediately she has a joke at hand: “What is orange and goes over the mountains?” – the solution follows below. She has been managing customer projects at Schober since 2018. In doing so, she works closely with colleagues from sales and analysis to provide customers with optimal support. She manages focused projects for target group analysis with an emphasis on geomarketing/geofencing as well as complex customer projects on the universal data orchestration (udo) platform. Her will to succeed, joy of action and humor are in demand in project management.

Schober comes with Santa Claus

Unforgettable for Silke: the start at Schober, more precisely the job promise. Because that was while Christmas shopping. A bustling atmosphere in the stores on Stuttgart’s Königsstraße, loud Christmas music in the background and Sylvia Türcke on the phone with the job offer. “That was like an early Christmas present for me. Schober was exactly the employer where I wanted to go,” she says in retrospect. She is still happy at Schober today, because “here I got the chance to keep developing.” Originally, she does not come directly from the IT and data environment, but professionally from the creative industry and geographically from Stuttgart-Möhringen. But one after the other.

Product design, media business and learning new things

Silke grew up and went to school in Stuttgart, where she still lives today with her family and friends. Smiling, she refers to herself (without an accent) as “Urschwäbin”. No Swabian attributes follow, because flat clichés or even prejudices do not belong to her. “I am an open, communicative person. I take every person, every colleague, as they are.”

After school, she takes advantage of the opportunities offered by the industrial location and trains in product design. Hands-on work is required: drawing, drilling, milling, gluing – in short, everything you need to know to build prototypes. In addition to craftsmanship, creativity is indispensable. As her final project, she is designing new bus stops for Stuttgart’s Schlossplatz. However, to the regret of many a Stuttgart resident, it remains only a model to this day.

“Always learning new things” is important to her, so she goes on to study applied media management: advertising campaigns, project management and controlling, as well as screenwriting, are all on the curriculum in preparation for joining Schober. Many subjects she meets again later. As a bachelor, she starts her career at an advertising and creative agency, where she gains important practical experience in the management of diverse creative projects. Then Christmas comes and Silke finally starts at Schober.

Wanderlust, an S-NY license plate and the seriousness of life

She now lives in Echterdingen and can walk to work. But despite her attachment to Stuttgart and her family, Silke also has her wanderlust. She regularly goes on city trips, but beach vacations are less her thing. She is particularly fond of New York. Even her car has the license plate S-NY for Stuttgart-New York. She likes the Big Apple’s bustle and liveliness. “There’s a lot going on, there’s a pulse of life.” However, an already planned trip to New York had to be cancelled last year. But that will be made up for when the situation allows it again!

And Silke is also basically not someone who gives up. She knows how to fight for something. “In difficult situations, I learned to appreciate even small things, to be confident and to do the best I can.” Exactly the same applies on the job. Customers can rely on it: They get what they want and what they need for their success.

Live projects in customer consulting

Intensive exchange with customers and the Schober experts is an important success factor for Silke, creativity and solution-oriented thinking are others. “Projects are complex. First you have to understand the customer’s challenges exactly, and only then can you propose a solution. You often achieve even more for the customer if you ask questions, refine the analyses, and include new aspects in the solution. When I tackle a project, I want to live it,” is how Silke describes her work. The approach is very team and consultation oriented.

An example from one of their consulting fields, geofencing: A drugstore chain was looking for ways to strengthen customer loyalty. Together with colleague Sven Waldenmaier, they worked as a team to spatially classify customer flows, refine the questions, and develop seven personas. In the end, you knew: Yoga accessories have a magnetic effect on customer flows. “Results like this are fun. For me and for the customers, who get added value from it.” But other fun is not neglected either, she says and jokes. “What’s orange and goes over the mountains? Well, a Wanderine. What is healthy, strong and plays the offended? That’s right, the poutine bread. And what lives in the water and sees double? A cross-eyed horse.”

