German-Australian Business-News Q3 2020 edition | Resilience

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2020 - No. 2019 - No. 1 3

Jul Jan --Sep Mar 2020 2019

Resilience.

German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK)

Keeps businesses afloat.

UPCOMING EVENTS Please check our events calendar for the latest events and webinar information on our website: australien.ahk.de/en/events

A message from AHK Australia's new Executive Director Dear members and friends, It is a great pleasure to welcome you to our new German-Australian Business News for the first time since my start as Executive Director on 1 May. We live in unprecedented times globally and locally, including in the first Australian recession in 29 years. However, this Business News edition is a testament to the strength of the German-Australian business community and it contains fascinating examples of companies facing the challenges, developing innovative solutions and even coming out of the coronavirus crisis stronger than before – this is what we proudly call resilience and this is what we are celebrating in this edition.

It includes examples from member companies in very different sectors, including advanced manufacturing, medical technologies, resources and education and international examples from our AHK colleagues in China. But it also includes examples from the German-Australian Chamber team. I am proud of the resilience shown from our team, demonstrated through the development of many insightful webinars when physical events could no longer take place, a personal phone and online engagement from our membership team with many member companies, a focus of our governmental affairs work on the needs of businesses in this crisis such as supply chain or border closure issues and our consulting team helping many German businesses entering the Australian market even in those challenging times.

Our communication with you is now all-digital with this online Business News, the soon-to-be-launched Subsidiary and Member Directory, our new blog and our insightful podcasts with deeper personal insights into topics such as logistics, manufacturing or Artificial Intelligence in language services.

The member articles in this Business News edition demonstrate that a customer and staff focussed approach utilising all available technological solutions is the key to business success in this crisis. What this means in practice in a variety of industries is a fascinating read over the coming pages. Of course, you will also find the usual presentation of new member companies, exclusive Member4Member offers and the trade and investment update with further progress towards the Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement.

I am looking forward to meeting many of you over the coming weeks and months, including some members already at our upcoming AGM on 23 July.

Until then please remain healthy, happy and resilient.

Kind regards, Christoph von Spesshardt Executive Director German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce

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RESILIENCE MEMBER ARTICLES 11 12 13 14-15 16-17 18-19 20-21 22 23 24

Australian METS: Rising to the COVID-19 Challenge (Austmine) The Power of Resilience (Accru Felsers) What Do You Do as a Surgeon When Someone Takes All Your Theatre Time Away? (Orthopaedic Surgeon) Response to the SARS-CoV-2 Virus (B. Braun Australia and New Zealand) Innovating Supply Chains Amid a Global Pandemic (Röhlig Australia) Q&A with Jens Goennemann - Managing Director the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) Pivoting Examples (2M Language Services, SPEED3, BigRep) If More of us Work From Home After COVID-19 We’ll Need to Rethink City Planning (Swinburne University of Technology) Breakthrough Innovations in Health and Beauty – Made in Bielefeld (Dr. Wolff Group) The Manufacturing SMEs in the GBA are Reacting Actively to COVID-19 Influence (AHK China)

AHK NEWS/ EVENTS/ MEMBER4MEMBER OFFERS/ NEW MEMBERS

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Governmental Affairs Update on Trade and Investment Christoph von Spesshardt Executive Director German-Australian Chamber Chairman of the board Dr Jens Goennemann COVID-19 Webinar Series New Formats - Even More Insights AHK Webinar and Conferences AHK Australia New Online Business Directory Exclusive Member4Member Offers New Member Profiles

NEWS

German-Australian Chamber

Governmental Affairs Update on Trade and Investment Despite the COVID-19 related restrictions, the negotiations for the Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement continue.

Most businesses are impacted by the COVID-19 situation. The Chamber’s Governmental Affairs work over the last few weeks was focussed on supporting German-Australian businesses when they were affected by new government regulations. One very important area in this is the Australian border closure and the difficulties in bringing necessary staff from some Australian States into other States or Territories.

By collaborating with our governmental affairs contacts, we were able to understand the restrictions and the criteria for exemptions in great detail and were, therefore, able to support some bilateral businesses to overcome border restrictions when overcoming them was critical for their operation.

However, I need to say that we were unfortunately not able to support all bilateral companies that have contacted us due to the very strict criteria used for exemption approvals, especially in regards to bringing necessary specialist staff from Germany to Australia, even when they have an existing working visa for Australia.

With the health situation further improving in Germany and Australia further, we are working with our government partners on ways to overcome the restrictions as soon as possible, especially for businesses where bringing German specialist staff is critical for the operation in Australia and therefore also for the employment of Australian staff.

Another aspect of the COVID-19 situation is the health sector, where we have worked with our member companies and the European Australian Business Council (EABC) to send a joint letter to Minister Greg Hunt and Minister Karen Andrews to demonstrate ways how the industry can help Australia better manage the situation and to be even better prepared in future.

We expect to continue this discussion also during our upcoming Canberra Delegation 2020, scheduled for 9-11 November. Please contact me for further information and to secure one of the strictly limited participation spots.

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In regards to the Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA), it was very positive to see that the seventh formal negotiations round took place as planned in May. Due to the travel restrictions, this round was the first one being conducted via videoconference from 4th to 20th May between Canberra and Brussels. Following the round, I had the opportunity to engage with both Chief Negotiators and both emphasised the progress being made. There is some way to go for the negotiations with the next full negotiation round scheduled for September and with a conclusion of the negotiations not before early 2021.

One element that seems to have some impact on the Australia-EU FTA negotiations is the Brexit process.

On the one hand, the EU-United Kingdom relationship is of fundamental importance for both sides, so it seems that a lot of attention and resources in Brussels are currently focussed on the UK / Brexit negotiations for the future relationship. On the other hand, the Australian government has publicly announced that it is committed to pursuing an ambitious and comprehensive FTA with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). The formal negotiations between Australia and the UK started on 17 June 2020. This follows the establishment of a Joint Trade Working Group (TWG) in late 2016 to prepare the formal FTA negotiations. One element of the Brexit impact on the Australia-EU FTA negotiations seems to be on agriculture market access offers. For example, some reports about the Australia-EU negotiations say that the Australian side is unhappy with the proposed splitting of the historic beef import quote used between Australia and the EU-28 (the current EU member states and the UK) and now between Australia

and the UK as well as Australia and the EU-27. The splitting of the historic beef important quota has likely also an impact on the future beef import quote to be agreed under the Australia-EU FTA. This is just one example of a number of sectors and industries, including professional services and investments, where there is some impact of the Brexit negotiations on the AustraliaEU FTA negotiations. However, this impact should not be overstated and it is clear that there is very strong political support from the Australian government, including Australian State governments, for the Australia-EU FTA as there is also on the European Union side, where Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned the Australia FTA in her opening speech and where major member countries such as Germany strongly support the Australia-EU FTA, both in terms of its very high symbolic value to support rules-based international trade and investments and its practical value for businesses, investors and consumers on both sides.

The German-Australian Chamber, together with our partners in the global AHK network and through our DIHK office in Brussels, will continue to advocate for a comprehensive Australia-EU FTA that addresses the key tariff and non-tariff trade barriers facing businesses, particularly SME businesses, on both sides.

Please get in touch if you want to discuss our work in this area or if you encounter a trade barrier that the Chamber could address.

Written by Dr Michael Zettinig, German-Australian Chamber Email: michael.zettinig@germany.org.au Phone: (02) 8296 0448

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German-Australian Chamber

Meet Christoph von Spesshardt New Executive Director at the German-Australian Chamber exciting initiatives and projects to grow the bilateral business in areas such as advanced manufacturing, energy, agritech, health, environmental technologies and resources. This growth will be underpinned with the progress towards the Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement.

On 1 May, Christoph von Spesshardt took over the helm at the German-Australian Chamber and has since managed to steer the team through unchartered waters during the Corona times.

This short introduction provides you with a first impression of Christoph and his plans for the AHK. Who is Christoph von Spesshardt, and what are his plans for the German-Australian Chamber, its employees and member companies?

Christoph is a passionate bilateral professional coming from a background of working in politics and business in Germany and for the APAC region, the last 10 years for the German family company Knauf. He and his family have found a new home in Sydney and are loving the big city so close to nature. Christoph is determined to work with the AHK Australia member companies and our partners to deepen the bilateral trade and investment relationship. To bring it to a sharp message: He is passionate to help all German-Australian businesses to grow.

Christoph has also been featured in the first episode of our new ‘Soundbites’ podcast. Read below which topics he was talking about with our Communications Manager, Ulrike Andresen-Nikolai: ...How are you and your family, and how has COVID-19 impacted your life and plans?

Thanks for this question. I’m indeed here with my family, and we are all safe and we’re all good. Let me say thanks for the wonderful and warm welcome to the chamber family. It’s been a great start. You know we in Germany have the saying “Alles neu macht der Mai,” and this May brought a lot of new things and I’m very happy about that.

NEWS

And have your kids gone back to school now?

Christoph: This is the second day and all three kids are back at school as of today.

They will for the foreseeable future just go two days a week. But I must say on this occasion that the German International School here in Sydney is doing an amazing job in this obviously biggest social experiment ever.

That’s great to hear. In Victoria, we will still have to wait a while. …Can you share a little bit about your background and what brought you to Australia?

Christoph: Sure, I’ve been the last nearly 18 months here in Australia working for Knauf, which is a German family company which produces plasterboards and insulation.

I’ve worked for them for the last 10 years and before that in Berlin and obviously in Germany and in Brussels. In the last 20 years, my focus was at the interface of politics and business. I had a few different stations at the German parliament. I worked for a consultancy and for the media. The way to Australia was really through energy efficiency. That was my focus over the last 18 months, to build up an energy efficiency strategy and to implement it here in the APAC region out of Australia. But I caught the Australia bug a little bit earlier, already in 1996 when I was backpacking Australia for a year…

You can listen to the full episode of the podcast online: https://ahkaustralia.blog/2020/05/13/interview-with-the-chambers-new-executivedirector/ Interview by Ulrike Andresen-Nikolai, German-Australian Chamber

Christoph’s short-term focus is to optimise operational performance with the team of the Chamber, working with dedicated professionals to support our members and the wider German-Australian business community through the coronavirus situation.

