Guest Lecture on "organisational behaviour"

Prof. Dr. Hazel Grünewald gives students insights into her research

Our monthly event series started with a guest lecture of Prof. Dr. Hazel Grünewald. She gave us an exciting insight into the complex topic of "soft power for competitive advantage and strategy - exporting cultural and creative products.” She has been a professor for Organizational Behavior at ESB Business School, Reutlingen University in Germany since 2009.

"Soft" and "hard power" correlate very strongly with each other, which is why it is not always possible to clearly distinguish between the two terms. Power stands for the ability to achieve desired results by influencing the behavior of others. A distinction is made between soft and hard power. While hard power is used to persuade someone to form an opinion, a consumer who has been persuaded by soft power almost feels as if a good deed has been done when buying a product. Prof. Grünwalds professional experience from industry gave the lecture an exciting frame with several practical examples and she tried to sensitize the participants to the differences of soft and hard power. Marketing strategies of different industrial areas were the main content of the discussions. Especially the automotive sector invested much money in sustainable marketing through soft power.

Details for the next meeting in November are in preparation. We look forward to another interesting exchange within our monthly event series!