Dance with udo instead of pouting bread

Just as close to the customer, but with a different focus, are their projects around the universal data orchestration (udo) platform. This is convincing more and more companies – such as bruno banani, where Silke was also heavily involved. Whereas companies used to store their data in a widely dispersed manner, today it can be consolidated in the blink of an eye with udo and used in real time to analyze the customer journey. And where a lot of technical and statistical expertise was required in the past, users with a primary connection to the business – i.e. CEOs, CMOs and marketing managers – are now perfectly capable of handling the task, she says. Reasons: Top standard functions at the push of a button and user guidance for managing directors. “It’s like dancing. If you are perfectly guided, you also dance full of harmony,” Silke is pleased.

At work, after work: dancing and Do-It-Yourself

Because dancing makes them jump in the air with joy. “I love dancing. I used to dance ballet myself for 13 years.” In the meantime she prefers other dance styles like modern dance, which is currently difficult because of Corona. From her time as a product designer, a need for handcrafted work has remained. Thus, private Do-It-Yourself projects create the necessary balance to work. Otherwise, she enjoys spending her free time with friends and family; but especially with her niece, who always makes her laugh.

“Wherever possible, I optimize, structure and plan. Effectiveness gives me pleasure and challenges my mathematical play instinct,” Andreas Häfner describes himself and specifies: “But that is not a compulsion. I also very much appreciate spontaneity; after all, sometimes planning makes no sense.” In fact, Andreas is also good for surprises, more about that later.

He has been working as a Data Scientist at Schober since January 2018 and ensures in the analysis team that data is turned into insights for effective marketing measures. In addition to standard applications, Andreas manages complex customer projects involving new data and complete analyses – geomarketing/geofencing, for example. The third area of responsibility: he is active in the universal data orchestration (udo) platform. To do this, he models data in udo so that users don’t need to study math and yet their customer interactions are tip-top. Is that madness already or just optimization at the push of a button?

The ambition awakens, but always nice and easy

But first things first: Andreas grew up in the Nuremberg region, about 10 kilometers from Nuremberg. He went to school here and, he says, didn’t stand out much in terms of performance until college. With friends he plays sports at that time – soccer, volleyball, table tennis – but also tries more exotic sports like archery.

“But then my ambition kicked in and I put more effort into it than before. And lo and behold, I was suddenly very good at many things that people had previously thought I lacked the talent for,” he recalls. Ambition is also important for him today. Ambition also includes discipline, so that “I achieve the best possible result,” he explains, adding: “Of course, you have to overcome your inner weakness every now and then and pursue your goals consistently. Even if discipline is important for the Franconian – both privately and professionally – it remains a means to an end to meet one’s own high standards. At the same time he is relaxed and easy going. He finds tolerance toward others self-evident. Whoever gets to know Andreas meets an open-minded person who can listen and likes to laugh.

Tinkering or the thing with mathematical optimization

With the college years, his interest in mathematics also blossoms, where his special talent shows. His teacher in the math advanced course encourages him and eventually motivates him to study business mathematics at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg. Mathematical optimization and the sub-discipline convex optimization particularly excite him. This area of applied mathematics is concerned with finding optimal parameters for a complex system. Optimal means to minimize or maximize an objective function. That sounds too abstract? In his master’s thesis, Andreas deals with the optimal expansion of power grids. To do this, he creates models that relate parameters such as power poles, line paths, as well as physical conditions to align with a specific goal – such as minimizing maintenance costs. “It’s like a puzzle. You tinker, you model, and you’re happy when, in the end, the calculations fit together perfectly in practice.”

But he is also always concerned with diversity and exploring the world. Before graduating, Andreas spends a semester abroad in the USA. In Minnesota, he expands his professional and personal horizons, travels the country and enjoys student life. Back in Germany, he turns down the offer of a doctorate. Enough studies, Andreas wants to get into practice.

Schober, team spirit and Stuttgart

He will begin at Schober Information Group in January 2018. In principle, he would also have considered becoming an actuary in the actuarial field, but then takes the path of a data scientist in the marketing field. “Schober just has a lot of great and exciting data that I wanted to play around with,” he says, grinning, and continues, “The work is diverse, offers varied tasks and requires innovative thinking. So it suits me very well.” Another factor for him is the working atmosphere. The colleagues and the team spirit are super. “We support each other, and if there’s ever a hitch in a solution, brainstorming sessions help quickly.” The team, as you can quickly hear, is not limited to work. At lunchtime, they go to the gym together, play table tennis or foosball in between for mental refreshment, and they also like to drink a beer together after work, Andreas says. Because of Corona, however, there are no real commonalities at the moment; work is mainly done in the home office.