In the medium term, he and his team will develop a strategy update with the board for the years ahead. The update will be based on the existing pillars Connection, Consulting and Content and will include

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NEWS

German-Australian Chamber

Chairman of the Board Dr Jens Goennemann The German-Australian Chamber is delighted to have Dr Jens Goennemann join as new Chairman of the board from February 2020. In his day job, Jens is Managing Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Ltd (AMGC). AMGC is central to connecting Australia’s manufacturing industry with global best practices such as Industry 4.0 developments.

During recent events, Jens was invited to join the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC) established by the Prime Minister on 25 March. As part of the NCCC’s remit, Jens participated in the Manufacturing Taskforce led by Andrew Liveris which has now submitted clear recommendations on a strategic path forward for Australian manufacturing.

In conjunction, the flexibility and resilience of Australian manufacturing was put to the test throughout the pandemic.

In particular, was the creation of a new domestic supply chain to produce 2,000 invasive medical ventilators.

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AMGC was instrumental in bringing together a consortium of manufacturers who are working together as part of the nation’s response. Jens joined AMGC, an organisation with almost 2000 industry companies and research institution members, as its inaugural Managing Director in 2016. He brings extensive experience from overseeing large manufacturing operations in Australia and Europe. Jens came to Australia to serve as Managing Director of Airbus Group Australia Pacific and Airbus Helicopters for eight years. Previously, he worked for the former European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), today known as Airbus Group. His roles included the Head of the CEO’s Office and a two-year role in Athens to head the Eurofighter Office. He originally began his career with DaimlerBenz AG in 1996.

Jens has a unique hobby as an avid skydiver, earning him multiple national skydiving titles in Germany and Australia as well as a world’s best in 2014 which still stands. Jens has a PhD and Masters degree in Economics from the University of Hamburg and a Bachelor of Business

from Hamburg School of Business Administration. He is a senior member of the Executive Committee for Industry 4.0 Advanced Manufacturing Forum, a Board Member of the Innovative Manufacturing CRC, and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

In regards to the German-Australian Chamber, Jens is looking forward to making it an even more influential centrepiece in the bilateral economic relationship in collaboration with our new Executive Director Christoph von Spesshardt, the other Board members as well as the Chamber members and staff.

Written by Dr Michael Zettinig German-Australian Chamber

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German-Australian Chamber

EVENTS/ PROJECTS

COVID-19 Webinar Series 2020 had started well for the GermanAustralian Chamber of Industry and Commerce until COVID-19 swept across the globe that is and all planned events came to a halt. Alongside our COVID-19 Resource Page, we have created our COVID-19 Webinar Series, to provide relevant and up-to-date information to our member. Read on to learn more about the first few webinars and to find out what’s still to come.

The COVID-19 Webinar Series started on April 8 with a webinar on the legal implications of Coronavirus for the Australian business environment. Dr Angelika Yates, Partner at Addison Lawyers presented on the legal impacts, especially concerning corporate governance risks, contract and employment law, restructuring & insolvency matters, property law and the decision to closely watch foreign investment by the FIRB. Following our legal information webinar, Rachael Falk, CEO at the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre, provided our audience with a highly informative presentation and fact sheet on the importance of cybersecurity in a time when large parts of the workforce work from home. Rachael presented on data security when working from home, reminded everyone of the importance of sound cybersecurity standards and procedures for organizations and how to protect the business from cybercrime and scams during this crisis.

Our member EY, with the lead from Rolf Drohn, Director Tax Policy at EY and ViceChair of the Board of Directors at the German Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, provided a high calibre panel to explain the Federal Government’s JobKeeper Scheme on April 23rd. It was a very informative webinar, on an important topic for organizations operating in Australia.

On April 29, ifm Investors’ Chief Economist Dr Alex Joiner joined us for a webinar looking at the economic outlook for Australia.

A large audience was listening in, as Alex outlined the current situation and what the future after the coronavirus crisis may look like. ic-m learning’s Nick Petch and Ryan Thomas took the attendees on a journey highlighting the importance of tailoring remote led learning systems to achieve increased trust and performance within organizations. Nick took the audience through how remote learning courses can be made a

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success and Ryan showed on a practical example of how a learning management system (LMS) can look like.

Most recently, our member Tenant CS provided an informative snapshot of what the impact of Covid-19 was on the commercial lease sector and what tenants need to know to successfully negotiate leases with their landlords.

Webinars have swiftly become an important part of the Chamber’s services to our members and the COVID-19 Series has proven as a success so far. The GermanAustralian Chamber will continue to work with members to collect relevant information to present in webinars in the future. If

you would like to learn more about any of the above webinars, all our members can access the recordings through our membership app.

If you are wondering what topics we have coming up, you can find out on our Event Website. https://australien.ahk.de/en/events Written by Mathias Suter, German-Australian Chamber

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EVENTS/ PROJECTS

German-Australian Chamber

New Formats - Even More Insights New Executive Director, new chairman, new teams, new formats – you might think it is hard to keep up with all the developments at AHK Australia! Good thing that you are reading the magazine to bring you up to speed. So, what’s news? In the absence of physical events in the last few months, the chamber team has worked hard to find new ways of connecting with our members. Webinars have swiftly been added to our events calendar, we have merged our two newsletters into one (The AHK Weekly), and we have also launched our new AHK Blog and a podcast series.

In addition to the articles you read in the Business News, the AHK Blog will feature regular expert articles concerning GermanAustralian business relations. This will include up-to-date, in-depth information about our focus industries: agriculture and food, mining and resources, energy efficiency and renewable energy, health, and environmental technologies. You will also read about the latest developments in our policy and market entry work. Our team of contributors consists of experts

in policy work, business consulting, Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), mining and resources, and our member companies.

For information on the go, our new podcast Sound Bites brings you news and stories from the German-Australian business community. And what better way to start this series than to introduce our new Executive Director, Christoph von Speßhardt. Sound Bites delivers a mix of interviews with AHK experts and member companies, with topics and industries ranging from additive manufacturing over logistics to food and hospitality. Being short and sweet, the podcast episodes are a great way to learn more about what we do, and to hear inspiring stories from you, our stakeholders.

Does your company have a story to tell?

Get in touch with our communications team – we would love to hear from you!

Written by Ulrike Andresen-Nikolai, German-Australian Chamber xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Offering bilingual education from Preschool to Year 12.

Meet us at our Open Days!

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German International School Sydney, 33 Myoora Road, Terrey Hills. ph: 9485 1900. giss.nsw.edu.au

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AHK

Business Delegations and Webinar We keep you up to date about the latest industry & market potentials.

INFO CONTACT HYDROGEN & ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE WEBINAR 16 SEP 2020 • Insights into the Australian Hydrogen and Energy Infrastructure market More Information

Juergen Wallstabe Manager Competence Centre Mining & Resources Email

Max Schnarr Consultant - Projects Email

VIRTUAL INBOUND DELEGATION EPC CONTRACTING FOR SOLAR - WIND AND ENERGY STORAGE PROJECTS 26 - 30 OCT 2020 INDUSTRY CONFERENCE 26 OCT 2020 • Speakers of Australian and German renewables industry • Business matching and Networking platform More Information

VIRTUAL INBOUND DELEGATION MINING 19 - 23 OCT 2020 INDUSTRY CONFERENCE 19 OCT 2020 • Speakers of Australian and German mining industry • Business matching and Networking platform More Information

INBOUND DELEGATION MARITIME INDUSTRY 23 - 27 NOV 2020 INDUSTRY CONFERENCE 24 NOV 2020 • Speakers of Australian and German maritime industry • Business matching and Networking platform More Information

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EVENTS/ PROJECTS

German-Australian Chamber

New: AHK Online Business Directory

Written by Eva Kosinski, German-Australian Chamber

AHK Australia is proud to announce the launch of the new Online Business Directory. This occasion marks a shift in how members access the extensive network of more than 400 German companies & subsidiaries.

By moving to an online format, AHK Australia can guarantee that the information you access will be the most up to date and relevant for the reader.

The Online Business Directory has been optimised for mobile use meaning it will be there for you on the go and when you need it most. The platform will also act as a hub for members to access information on past and upcoming events keeping you connected to the latest developments from the Chamber.

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Access the Directory

Users will be able to access company information quickly through the use of several filters.

Functionality includes: • Filter by industry & state/territory

This membership directory is available exclusively to AHK Australia members and can be accessed through the AHK Australia official application (GAC Member+ app).

Username and password provided by AHK Australia will grant access to the directory.

• Customizable lists

Want to know more?

• Direct links to company websites

We are looking forward to the official launch of the directory at the Chamber’s AGM on July 23, when all functionalities will be unveiled to our members. If you have any inquiries regarding access to the directory please contact Andrew on andrew.donni@ germany.org.au. For advertising options contact media@germany.org.au.

• Featured listings for our Premium Partners and Executive Members We look forward to adding even more features to the directory portal creating a more connected and accessible German Business Community.

Written by Andrew Donni and Mathias Suter, German-Australian Chamber

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Austmine

RESILIENCE

Australian METS: Rising to the COVID-19 Challenge The COVID-19 outbreak continues to affect businesses and industries around the globe. Although COVID-19 rose quickly on a global scale, the Australian Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector has been able to rapidly adapt to the impact and associated challenges.

Whilst it is by no means immune, the prevailing innovation focus and resilient, entrepreneurial spirit of the METS sector uniquely positioned companies to quickly meet changing client needs.

Austmine, the leading industry body for the Australian METS sector, explores these factors with industry thought leaders George McCullough, Director – Strategy, Interlate; John Pala, Managing Director, Palaris; and Scott Dumaresq, Queensland State Manager, Sentient.

