November 04th 2020

Social Media, Business & Democracy. Chances & Challenges.

MCI Livetalk with Tino Krause, Facebook Germany Country Director D-A-CH

 

Tino Krause in conversation with MCI Rector Andreas Altmann. Photo:MCI
Tino Krause in conversation with MCI Rector Andreas Altmann. Photo:MCI

As Country Director of the D-A-CH region, Tino Krause has been leading Facebook's business development in Germany, Austria and Switzerland since February 2019. With more than 15 years of experience in leading companies, he is considered one of the most recognized experts in the media and marketing industry.

Before joining Facebook, Tino Krause was head of MediaCom. After the integration into the media agency MEC, one of the largest in the world with 5,000 employees in 84 countries, he worked there as COO from 2013 and as CEO from 2016. After all, it was his determination that brought the business administration graduate of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena to his current position at Facebook.

In his associated responsibility, he would like to advance digitization and the handling of innovation, especially in the D-A-CH region. Apart from the often-unrecognized economic opportunities, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, social platforms like Facebook offer people the valuable opportunity to connect with each other, to cultivate relationships, to develop common ideas, to initiate important social developments and to exercise democratic control.

The Corona crisis has shown how important this networking and new thinking is for the continued existence and further development of small and medium-sized enterprises - the backbone of the entire economy. Especially the lockdown has shown how customer needs have changed. Thus the use of digital media has doubled. Tino Krause would no longer regard digitization alone as a competitive advantage, but would much rather say: "If you are no longer a leader in digitization that is a competitive disadvantage!”

In this context, he also emphasizes the importance of the topic of 'new work' - the development of a new working world through the sharp increase in the use of the home office and the associated challenges. Now it is important to ensure that no social distance arises from the physical distance of the employees and to make the interaction with each other "more human, more open and more transparent". He also expects the use of Augmented and Virtual Reality to play a role in the future. In the long term, Facebook's ambitious goal is to decouple work from time and place largely, so that around 50% of employees should work from home. This would allow the best possible use of many advantages such as larger talent pools, diversity and inclusion.

Krause clearly states the role of Facebook in this process: "In our mission we see ourselves as a platform that enables people to come together and build strong communities and that also gives minorities a strong voice". Ultimately, the aim is to democratize information, communication, and thus human relations. In this context, the continuous development of technology is crucial and the key to success in order to cope with the daily challenges such as hate mail and fake news. The improvement of artificial intelligence should be the decisive factor here, "but humans must also contribute empathy that artificial systems cannot provide".

In the process, the technology must also be more open to research and curiosity for innovations must be encouraged. Finally, Tino Krause sees a significant multiplier of progress and a generally increasing competitiveness in the future in the courage to try something out and to critically question oneself every day.

Contact
Mag. Bettina Stichauner | Head Alumni Center Alumni & Friends
Mag. Bettina Stichauner Head Alumni Center +43 512 2070 - 1700
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