But he was also attracted to Stuttgart. After graduation, he felt like moving to a new city, and Stuttgart welcomed him well. After a stopover in Korntal-Münchingen, he now lives in Stuttgart Fasanenhof, close to the office by bike. “Stuttgart is great and not too far from my home in Nuremberg. I like the big-city flair here, there’s always something going on, the city is lively,” says the Franconian Swabian by choice. Nevertheless, he remains closely connected to Nuremberg: Friends, family, Nuremberg’s old town, three in the Weggla and many more things that you simply don’t forget so quickly; even in Stuttgart. And so he is also regularly in the old homeland.

Schober Dynamik: Always new, always innovative

Real dynamism and insane potential – these are the terms Andreas uses to describe his job at Schober. Above all, the possibilities of mobile data and the accompanying depth of information challenge his mathematical play instinct. And as a Data Scientist in the analytics team, it is precisely his job to bring together traditional and new data, proven and new analytics methods, analog and digital worlds for the benefit of customers.

Since his start, he has managed various client projects – from classic profile analyses and scoring to geoprojects such as catchment area analyses or visitor projections to very complex topics. But the development work on the universal data orchestration (udo) platform is particularly innovative: not everyone has the skills of a data scientist, but in the data-driven economy, everyone needs these skills. And this is exactly where udo comes in, because the platform provides all the necessary prerequisites and models practically at the push of a button. This is the case, for example, with the water specialist bevo, Andreas tells us. “Visualizations and programming and putting together dashboards have been the coolest part for me here, by the way, because it makes the benefits and insights from the data immediately visible. I love making things better!”

No, really? An American in Stuttgart

For all his mathematical precision and planning, Andreas is also spontaneous and good for surprises. In the background interview for this portrait, he provides – after about two hours of conversation – a completely different piece of information: His life has taken a very decisive turn privately with his studies abroad in the USA. In addition to university, country exploration and sports, he met and fell in love with his wife Angeles there. Initially, both of them were still prepared for a long-distance relationship, but half-measures are not to Andrea’s taste. And so the two have already been living together in Stuttgart for more than two years, have been married for a year and dream of owning their own home.

Otherwise, they enjoy what the city has to offer – meeting friends, going to the Volksfescht on the Wasen, to the Weindorf or other festivals in Stuttgart. If that can’t happen, sports, video games or series (currently “The Mandalorian”, for example) are on the agenda for relaxation.

Made to laugh for the bet

And what makes Andreas laugh? He doesn’t hesitate for a moment: “My wife. But we will never agree among ourselves who is funnier and who makes whom laugh more”. So it’s optimal: “She makes me laugh almost as much as I make her laugh,” he comments with a broad grin

“Doing what I haven’t done before – that’s what drives me. In the same way, solution orientation, a structured approach and reliability are part of my way of working,” is how Sylvia Türcke describes her self-image and adds: “Diversity, curiosity and joie de vivre are also important to me”. And then she confesses that she sometimes dances sitting down for joy. Whereby? We’ll come back to that.

Since 2010, Sylvia has worked at Schober Information Group Germany, most recently as Chief Operating Officer and member of the operational management team. Through management buyout, it has been one of the three new owners since July 2021. However, she has long played a decisive role in shaping the strategic direction of the company and has not only been intensively involved in the birth of the universal data orchestration platform – udo for short. How did it come about?

Diversely interested and broadly positioned

Sylvia grew up near Hanover, where she went to school and her parents gave her “a lot of opportunities. That’s why I still have a wide range of interests and am always enthusiastic about new things,” she says in answer to the question about formative moments. An example? She has been playing the piano since she was in high school, and three years ago she started drum lessons. The Schober co-owner emphasizes that she took care early on to develop skills and knowledge as broadly as possible in order to be able to cope well with any situation and a wide variety of personalities.