Helping in a Time of Need The combination of collaboration and a spirit of resilience has greatly assisted the METS sector in this time. John Pala said, “The METS sector has a history of being agile, nimble footed and resilient.

Companies come together and work collaboratively for a better outcome for the industry.”

In addition to collaborative efforts, companies are sharing knowledge and resources. Interlate has made their centre accessible to industry contacts in need.

George McCullough said, “Interlate has been able to offer a place to mining companies for any stranded employees who were no longer able to travel. Our centre is amenable to providing safe work zones during this pandemic as it has multiple isolated zones, hyper connectivity and regular hospital grade cleaning.”

Digital Connectivity A major challenge for companies has been around remote accessibility. Many METS companies were already operating in the space, whereas other industries needed to transition, providing METS companies with an added edge.

The mining industry has been undergoing a digital transformation prior to the pandemic and METS companies are adept at operating and assisting with automation, remote control and other digital transformation areas.

Scott Dumaresq said, “Sentient has been working with 3D visualisation for some time, and there has been an increase in interest around remote applications.”

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George said, “At Interlate, we have a technology backbone. Interlate has seen a stronger pull on our services, as technical experts are no longer allowed to travel to sites. Our business is a remote operation business, which means we’ve been able to help people move into that mode.” METS leaders note that a positive consequence from COVID-19 travel and site restrictions has been a greater appetite for investment in technology and a quicker transition into the digital age.

Spirit of Resilience The speed of adaptation within the Australian METS sector also stems from the resilient, entrepreneurial spirit for which it is world-renowned.

John said, “Palaris operates in some remote places internationally, where there aren’t always the greatest telecommunications.”

These communication restrictions require an ingenious yet simple solution.

John explained, “We’re utilising work hats and cameras on site, allowing our offices in Sydney, Brisbane or London to assess remotely and send through reports to banks and financial institutions.”

Sentient worked with National Energy Resources Australia to create a COVID-19 game for children, ‘Social Distance Dash!’.

Scott said, “Using gamification is a fun way to make health and safety guidelines accessible to children. But gamification helps adults learn too.”

Sentient already assists companies with VR training, online inductions and other e-learning tools. As e-learning isn’t location specific, it’s a great way to ensure employees feel valued and connected during this period.

Scott said, “Looking after your people at this time is of the utmost importance.

I’ve seen companies making use of down time by implementing e-learning to keep employees stay engaged and focused.”

Moving Forward New challenges will arise as COVID-19 progresses, but this isn’t a daunting prospect. George said, “There is a feeling of optimism, which stems from the importance of the mining industry in Australia. There is a bit more assurance being connected to an essential industry.

We’ve been lucky in our ability to continue to deliver good service."

The Australian mining industry remains fundamental to the economic stability of our nation and the quality of life of millions of people around the world.

The METS sector will continue to rise to the challenges our future may hold, and provide the innovations, ideas and unique solutions to ensure that mining remains strong and sustainable.

For more information about Austmine and the capabilities of our members, contact membership@austmine.com.au.

Provided by Austmine

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RESILIENCE

Accru Felsers

The Power of Resilience Presently, with the repercussions of recent bushfires receding and the implications of COVID-19 upon us, we all face unprecedented uncertainty.

Many of us face the fear of our health deteriorating, fear for a member of our family, fear of isolation and fear for our future. Yet in the face of extraordinary adversity, first responders and essential workers are finding the strength to honour their commitments to our communities to keep all of us healthy and safe.

Their loyalty, sacrifice, determination and teamwork cannot be overstated.

Clearly, not all superheros need superpowers.

cepting change as an inevitability will shift focus away from the initial challenges towards the opportunity to learn and grow.

Adapting Unprecedented change forces us to pause, adapt and develop a new strategy to continue moving forward. In sailing, we say: “We can’t direct the wind but we can adjust the sails”.

Acting Continuous progress wouldn’t be possible without action and failure. However, by ‘failing forward’ we can leverage our mistakes, make realistic assessments, experiment and action new approaches until successful.

Building Business Resilience Building resilience within an organisation produces a healthy working environment which offers protection to deal effectively with times of change because organisational resilience is about effective leadership, team cohesion, mutual support and open, honest communication.

Kodak for example, led its industry and invested in the first process for capturing digital images which was set to revolutionise photography. Despite its history of innovation and new product development, Kodak suffered from its own inability to adjust its business model to realise the commercial value of this technology.

Fittingly, a framed picture titled ‘Game Changer’ by Banksy depicts a young boy sitting on the floor playing with a nurse superhero toy. In the background, neglected Batman and Spiderman action figures lie in a wastepaper basket.

The Power of Resilience Fortunately, we can all feel more empowered by cultivating resilience through adversity. Whether it's friends, family or coworkers in need of support, reaching out to encourage strength through resilience can be a powerful motivator during difficult times. If we don’t push through our own limitations, we are destined to keep them. And human resilience can help us overcome challenging situations, bounce forward and push through life’s setbacks and take us beyond our own limitations.

Developing a resilient attitude involves: Accepting Resisting change is natural when it brings discomfort, but acknowledging and ac-

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And recall Blockbuster, the most prominent participant in the video rental industry with thousands of retail locations and millions of customers. Meanwhile, newcomer Netflix continued ‘failing forward’ by experimenting with lowered costs and greater variety of entertainment which subsequently upended Blockbuster’s business.

Accept, Adapt, Act – Through the GermanAustralian Chamber, we formed a task force of specialised professionals, adapted by leveraging our skillsets and acted on behalf of businesses experiencing difficult trading conditions as a consequence of COVID-19.

Our discussions with NSW Treasury on March 24th aimed to drive through urgent changes to support Australian businesses.

We communicated the immediate need of cash injections to assist businesses through the ‘crisis of closure' because no business could maintain employees on their payroll, cover their rent or service their loans when revenues unexpectedly dropped to zero.

Aside from Tax, the most significant expenses for most businesses included

Payroll, Rent and Interest. Consequently, we suggested to NSW Treasury that a combination of tax waivers, payroll subsidies and rental support would be the best course of action to help keep businesses afloat.

These early undertakings which borrowed elements of Germany’s Kurzarbeit policy, became more widely known as the ATO Tax Payment Deferral, Payroll Tax Relief, JobKeeper Subsidy, Small Business Support Fund, Land Tax Discounts for Landlords and Cash Flow Boost initiatives.

While the economic implications of COVID-19 have been deep and immediate, these Federal, State and Local Government initiatives will assist in accelerating Australia’s economic recovery.

Conclusion Responding effectively to the immediate unanticipated implications of COVID-19 requires individual and organisational resilience. Learning and navigating our way through the changing environment of work and business will require us to continue experimenting, adapting and acting. Developing a resilient mindset ultimately gives us greater control through uncertainty, produces a healthy working environment and offers protection to deal effectively with the challenges ahead.

Fortunately, we can all feel empowered by cultivating resilience through adversity as we continue to grow through what we go through, unleashing our inner superhero.

Written by Steven Zabeti, Accru Felsers

ABOUT ACCRU FELSERS Accru Felsers is a globally-focused, mid-tier accounting firm with a long history of accounting excellence.

Based in central Sydney, our 50 professional staff provide a full range of auditing, tax, accounting, international advisory and financial planning services.

Established by Gerhard Felser in 1941, we‘re proudly a founding member of the German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Sydney. And, as Australian accountants with German-speaking heritage, we can provide you with a strong Australian partner.

Steven Zabeti joined Accru Felsers in 1995, bringing an international business perspective and he remains actively involved in the GermanAustralian Chamber.

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Orthopaedic Surgeon

RESILIENCE

What Do You Do as a Surgeon When Someone Takes All Your Theatre Time Away? stories about orthopaedics which we use as educational content on our webpage.

She has also boosted our social media presence and we are posting twice weekly.

And now, that we have been allowed to resume 75% of our normal activity, we need everyone happy at the office in order to work through the backlog. I’d like to finish with a Benjamin Franklin quote that sums it up nicely: “Change is the only constant in life. Ones ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life!”

It was Wednesday, 18th March 2020, when Australia’s prime minister announced, that all elective surgery has to be suspended from 20th March 2020. And here I was, sitting in the busy physiotherapy practice of my good friend Darryl in Beenleigh, where I consult every other Wednesday. Not that I didn’t expect this announcement to happen amidst the evolving Covid-19 crisis but it still hit me: my line of work is 80% elective surgery and we had to cancel 4 weeks of booked surgeries.

I felt terribly sorry for all these patients who were awaiting a procedure and had made arrangements. And then it hit me again: what am I going to do? I understand panic doesn’t help in the best of times but I felt a bit uneasy. Thankfully my practice manager has a wonderfully positive attitude. Her words: “Don’t worry - we will be fine!” And right she was! I can say this now as I’m writing this at the end of May and elective surgery is about to resume.

Firstly, she called all booked patients and informed them of the situation. Everyone was very understanding and we offered to see them, in case they needed an interim solution to get comfortable such as prescriptions or injections.

Secondly, we implemented Telehealth.

Commonwealth and Medicare were suddenly able to implement changes quickly and supported the widespread installation of systems. In a state as vast as Queensland with a huge part of its population living remotely, Telehealth had always been on the agenda but never really kicked off. In my practice we implemented all measures of social distancing, purchased hand sanitiser from the Brisbane Distillery and only came to

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the rooms on regular clinic days. The rest of the week, phones were diverted and home office was practiced. Distancing in the practice will have to stay and I believe we will continue to have some days, where the phone will be diverted to home office.

The occasional emergency case had to be categorised as defined by subspecialty societies. This then had to be presented to the representative of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) and two peers had to support the case in order for the MAC chair to sign off on this. To ask for ‘permission’ to perform surgery in a consultant system is a huge change in paradigm. Certainly for Australian surgeons who have never experienced a more autocratic medical system as it is present in Germany. I believe overall the majority of surgeons adhered to those rules but there is always someone who tries to push boundaries. The hospital executive in these cases pointed out that Medicare would audit urgent cases and disobedience would be reported to AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency). In order to continue some professional education webinars were advertised by companies and societies.

I have been a presenter on two occasions and whilst I was missing the direct interaction with the audience, I found the feedback rewarding. As a participant it allows everyone to pick and choose certain topics and also to enjoy the education in your home with a glass of red or similar. In my practice I employ a full time practice manager and a parttime casual receptionist. Obviously, our workload had been reduced and I could have sent the part-timer home to save on wages. However, we decided to keep her regular hours and look for something else to do. She has worked her way into video editing software and makes me record

Written by Dr Med Joerg U. Rhau, Orthopaedic Surgeon

ABOUT DR MED JOERG U. RHAU (ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEON)

Dr Rhau completed medical school and orthopaedic training in his native Germany before heading for Melbourne for 12 months of specialist fellowship training.

He was then offered a consultant position with Queensland Health and also obtained Fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS). He now works full time in private practice and has a special interest in conditions of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand.

Greenslopes Shoulder & Limb Clinic Suite 4, 631 Logan Road Greenslopes, QLD 4120 Phone 07/ 3394 4370 Fax 07/ 3847 4107 Email: joerg@drrhau.com.au www.drRhau.com.au

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RESILIENCE

B. Braun Australia and New Zealand

Response to the SARS-CoV-2 Virus B. Braun Australia and New Zealand is a family-owned global healthcare company with a vision to “protect and improve the health of people around the world”. When the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread across the globe it was a call-to-action for our entire organisation. As in any time of uncertainty, we had to act fast to minimise disruption to our services, our employees, our partners and patients.

Answering customers’ needs The real heroes in this crisis are the healthcare professionals, so our priority was to ensure that they had all the necessary supplies. We increased stock levels of critical products and worked closely with our regional and global manufacturing plants to coordinate increases in production capacity and reinforce our logistics solutions.

In some instances, we had to fast-track the supply of critical lines to meet the increased demand. As the Covid-19 situation evolved, and as panic buying became apparent, we implemented a robust rationing system to ensure that supply to contracted customers would not be impacted.

B. Braun Australia and New Zealand also actively contributed to MTAA industry workgroup (ICU), government authorities and the AHK to coordinate supplies and help to ensure Australia would not run out of stock of critical product lines.

At the end of March, we all witnessed the dramatic situation that was unfolding in Italy with hundreds of people dying daily

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and a shortage of pharmaceuticals. In response to this, we decided to divert a shipment of life-saving drugs that were manufactured for Australia and fast-track them to Italy. The Italian authorities agreed to accept Midazolam with Australian labels to help save Italian lives.

Answering patients’ needs B. Braun Australia and New Zealand is also a global provider of renal care services and products, under the name B. Braun Australia and New Zealand Avitum. The company operates more than 380 renal care centres worldwide, with four centres in Australia and one in New Zealand. Our renal care nurses are at the frontline in the provision of life-sustaining treatment for our patients. These patients, due to multiple high-risk comorbidities, are more likely to have severe complications and higher mortality from COVID-19 than patients free from kidney disease.

As the coronavirus pandemic started to emerge and cause major healthcare issues around the world, B. Braun Australia and New Zealand management and clinical teams in Australia, worked closely with our headquarters in Germany and global counterparts and immediately implemented the company Infection Prevention Pandemic Plan. This plan took a comprehensive approach to mitigate the infection risk, including increased security and entry restriction into our renal care centres; triage screening before entry into treatment areas; infection prevention education for patients and nurses; and influenza vaccinations for patients and nurses. We increased communication with local health departments to ensure alignment with Australian and New

Zealand best practice guidelines and developed a road map to be implemented if a patient or nurse presented with acute respiratory symptoms.

Answering employees’ needs Our employees are what makes this company great. We feel responsible for them and their safety. To ensure this we established a COVID-19 Committee that met daily to respond to new challenges and make and alter any business arrangements as required. This was to ensure all areas of the business were considered in all challenges, decisions and announcements.

Before the Australian Government’s directions had been introduced, we advised all our employees to work from home. We adapted to the new way of working very quickly, and it is fair to say that our IT team was busier than ever, ensuring all our devices and network connections were functioning correctly.

However, for other areas, such as Customer Service, Supply Chain and Aesculap Technical Services, working from home wasn’t an option. We introduced shifts to minimise physical contact. Whilst this was a significant change to the workforce, transitions were smooth and the workforce remained positive.

The mental health of our employees is not something we take lightly, and in times like this, we had to make sure that everyone felt supported. A ‘Tips and Tricks’ folder and weekly newsletter were developed for leaders to assist in how to support their staff through the change and what they could do to ease the anxiety of their teams who were working from home.

www.germany.org.au

B. Braun Australia and New Zealand

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The destination: the transformation of work and workplace Within a very short period, we found ourselves in a new environment of working and communicating. Working from home shifted from a sporadic occurrence to the new norm in just a few days. Despite the local separation our teamwork and collaboration grew by living our common values and culture.

Sharing expertise is an integral part of B. Braun Australia and New Zealand’s DNA. We had been delivering education and training to our customers in person, in hospital settings. The new reality forced us to rethink this approach, as our educators were not allowed to enter hospitals and clinics. With the use of technology, we conducted several live online trainings, and we increased the number of our instructional videos in a very short time.

We have reached more people in the last 2 months with the training initiatives than we would usually reach in one year and this is continuing.

The new normal also challenged the idea that work should be performed in a specific location. Using technology, digitising some or all work, enabled us to do what we do best. It transformed our way of communicating with our colleagues, made us focus on creativity and problemsolving. After Covid-19 we feel even more obliged to support dynamic work locations to maintain our work-life balance.

We learned that we, as a company and as individuals, are resilient. We responded swiftly to the new “normal” and will come out of this stronger, better equipped, and with the peace of mind that again we protected and improved the health of people around the world.

Provided by B. Braun Australia and New Zealand

www.germany.org.au

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RESILIENCE

Röhlig Australia

Innovating Supply Chains Amid a Global Pandemic Covid-19 heavily affecting existing supply chains on a local and global basis

Ever since the global COVID-19 pandemic started at the beginning of 2020, it has heavily affected the global and local transport routes which form the base of today’s globalised economy.

All over the world, borders closed, flights and shipments were cancelled, which led to massive shortages in space. Operations at air and seaports were experiencing limitations or even came to a halt, causing severe delays in existing supply chains. When faced with this adversity, the entire logistics industry had to find solutions to help their customers’ supply chains literally from one day to another.

“In my 25 years in the industry, I have never experienced a decline in air freight capacity as we have experienced in March, April and May”, shares Thomas Hansen, CEO of Röhlig Australia & New Zealand.

Fortunately, Röhlig has a dedicated team who has been working on single and multiproduct solutions, then package this up in record time, to ensure product and schedule integrity that will allow our clients and their customers to rely on our service offerings as an integral part of their supply chain”, continues Thomas Hansen.

Unique services to support customers in Australia When commercial airlines ceased operating scheduled flights from Europe to Australia and New Zealand, companies who rely on air freight in their supply chain were faced with disruptions as 90% of capacity was removed from the global market. Subsequently, Röhlig’s

longstanding service of consolidating shipments to Australia and New Zealand at the company’s European airfreight gateway in Frankfurt, Germany, was affected.

As a solution, Röhlig launched its new Air-Sea Service from Europe to Australia and New Zealand in the middle of April.

Under regular circumstances, this service would be useful for companies who could not await long transit times in sea freight, however air freight was too expensive.

Now, under the challenging conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, combining two services made this product very attractive and competitive in the market. Röhlig received instant and positive feedback from Industries in Australia.

Finding new ways to keep customers’ businesses running To assist clients with bringing their products to the market, Röhlig had to innovate and come up with new products and consistently adjust, given the frequent change in the external environment. Being ‘smaller’ and therefore more agile, Röhlig was able to quickly react and adapt to new market demands and develop services that supported many customers during these times.

“The main challenge has been to find solutions that cater to various industries in Australia and abroad, driven by the speed of delivery and the cost of the solution.

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www.germany.org.au

Röhlig Australia

Another unique service that Röhlig Australia was able to leverage during the COVID-19 pandemic, was a freighter blocked space agreement ex Europe and the US. Thanks to this agreement, Röhlig did not rely on passenger aircraft and was able to satisfy customers’ demand for space while it was close to impossible to get in the market.

Hence, Röhlig’s customers could benefit from almost uninterrupted deliveries despite the global situation.

Servicing New Zealand during its full lockdown From March 26th New Zealand went into full lockdown, which made it almost impossible to move and deliver any cargo.

Röhlig was able to continue servicing New Zealand customers and essential services via Australia offering trans-shipment solutions through Sydney. The cooperation between our international teams and support from all departments globally made it possible to keep the business running and not shut down completely. We also provided warehousing services to our customers who required unpacks and/or storage during the level-4 lockdown.

Warehousing services continued In the field of contract logistics, Röhlig was able to keep its warehouses in Australia up and running. “Our warehouses remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic under the strictest health and safety guidelines, supporting our customers and fulfilling our agreements”, commented Mat Vermeulen, Chief Sales Officer, Röhlig Australia & New Zealand. “It was very encouraging to see our freight forwarding warehouse go above and beyond expectations during such a severe interruption to our operations.”

Digitisation picks up speed: COVID-19 fosters innovation Röhlig has a strong focus on digitisation and innovation, and it was this strong IT

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emphasis that became a big advantage during the Coronavirus situation. Within a very short timeframe, Röhlig’s in-house IT company made it possible to work from home for all employees around the globe.

With this fast and smooth transition to home office work remotely, Röhlig was able to ensure continuous services for its customers and to stay in close contact without any interruptions.