Tour d’Allemagne: Hanover, Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart

After studying business administration in Hanover, she started her professional life in Munich at a management consultancy. Here she learns the basics: analyzing markets and competition, creating go-to-market concepts and looking strategically into the future. In the end, however, the development prospects are not enough for Sylvia. She wants to continue to develop; to do what she has not done before.

So she looks for a new challenge and finds it in Nuremberg at a sales service provider. Business development, marketing and public relations are tasks she’ll be growing at for the next three years. And then comes a turning point that brings her Tour d’Allemagne to Stuttgart: She moves to Stuttgart for her current husband and initially commutes to Nuremberg. However, it quickly becomes clear that she will only really feel at home in Stuttgart if she also works here. And so, after application, tough interviews and case study presentations (“as a former management consultant, you’re practiced”), Sylvia comes to Schober in 2010.

Everything flows: “From small cog to co-owner”.

“If someone had told me back then that I would stay that long, end up in management and then even take over the company, from small cog to co-owner – I probably would have thought they were crazy,” she laughs, recalling her start at Schober in online marketing. As a later assistant to the management, Sylvia takes care of IT, the transformation of the foreign business as well as strategy development for the entire Schober Group. She proves herself in a male-dominated and hierarchical company and eventually takes over the area of customer and project management. “Inventing new things, blazing trails – I enjoy that,” she says. And there is an opportunity to do so, because a good five years ago Sylvia took over the operational management of the Schober Information Group together with the two current co-owners Martin Brahm and Peter Ambrus.

The new era begins: birth of udo

“Martin, Peter and I realized quite quickly that we would have to expand and reposition the portfolio if we wanted to survive in this rapidly changing market environment in the long term.” 70 years of experience in marketing, sales, data management and analytics guarantee a solid foundation, but digitization with countless media and IT innovations is also ushering in a new era at Schober. Market and potential analyses lead to a repositioning. The management team is making consistent use of digitization and is aligning the company with innovations to meet new market requirements. Today, the focus is on customer offerings for digitizing sales and marketing processes. The orientation as a Data & MarTech provider finds its most visible expression in udo, the platform for customer data, sales and marketing automation.

Sylvia recalls: “We developed our universal data orchestration platform – udo for short – on the flipchart. We then rolled it out to the individual departments – IT, analysis, customer and project management, etc. – and asked: Can we make it work like this? When employees later approached us and said they had ‘tried something there’, that was the birth of our udo.”

udo is now established in the market. “We have combined the best of all worlds in one SaaS application: the simple linking of information silos into a single data pool, sophisticated marketing and sales analyses, AI based on the best training data – namely the Schober data universe – and direct control of campaigns across all channels,” Sylvia summarizes and emphasizes: “Above all, udo is data protection-compliant and also ready to use directly with the purchase. Larger American competitors sometimes need years to get into the swing of things. Customers don’t have that time, and with us, they don’t need it.”

Courage, tenacity and dance for joy

Courage is just as necessary in a leadership role as a structured approach and tenacity. What Sylvia starts, she brings to success with vigor. Various poaching attempts for new challenges were not an option. With “I’m not done here” she canceled and continued to take care of udo. With her structured and solution-oriented approach, she sometimes drives those around her crazy, she speculates. It’s probably not quite that bad.

In the same way, laughter, exuberance and pleasure belong to Sylvia. “Good food and good company – that’s pure joie de vivre for me. Then I dance for joy while sitting at the table, which sometimes irritates those around me a bit,” she confesses with a smile.

Travel, travel, travel

There are many other joys. Besides music, scuba diving is a great passion, even though she quickly gets seasick on a ship. But she also appreciates a walk in the woods after the rain. It’s not just the big things that make up happiness. As an “absolute stand-up guy”, failures and strokes of fate are also part of his life. Often you feel yourself particularly intensely in the contrast. “On our honeymoon, we were in Tanzania on Mount Kilimanjaro. When you get to stand under a shower again after several days of exertion – that’s true luxury,” she recalls. In general, travel is important. Besides Tanzania, a kayak tour in Antarctica with whale watching is particularly memorable for her. But the best vacation is always the next one. She plans to continue to “travel, travel, travel – work permitting.”