New reporting tool for customers At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the global Röhlig teams witnessed an increased demand from customers for information. Hence, they combined forces with the Röhlig IT experts, who developed a new digital tool, which was unique in the market by the time of the launch. The result was the Röhlig Global Situation Report, which provides Röhlig customers with realtime updates on conditions in air and sea freight, warehousing and land transport from around the world. Röhlig received feedback as an “Outstanding Report and Customer communication service ” from existing clients worldwide. Please take a look at the Röhlig Global Situation Report https://coronareport.rohlig.com/ Improving customer experience “During the COVID-19 slowdown, we were actually able to fast track some projects we were working on”, said Mat Vermeulen, Chief Sales Officer, Röhlig Australia & New Zealand. “Initially, we were going to introduce them by the end of 2020, however, the entire situation gave us the opportunity to focus more on them and speed up the development which ultimately helps us delivering a better customer experience”.

As such, Röhlig implemented its new warehouse management system across all sites in Australia and New Zealand, a new transport management system in NZ, plus enhancements to our customer platform Röhlig Real Time.

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Ensuring the health and safety of Röhlig staff "In the age of the coronavirus pandemic, our top priority is the safety of our employees worldwide”, emphasizes Thomas Hansen.

As Röhlig is an owner-operated and family-driven company, it attaches utmost importance to the wellbeing of their staff members. “As the lockdown started, all worldwide Röhlig members were given access to our systems to work from home within a very short period of time." States Mr Hansen. Subsequently, supervisors and HR managers have remained in close contact with their employees to provide guidance to them under the challenging conditions of social distancing. And things are working out fine: just recently, all staff members were invited to assess their current working conditions in a global survey, which led to very positive results.

Written by Maria Astakhova, Röhlig Australia

ABOUT RÖHLIG LOGISTICS Röhlig is an owner-operated logistics company that offers its customers services in the areas of sea freight, air freight, project logistics, and contract logistics. The family-owned company was founded in 1852 in Bremen, Germany. Today, it employs nearly 2,400 staff members in more than 30 countries. Röhlig has been a long time member of the AHK in Australia and operated with own subsidiary in Australia since 1973.

Servicing Australian Market for nearly 50 years Röhlig now has 6 offices in Australia and 3 in New Zealand with more than 250 employees across both countries. www.rohlig.com

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RESILIENCE

Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC)

Q&A with Dr Jens Goennemann - Managing Director the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre What is the largest misunderstanding about manufacturing?

The prevailing view that manufacturing is comprised solely of production, or assembly, is simply not true.

Manufacturing consists of seven steps across an entire value chain, of which production is just one.

For example, making a vaccine involves all seven steps of the manufacturing value chain: 1. Research and development of an effective vaccine 2. Design of the vaccine 3. Logistics for sourcing ingredients 4. Manufacture of the vaccine 5. Distribution of the vaccine 6. Selling of the vaccine 7. Servicing of the vaccine through monitoring patients

© weyo / AdobeStock_220120304

In this example, health is the sector, and manufacturing is the enabling capability– as it is in every other sector – be it resources, food and agriculture, consumer goods, industrial applications and the list goes on.

Advanced manufacturing is not about the items you make, but how you make it and is an essential capability of a competitive economy.

How will Australia's Manufacturing Industry emerge from COVID-19?

COVID-19 has increased the appreciation for a country to be able to make things.

This presents the manufacturing industry with the opportunity to further ignite the country’s capabilities, add more value onshore, and become even more globally competitive.

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While Australia has been fortunate to escape the significant challenges others have faced as a result of COVID-19, the circumstances have proven that an advanced manufacturing industry is best placed to respond to changing needs.

Whether those changing needs are due to a health crisis or not, a broad, wellestablished manufacturing industry is well placed to capitalise on any opportunities.

I also believe that imported items such as face masks can and should be manufactured in-country. In pre-COVID-19 times, the mining and construction industry used 10-20 million P2-masks per month. Given such baseload, I like to think that there is a business case for making those masks here. However, it is important that such endeavours are economically viable and not a case for subsidies.

What sectors will see increases in Australian Manufacturing following COVID-19?

How has AMGC assisted its members before and during the crisis?

Australia has already identified key areas of national competitiveness that offer comparative growth opportunities, and manufacturing is one of them.

These areas of priority also extend to mining, agriculture, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, med- and bio-tech, defence, energy, and the emerging space sector. We also need to look at waste and how we recycle it better.

Manufacturing as a capability adds tremendous value to all of these sectors. It is about balancing the focus between new sectors and building upon the alreadyidentified sectors of comparative strength.

The more value Australian manufacturing can add to each sector, the stronger and more globally competitive our economy will be.

AMGC commenced working to transform Australia’s manufacturing industry four years before the pandemic, encouraging manufacturers to shift their mindset to; become more resilient, collaborate, make superior goods, become more flexible and compete on value, not cost.

Our long-term approach is evidenced by a portfolio of projects. To-date, AMGC has facilitated 70 projects with a total cofunding investment of $47 million. These projects are expected to create 2,100 new jobs and deliver up to $900 million in additional revenues – all are great examples of manufacturing best practice and represent a significant return on investment.

Throughout COVID-19, AMGC managed over 2,500 submissions from manufacturers and others, via the COVID-19 Manufacturer

www.germany.org.au

Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC)

RESILIENCE

ABOUT JENS GOENNEMANN Dr Jens Goennemann has been Managing Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) since 2016. He brings extensive experience from overseeing large manufacturing operations in Australia and Europe. AMGC is an industry-led, not-for-profit organisation established through the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Centres Initiative.

© metamorworks/ AdobeStock_164023618

Response Register, who stepped up to help respond to the crisis, focusing on areas of critical need including ventilators, hospital beds, and PPE. The dedication and reaction of manufacturers, many AMGC members, to the crisis underlined the strength, agility and collaborative nature of our industry. In fact, it took COVID-19 to remind us of the essential nature of collaboration.

For example, four Australian manufacturers teamed up with a medical technology company, Stryker, to map a local supply chain, adapt designs, create prototypes, and begin production of emergency hospital beds within hours – it was collaboration at its best.

How has COVID-19 changed the needs of your members?

Some members reported disruptions to their normal operations, due largely to global lockdowns which impacted material and component supply. In some instances, manufacturers were able to source new supplies, however at a much higher price.

The COVID-19 Manufacturer Response Register also facilitated domestic alternatives, with some of those suppliers establishing an ongoing relationship.

Many of our members experienced increased uptake of their offerings in response to the crisis, with several of their clients looking to onshore work. We would like to think this is a nice problem to have and highlighted the broad capabilities that do already exist onshore.

Is this the end of globalised supply chains?

With a domestic market of 25 million people, Australia will always need to be a player in the global economy. It is unthinkable that Australia, as a trading nation, would ever be disconnected from global markets.

www.germany.org.au

While COVID-19 exposed gaps in our manufacturing industry, complete selfsufficiency is not viable. There are many things that Australia cannot and should not make. Instead, we must focus on our areas of comparative and competitive advantage, and compete on value—not on cost—within these areas.

Australia must have a broad, vibrant, competitive manufacturing industry that can pivot and respond to any type of crisis.

And concerning supply chains – don’t rely on one supplier, but two and in different countries of origin.

The Mittelstand model promotes the collaboration between manufacturing and research partners. Is this spirit prensented in Australian Manufacturing?

The overall funding for research and development in Australia is sufficient, but it is ineffectively allocated—there is too little focus on commercialisation and already identified areas of national strength.

AMGC’s projects commercialise innovation and demonstrate how to enhance Australia’s competitiveness.

AMGC projects encourage deeper collaboration between industry and research partners for greater commercial outcomes, as well as increased connections into global supply chains, development of advanced skills, and knowledge sharing.

In every project, research collaboration is a key ingredient and must involve a research partner. Our frank mandate to research partners is to solve an industry problem, not for us to solve their funding problem.

Australian industry needs much greater commercialisation of applied research.

To our delight, we do hear the term “Fraunhofer Society” more often.

AMGC’s vision is to transform Australian manufacturing to become an internationally competitive, dynamic and thriving industry with advanced capabilities and skills at its core.

Through the delivery of its worldleading research, Manufacturing Academy, workshops, and groundbreaking projects, AMGC aims to develop a highly skilled and resilient local manufacturing industry that delivers high-value products – via the integration of innovative technology – to domestic and international markets.

Has COVID-19 changed perceptions about the need and value of Manufacturing?

The ability of Australian manufacturers to get the job done — including complex manufacturing, such as building ventilators onshore — has impressed the public. It reinforces the value that the industry provides unseen every day. It has also been rewarding for AMGC to see the years of research and effort around advanced manufacturing come to life during COVID-19.

It is important to use this momentum positively and further reinforce the industry and scale-up.

Australian manufacturing consists of 45,000 companies, 95% of which employ less than 20 people. Compared with Germany and their Mittelstand, which employs near 50% of the workforce, Australia has a way to go.

That said, Australia already has the fundamentals in place. Manufacturing capability exists. We just need to build on it. To that extent, we are now looking at models to raise capital from the market so that our manufacturing superstars can scale up.

Provided by Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC)

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RESILIENCE

Pivoting Examples

Pivoting Examples How member companies of the German-Australian Chamber successfully adapted their business operations during the COVID-19 pandemic 2M Language Services' COVID-19 Response Social distancing rules forced the cancellation of all onsite events world-wide. This also meant the cancellation of simultaneous conference, bilateral business, court and most healthcare interpreting.

2M Language Services was quick to respond with remote solutions such as 2M’s innovative RSI (Remote Simultaneous Interpreting) platform for virtual conferences and 2M Lingo for VRI (Video Remote Interpreting) for courts and hospitals. Language access to crucial information has been restored in healthcare including telehealth as well as in corporate sectors and international trade and collaboration.

The VRI platform 2M Lingo allows a nurse, judge or mining engineer to select the language and call a certified interpreter with specific subject matter expertise from their phone, tablet or computer who will then appear via 3 way video link to interpret between the 2 speakers.

The 2M RSI platform allows up to 3000 users to log on via video or audio link, choose their language channels and listen to the source or the simultaneous interpreting of their preferred language.

Take BHP’s CEO Mike Henry, for example.

He now conducts his Town Hall Meetings via the RSI platform and a typical scenario includes 3 BHP speakers located in remote locations, one 2M interpreter in Buenos Aires, another 2M interpreter in Brisbane and 2000+ BHP attendees spread across Australia, US and Latin America. Through remote simultaneous interpreting, the

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2M Team enables seamless multilingual support week after week for BHP virtual Townhall Meetings.

2M had been investing heavily into video remote interpreting technologies and system connectors for the past years which is now paying off.

Furthermore, COVID-19 forced shutdown has seen a sharp increase in eCommerce, online courses and other digital services.

The demand to localise content to reach out to international markets has skyrocketed.

2M’s smart integrated workflows automate the content flow between the client CMS and 2M’s data-secure translation management platform helping many organisations with their business continuity and ongoing export sales of their products and services.

Tea C. Dietterich, CEO, 2M Language Services

Virtual meetings and events are here to stay post COVID-19. There are many advantages including extensive savings in travel expenses and increased domestic and international reach.

The need for content and software localization equally will continue as increased eCommerce and digital services accelerated by COVID-19 will remain.

Yet again we see that technology is the most single economic driver of the future.

And what has made the company resilient is not only the ability to pivot and adapt in times of crisis but to be at the forefront of technology. Technology with human in the loop futureproofs the business model beyond COVID-19.

Provided by 2M Language Services

More information: Thomas Lespes Muñoz www.2m.com.au

www.germany.org.au

Pivoting Examples

Speed3’s COVID-19 Response

antiviral copper made the process far more efficient.

In response to COVID-19, our business focus shifted from sales into manufacturing to looking at how our technology could assist in fighting the pandemic.

We knew that copper had antimicrobial properties and that is a material we already specialised in printing, however, we didn't yet know what effect, if any, it had on SARSCoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. So our first action was to seek testing to see what effect our ACTIVAT3D copper material had on the virus. The challenge early on was finding a lab who had access to the virus and had the time and resources to test our copper. We ended up working with the Australian NATA accredited clinical trial speciality laboratory, 360Biolabs, who tested the effect of ACTIVAT3D copper on live SARS-CoV-2. The results were positive and showed that 96% of the virus is killed in two hours and 99.2% of the virus is killed in 5 hours.

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3D coating door handles and push plates was the obvious first application for this technology considering multiple studies have attributed super spreading events to contaminated touch surfaces. The team developed a process that allows our printers to coat a standard stainless steel or brass door handle or push plate in just 5 minutes.

The next challenge was to modify the algorithms that control our 3D metal printer’s robotics to enable the coating of existing metal parts. While our printers are capable of printing entire parts in ACTIVAT3D copper, for the rapid and affordable deployment of copper products the ability to pivot to coating fixtures with

There has been global interest in this technology and product coated in ACTIVAT3D copper. As our business is the design and delivery of 3D metal printers, our next step is to partner with large door handle manufacturers who can scale the production and distribution of these products.

By rapidly pivoting our business and following a lean manufacturing process we have been fortunate to retain all our staff through these challenging times.

Provided by SPEED3

BigRep’s COVID-19 Response

to retain our staff amid the decrease in demand. Measures were similarly taken by companies across industries in Germany.

In the wake of COVID-19’s spread, BigRep, the German-based global leader in largeformat additive manufacturing (AM) technology and solutions, acted quickly to help its customers and communities. © JFL Photography/ AdobeStock_88360307

More recently, we have seen an increase in industrial manufacturers with disrupt-ed supply chains amid the social dis-tancing regulations. Our innovation consultancy, NOWLAB, are working with these new prospects to create additive manufacturing solutions that effectively replace their disrupted workflows.

Being in a unique position to design and manufacture solutions for the health crisis facing our city, Berlin, we pivoted many of our staff from their normal business goals to instead create solutions for our local community and those of our partners.

The first solution from this effort was protective face shields that we released as a free download on our website. We have produced many of these face shields ourselves on BigRep‘s large-format 3D printer AM systems and distributed them throughout the German capital, as have many of our partners. You can find and download the design to create yourself here: https://bigrep.com/posts/covid19-response/

www.germany.org.au

Since that first design we have also helped to produce 3D printed connectors for the German Red Cross (designed by a third party) to convert full-faced diving masks into improvised ventilators. We continue to work towards more solutions that might help stop the spread of COVID-19 here and abroad.

Our successful change management was only possible because we took quick action to protect the health and safety of our staff – adjusting operations by implementing effective health practices and social distancing in the workplace. Pre-emptively, we mandated any employee whose job does not require direct interaction with our products to work from home. Following the unique German “Kurzarbeit” approach (short-time work), and in collaboration with our employees, we successfully implemented a reduced working program

We have been in the fortunate position at BigRep to help both our local and industrial communities in their efforts to get through this crisis. Though we, like most businesses, had to reassess our goals, we believe that recent events have served to demonstrate the incredible possibilities of industrial 3D printing as a groundbreaking, cost-effective and highly flexible technology for industrial manufacturing. With it, we have been able to rapidly respond to unforeseen production challenges and quickly create solutions for unexpected problems. It shows how additive manufacturing can be leveraged for efficient, in-house supply chains with sustainable technology.

We believe the future looks bright as industrial manufacturers are increasingly realizing that the future of production lies in localized processes with additive manufacturing solutions.

Provided by BigRep

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RESILIENCE Swinburne University of Technology

If More of us Work From Home After COVID-19 We’ll Need to Rethink City Planning We have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of people working from home as directed by governments and employers around the world to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

If, as some expect, people are likely to work from home more often after the pandemic, what will this mean for infrastructure planning? Will cities still need all the multibillion-dollar road, public transport, telecommunications and energy projects, including some already in the pipeline?

World’s largest work-from-home experiment Remote working was steadily on the rise well before COVID-19. But the pandemic suddenly escalated the trend into the “world’s largest work-from-home experiment”. Many people who have had to embrace remote working during the pandemic might not want to return to the office every day once restrictions are lifted.

They might have found some work tasks are actually easier to do at home. Or they (and their employers) might have discovered things that weren’t thought possible to do from home are possible. They might then question why they had to go into the workplace so often in the first place.

But what impact will this have on our cities? After all, many aspects of our cities were designed with commuting, not working from home, in mind.

Stress test for NBN and energy networks From a telecommunications perspective, the huge increase in people working from home challenges the ways in which our existing networks were designed.

Data from Aussie Broadband show evening peak broadband use has increased 25% during the shutdown. Additional daytime increases are expected due to homeschooling with term 2 starting.

Research by the then federal Department of Communications in 2018 estimated the average Australian household would need a maximum download speed of 49Mbps during peak-use times by 2026.

If more people work from home after COVID-19, the size and times of peak use might need to be recalculated.

Another factor not modelled by the government research was the potential impact of an increase in uploads. This is a typical requirement for people working from home, as they now send large files

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© Chaay_tee/ AdobeStock_336435116

via their suburban home networks, rather than their office networks in the city.

Recent research by Octopus Energy in the UK has found domestic energy use patterns have also changed since COVID-19. With more people working from home, domestic energy use in the middle of the day is noticeably higher. Some 30% of customers use an average of 1.5kWh more electricity between 9 am and 5 pm.

Conversely, data from the US show electricity use in city centres and industrial areas has declined over the same period.

Less commuting means less congestion Closer to home, new data from HERE Technologies illustrate just how much traffic congestion has eased.

Thursday afternoons from 5-5.15pm are normally the worst time of the week for traffic congestion in Melbourne.

Last week the city’s roads recorded the sort of free-flowing traffic usually seen at 9.30 am on a Sunday. Just 1.8% of Melbourne’s major roads were congested, a fraction of the usual 19.8% at that time.

All of Australia’s major cities are experiencing similar reductions.

Transurban has reported traffic is down 43% on the Melbourne airport toll road, 29% on its Sydney roads and 27% in Queensland.

Passengers are also staying away from public transport in droves. For example, South Australian government statistics for Adelaide show passenger numbers have slumped by 69% for buses, by 74% for trains and by 77% for trams, compared with this time last year.

What does this mean for infrastructure planning?

With these trends in mind, future investment in roads, public transport,

energy and telecommunications will need to consider the likelihood of more people working from home. Before COVID-19, Melbourne research found 64% of city workers regularly worked from home, but usually only one day a week, even though 50% of their work could be done anywhere.

While the changes we are now seeing are a result of extreme circumstances, it is not inconceivable that, on average, everybody could continue to work from home one extra day per week after the pandemic. Even this would have significant implications for long-term urban planning.

The most recent Australian Census data show 9.2 million people typically commute to work each day. If people worked from home an average of one extra day per week, this would take 1.8 million commuters off the roads and public transport each day.

Many roads and public transport projects will be based on forecasts of continuing increases in commuter numbers. If instead, people work from home more often, this could call into question the need for those projects.

Areas outside city centres would also require more attention, as working from home creates a need for more evenly distributed networks of services for the likes of energy and telecommunications.

Interestingly, such a trend could support long-term decentralisation plans, like those outlined in Melbourne’s Metropolitan Planning Strategy. And if such change encourages more people to live away from the big cities, it also could help to make housing more affordable.

Povided by John Hopkins, Innovation Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology This article was originally published in “The Conversation”.

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Dr. Wolff Group

RESILIENCE

Breakthrough Innovations in Health and Beauty – Made in Bielefeld Dr. Wolff, a German family-owned midsize Company, delivering innovation since 1905. From the development of the centrifugal process for the production of insulin after the Second World War to creating a caffeine-containing complex to reduce hair loss, and finding an alternative active ingredient against cavity; hydroxyapatite which revolutionised the oral care industry.

Dr. Wolff pursues tireless innovation to solve problems. Bold marketing claims like, “Doping for hair” or “Smoother sex” made the headlines.

Hair loss, vaginal dryness and tooth decay are topics that others do not like to talk about but Dr. Wolff does. Problem-solving products alleviate suffering all over the world.

The production is based in Bielefeld, Germany, where all products are still developed, made and then shipped across the world. Nowadays, every second bottle goes into the 60 export markets - even to down under.

The journey in Australia started 8 years ago. Since then, Dr. Wolff established the Alpecin product range in local supermarket chains and pharmacies.

The female haircare brand Plantur39, for women over 40, followed the path of Alpecin and is growing rapidly in the market. The upcoming taboo topic Dr. Wolff is dedicated to break here in Australia is vaginal dryness. Every second woman over 45 is suffering from it, yet still many women don’t know about it and feel alone with this topic. Dr. Wolff developed a moisturising cream under Dr. Wolff’s Vagisan brand, which can solve this problem without using any hormones.

The German-Australian Chamber has always been by our side. They are a reliable partner, supporting the company setting up in a new market and being an excellent sparring partner for ideas and providing consultative support. Even through the pandemic, the German-Australian Chamber kept the Company updated on the legal implications and impact of COVID-19 and the changes to the Fair Work Act.

Dr Wolff‘ s triumvirate (L-R) Christoph Harras-Wolff (Managing Partner), Eduard R. Doerrenberg (Managing Partner) both are family members of the 4th Generation. The third, a non-family member, Dr Christian Mestwerdt is responsible for finance, IT and human resources. when this crisis might be over. Managing Partner Eduard Doerrenberg’s motto during this challenging time is, “We focus on crisis management in the morning and opportunities in the afternoon". That mindset is what makes it possible for the company to navigate itself through this crisis so far.

Dr. Wolff has also been fortunate to have strong brands that solve consumer needs.

For example, due to the quarantine many people especially women, were in the situation where they had to deal with grey roots on their own since their trusted hair salons had to close. Many women didn’t dare to dye their hair themselves and started looking for alternatives. The Plantur39 Brown Shampoo which contains brown pigments that help cover up grey roots has experienced record sales during this time.

How does Dr. Wolff stay resilient, even in times like these?

Additionally, Dr. Wolff has been made tremendous efforts in the past 20 years and has invested tens of millions in research and development in the core areas (hair, skin and oral care). The year 2019 brought three major breakthroughs in these areas and a long-awaited, clinical result, which is outstanding. “We have created a foundation for us to continue growing in the next years and also to be stable enough to go through tough times like these. ”sums up Eduard R. Dörrenberg.

The current crisis is unique in its uncertainty.

Experts are unsure about an exact timeline

By having resilience, agility and thinking differently Dr. Wolff developed from a small

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The consulting branch of the German-Australian Chamber assists Dr. Wolff Australia Pty Ltd, with our unique office-in-office business representation service, where clients can use the Chamber address as their principal place of business or registered office.

The German-Australian Chamber consulting branch offers business development initiatives which include competitive market analyses and customer support such as processing incoming calls on behalf of clients, as well as organising corporate events or engaging in customer acquisition.

Contact: Enrica Mertens, Senior Consultant Market Entry – Consulting Services, Business Representation Lead P: +61 02 8296 0454 E: enrica.mertens@germany.org.au

factory to one of the largest medium-sized family-owned companies in Germany in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic market; and this culture is still driving the company until today.

Stay connected with us: Twitter @Dr.WolffGroup Linkedin Dr. Wolff Australia PTY LTD Provided by Dr. Wolff Group

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RESILIENCE German Chamber of Commerce in China | South and Southwest

The Manufacturing SMEs in the GBA are Reacting Actively to COVID-19 Influence The Greater Bay Area (GBA), a city cluster consists of Hong Kong, Macao, and the other nine cities of Guangdong Province, is one of the most economically developed areas with the highest degree of openness in China.

© marcuspon/ AdobeStock_194683929

Skyline of Guangzhou

As the south portal of China, the GBA plays a remarkable strategic role in the overall development of the country.

Counts for only 0.6% of China’s land area, it contributes more than 12% of the country's GDP, which lifts it into one of the areas with the strongest economic vitality in China without a doubt. Here locates the headquarters of lots of manufacturing magnates, such as Huawei, BYD, GAC Motor, and Midea. At the same time, it also brings boundless opportunities to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, many manu-facturing SMEs in the Greater Bay Area have been facing multiple pressure: delayed resumption of work, operation costs, order reduction, travel and customs restrictions, logistics, cash flow, and more.

“Our products are mainly exported to Europe. But sales in Europe dropped by around 20% because of the pandemic, for some high-class machines it dropped even by more than 50%. Our company depends mainly on export, so the impact is quite high,” said one of our members from the household product manufacturing industry.

Local governments well noted the challenges and promptly announced a series of

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Machines for Medical Supplies Manufacturing new policy initiatives to support the SMEs in the GBA. In February, just after the national holiday and before resuming work, cities including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, and Zhongshan issued preferential policies on after another, such as 2-month rents free, subsidizing equipment investment and company operations fee, reducing loans interests, postponing the tax payment, and much more financial supports. To encourage the banks to lend to SMEs, for example, Guangzhou City requires Guangzhou Bank and Guangzhou Agricultural Comm-ercial Bank to increase loans to SMEs by 57 billion yuan. In Shenzhen, the maximum compensation ratio for risks and losses of loans to commercial banks has been increased from 50% to 80%. Another encouraging news is, in 2020, the China Development Bank (CDB) will provide a total of 360 billion yuan of financing to the GBA, to foster the area to play a greater role in the prevention of the post-impact of COVID-19 and maintaining a stable economic operation.

With the support of the preferential policies, SMEs are taking an active response to adapt to the changes. In Shenzhen, one of our members from the mould manufacturing industry finalized a capital investment to enhance the capacity of its manufacturing facility. The investment provides an infrastructure

platform for its annual sales of injection moulded products to increase from the current level of USD20 million to USD30 million over the upcoming years, where the company believes there will be a postCOVID-19 increase in demand for medical manufactured products globally.

The manufacturing SMEs in the GBA is supporting the "front line" of the fight against COVID-19 with practical actions.

“People say it is a bad time, but I suppose a bad time does better things on business than the so called good time during which people will not take time to think about improving anything. The way of innovation and progress are always found in the crisis.

With support from the government and fellows, I believe the future of our business will run wonderfully,” our metal plastic manufacturer member showed a positive attitude towards the changes.

Despite the obstacles posed by the COVID-19, with its preferential policies, manufacturing cluster, and Free Trade Zones in Qianhai of Shenzhen, Nansha of Guangzhou, Hengqin of Zhuhai, and various districts, the GBA is an ideal base for manufacturing SMEs. Written by Melanie Song, German Chamber of Commerce in China | South and Southwest

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MEMBER4MEMBER OFFERS

Exclusive Member4Member Offers We are pleased to present you with a range of discounts and special deals from AHK Australia members for AHK Australia members. Please log in to our Online Membership portal to book these special deals and to check terms and conditions.

If you have an exclusive rate or special product that you would like to offer your fellow members, please email: tina.thoms@germany.org.au to submit your offer.

Services

Global Legal Expense Insurance specialist, ARAG Group, headquartered in Duesseldorf, has expanded its operations and launched business activities in Australia. To celebrate its opening, ARAG Services Australia is offering a premium +discount for Year 1 to any member of the German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

Two free months of PRO plan subscription on 2M’s Remote Simultaneous Interpreting Platform - Enable remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI) for your virtual global events and meetings.

Brokat is offering small and medium digital packages specifically designed for launching and boosting the digital presence for your business.

Dammann German-English Translations is offering all Chamber members a 30% discount on the translation of personal documents.

Firbank Grammar is an International Baccalaureate school and is offering priority placement to families of Chamber members.

German Australian Marketing Services is offering Chamber members a 50% discount on their first 'Market & Competitor News' email bulletin and 20% off Benchmark Studies.

Uncover Requirements for Implementing Effective Learning: imc can help. As a starting point we’re offering a complimentary consultation where we can work through your requirements and identify solutions applicable for your business.

Get a comprehensive review and outlook of key global currencies, global market drivers, and what to watch in the next quarter to help you plan ahead and see how you can take advantage of market movements.

ONE IP: Free evaluation session on intellectual property requirements - The IP Health Check is a free 1-hour evaluation session to establish the IP protection requirements, based on the business' activities in Australia and internationally.

Special Discounts for Talent Acquisition, HR and Business Setup - For Talent Acquisition: 1h coaching on the Australian job market for any members (resume the Australian way, cover letter and tips and tricks to be successful during an interview).

Tenant CS are a Commercial Tenant Representative business who are independent from all major real estate agencies. We are offering fellow members a high value, complimentary lease review and workspace analysis to identify quick wins and provide long term recommendations.

Two offers from the Victorian Chamber of Commerce & Industry: 50% Discount on Complete Membership Package OR Fees waived for first year of Essential Membership Package.

KVP-Solution: 1st Assessment for Business Crisis Management free of charge; Digital Marketing Services - free SEO assessment and Keyword check as well as 10% discount on packages.

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MEMBER4MEMBER OFFERS

Exclusive Member4Member Offers Miscellaneous

Audi Australia are delighted to offer you as a member of the German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce benefits and superior servicing of the AudiCorporate program on the entire range of premium new Audi vehicles.

"Die Woche" is the only German-speaking newspaper in Australia. The weekly published newspaper offers AHK members a discount of 30% on the annual subscription of the pdf-file and 10% discount on the printed version.

Faber-Castell is offering a selection of their finest writing instruments at discounted prices up to 40%. This offer is exclusive for members and not available elsewhere.

Kärcher is pleased to share with the members of the German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, an exclusive members only 15% discount on selected Kärcher products.

Mercedes me Store Melbourne is proud to offer a preferred rate for hire of our stunning boardroom space.

Sennheiser Sydney Store is pleased to share with the members of the German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, a members-only 25% discount off RRP on selected* Sennheiser Sydney Store products.

The AMBEO Soundbar is at 15% off RRP.

Wine Window is pleased to offer exclusively to Chamber members a 10% discount on all orders. Our wines are produced by young wine-makers in family-run wineries in the Rheinhessen and Pfalz area.

Discounted rates for AHK Members - settle in with amazing deals on 14+ night stays starting from $55 per night in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

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© tiko/ AdobeStock_210220646

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NEW AHK MEMBERS

New AHK Members Busch Vacuum Solutions is one of the world’s largest producers of vacuum pumps, vacuum systems, blowers and compressors.

We develop one of the world’s largest serial production 3D printers, creating the industry benchmark for large-scale printing to reshape manufacturing.

Our award-winning, German-engineered machines are establishing new standards in speed, reliability and efficiency. BigRep’s printers are the preferred choice of engineers, designers and manufacturers at leading companies in the industrial, automotive and aerospace sectors.

Its extensive product portfolio comprises solutions for vacuum and overpressure applications in all industries, including the chemical, semiconductor, medical technology, plastics, and food sectors. It also covers the design and construction of customized vacuum systems, as well as a global service network.

Your organisation needs local expertise in the domestic and global markets in which it operates. Crowe Australasia is a leading audit advisory firm and an independent member of Crowe Global, the eighth largest accounting network in the world.

Whether you are a listed company, private business or community group, our specialists possess exceptional knowledge of business and combine local insight with deep expertise to deliver quality, commercial solutions.

Busch Vacuum Solutions was founded

by Dr.-Ing. Karl Busch and his wife Ayhan Busch in 1963. The Busch group is a familyowned company and is still managed by the Busch family. Busch Vacuum Solutions has 3,500 employees in more than 60 companies in over 40 countries worldwide.

Busch is headquartered in Maulburg, in southwest Germany. This is the location of Busch SE headquarters, as well as the German production facility and German sales company. In addition to Maulburg, Busch also has its own production plants in Switzerland, the UK, Czech Republic, Korea and the USA.

Crowe Australasia operates as the Audit and Assurance and Tax Advisory arm of Findex - one of Australasia’s largest integrated financial advisory networks (www.findex.com.au).

Together, our footprint extends to over 110 offices throughout Australia and New Zealand.

• Risk consulting • Audit and assurance • Tax advisory • Performance consulting • Corporate finance • Global business desk • Credit consulting • Business advisory We welcome the opportunity to assist you.

Contact us at www.crowe.com.au/contactus or reach out to Matthew Morgan at matthew.morgan@crowe.com.au.

Dr med Joerg U Rhau - Born and raised in Uelzen in Northern Germany, Dr Rhau went to the Schleswig-Holstein Medical School before commencing orthopaedic training at Lubinus Clinicum in Kiel. After qualifying as orthopaedic and trauma surgeon he went to Melbourne for specialist fellowship training in shoulder and upper limb surgery.

Evonik is one of the world leaders in speciality chemicals and active in more than 100 countries around the world. We go far beyond chemistry to create innovative, profitable and sustainable solutions for our customers. We may not manufacture tires, medications or animal feeds, but we can make tires fuel-efficient, medications more effective, and animal feeds healthier.

The return to Germany was short-lived as the temptation to come back to Australia was too easy to give in to when QLD Health offered him a consultant position at Logan Public Hospital just south of Brisbane.

These days Dr Rhau is working full time in his private practice ‘The Greenslopes Shoulder & Upper Limb Clinic’

As part of the South East Asia, Australia & New Zealand region, Evonik has maintained business relations in Australia since the nineteen twenties and opened our first sales office in 1956. Today, out of our sales office in Mount Waverley near Melbourne, we manage our business activities in Australia and New Zealand aligned to industries.

Started by husband and wife duo, Kim and Boris Zoulek, Festival Services provides Australia’s most unique range of event equipment for hire to service your festival, show or event.

From standard equipment needs through to unique hire items that only Festival Services can supply, your project needs will be professionally met to ensure a wonderful event for your attendees.

Through collaborations with its strategic partners – including Bosch Rexroth, Etihad Airways and Deutsche Bahn – and key investors – including BASF, Koehler, Klöckner and Körber – BigRep continues to develop complete solutions for integrated additive manufacturing systems, as well as a wide range of printing materials on an open-choice source.

He also travels to Mackay every month for outpatient clinics and day surgeries.

He lives with his wife and two daughters in Brisbane and has a passion for windsurfing, lasting more than 40 years. He has also joined the ‘MAMIL’ army and rides road and mountain bikes.

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Our core activities in the region include among others feed additives, lubricant additives, hydrogen peroxide, precipitated silica, personal and household care additives, coating additives, and highperformance polymers.

Alongside the hire services provided, the team at Festival Services also put on some of Australia’s largest festivals including Oktoberfest Brisbane, Australia’s Largest German festival, and Slideapalooza, Australia’s Largest travelling inflatable waterslide festival.

The team behind Festival Services has a combined 55+ years of experience in the festival and large events industry. True to their German heritage, this business is an efficient and well-oiled machine. The results are clearly evident in the results they achieve for all their clients.

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NEW AHK MEMBERS

HANSA FLEX is a Global leading system provider in fluid technology and a value creation partner for highperformance companies of all sizes.

HANSA FLEX Australia is a fully owned subsidiary of HANSA FLEX Ag and is an active part of their global footprint.

Locally we specialise the range of Hydraulic Connection products to suit the Australian market.

Hofbräuhaus Melbourne located in the heart of Chinatown is one of the world’s oldest German restaurants outside Europe.

Despite all other Hofbräuhaus venues around the world, we are independent of the franchise system even though we work closely together with them in terms of Bier supply. At Hofbräuhaus Melbourne we see ourselves as ambassadors for Germany's culture and products.

We are also able to offer the range of product available in Germany to the market.

HANSA FLEX focuses on international growth while expanding the product range. We will continue on our way to becoming one of the world's leading hydraulic system suppliers.

The principle of success is called system partnership. It is the breadth and depth of the products and services that make the company a valued partner today.

Our responsibility is far-reaching. For every employee, it requires specialist skills as well as a high level of motivation, entrepreneurial thinking, teamwork and constant learning.

Authentic flavours are as important as a hearty service. Therefore, we are importing a lot of goods from overseas such as Sauerkraut, red cabbage, gherkins, mustard, Bretzel and of course our Bier.

Our mission is to support independent business such as ours hence why we handpick all of our suppliers to give other family-owned business, especially from Germany access to a global market.

INFORM develops software for the optimization of business processes using Digital Decision Making based on Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research.

INFORM supplements classic IT systems and increases the profitability and resilience of many companies. INFORM systems can analyze huge quantities of data, cost-out numerous decision-variants and suggest the best possible solution to the user for implementation in a matter of seconds.

Consequently, companies can swiftly respond to market requirements, create transparency and optimize the entire sequence of all business processes.

As a result, they sustainably increase productivity through scientificallysubstantiated optimisa-tion algorithms based on research and fuzzy logic operations. INFORM rendered the mathematical methods employed for this purpose usable for business processes and has been tapping into a diversified market since 1969. Today, more than 750 software engineers, data analysts and consultants support more than 1,000 customers worldwide in manufacturing, trade, airports, ports, logistics, banks and insurance companies.

IMPRINT Metz was founded over 60 years ago on the 25th of June 1953. Since that time despite massive changes in technology and markets, Metz has remained focused on providing specialist building materials to assist industry to resist the damaging effects of corrosion and abrasion. Metz has been 100% Australian owned since 1986 and our businesses are located in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

The operating company manufactures and sells a broad range of materials predominantly used for Acid Proofing and Industrial Flooring. Metz is proudly Quality Accredited to AS/NZS ISO9001:2015 and our accreditation is for ‘The development and manufacture of acid proofing material, tile fixing systems and industrial flooring materials’.

Metz is also partnered with a small number of specialist manufacturers of complementary products from around the globe. Metz sources Acid Bricks and Tiles from quality manufacturers so that we can offer our clients a complete solution for their particular requirements.

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Sinapse is a professional services company specialising in management and IT consulting services to a range of clients across Australia, New Zealand, Asia Pacific and the Americas.

Main Software solutions we support are abas ERP (ERP for Production Companies), SAP Business One (ERP for Professional Service Companies), Salesforce (CRM) and Trapiza (Risk management for the pharmaceutical industry).

Some of our clients are: AGL, Australian Government - Department of Defence, Concept2, IXOM, Newcrest, Nufarm, Orica, Polymaster, ProClima, RioTinto, RSPCA, Schmalz Australia, Stockland, Telix Pharmaceuticals, Vision Australia and many more.

Sinapse was founded in May 2008 by 3 partners and has grown to a 70+ person strategy, organisation effectiveness, ERP and IT consulting group turning over $16M in 2019. Our Focus is: • Change & Transformation Services • Salesforce Implementation Services • Strategic Consulting in the Health & Life Sciences Sector • IT & ERP Consulting & Implementation Services

German–Australian Business News is published quarterly by the German-Australian Chamber of Industry & Commerce and distributed free of charge to members and selected nonmembers in Australia and abroad.

Cover image by © wladimir1804/ AdobeStock_315159283 EDITORIAL OFFICE/ ADVERTISING Andrea Hirsch, Andrew Donni, Ulrike Andresen-Nikolai LAYOUT/ PROOFING/ PRODUCTION Emily Krämer, Freelance SYDNEY OFFICE Email: media@germany.org.au Level 6, 8 Spring Street, Sydney 2000 Ph: +61-2-8296 0446 MELBOURNE OFFICE International Chamber House Level 5, 121 Exhibition Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Ph: + 61 -3-9027 5615

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