Verkehrs Monitor, Digital expertise is increasingly finding its way onto boards of directors
Südostbahn is appointing two board members from the IT sector. Digital expertise is becoming increasingly important in the railway industry - after several years of oversleeping.
Verkehrs Monitor, Gregor Poletti in an interview with Erik Wirz
What is the founder of a successful medical start-up looking for on the board of directors of a railway company?
For Benedikt Würth, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Südostbahnen (SOB) and Member of the Council of States, this is a sign that the topic of digitalisation is now also becoming increasingly important at a strategic level. This is why Tobias Wolf, whose company Online Doktor AG now counts over 700 medical specialists in Switzerland, Germany and Austria among its customers, is to join the SOB Board of Directors. Sandra Tobler, who improves the cyber security of companies with her company Futurae Technologies, is also up for election.
IT security is becoming more important
"On the one hand, we want to accelerate the digital transformation because we don't want to simply be a last follower, but to lead the way innovatively," explains Würth when asked by VerkehrsMonitor. On the other hand, IT security is becoming increasingly important, as railways operate critical infrastructures
BLS is also proposing Martin Pfund, a typical representative from the IT sector, to the Annual General Meeting on 14 May: He has many years of expertise in IT and has been Head of Department ICT/CIO and a member of the Executive Board of Graubünden Cantonal Hospital since 2017.
There are currently only a few such explicit representatives from the digital sector on the boards of directors of railway companies. These bodies are often still dominated by economists, lawyers, engineers or politicians. Würth analyses that the importance of digital transformation has not yet reached the entire industry. Erik Wirz, a renowned headhunter who searches for top managers and board members on behalf of companies, often also for the mobility sector, agrees: "Many companies have also sinned in the transport sector in the past." This is despite the fact that a high level of digital expertise is of enormous importance, especially in the service sector.
Management is required
The Board of Directors of Switzerland's largest railway company, SBB, does not have a single direct representative from the IT sector either; economists such as Chairwoman Monika Ribar and Andreas Herzog or engineers such as Vice Chairman Pierre-Alain Urech and Thomas C. Ahlburg dominate the board. This is not necessarily a sign that a company is paying too little attention to digitalisation, says Wirz.
Of course, the Board of Directors is formally responsible for choosing the strategy, Bruno Gehrig, former professor at the University of St. Gallen and Vice President of the Swiss National Bank and multiple member of the Board of Directors, relativises in an essay for the "NZZ": "But where does the Board of Directors get the information from? To be honest, 90 per cent from the CEO and his management team." This is why the choice of management is particularly important.
In terms of digital expertise, the SBB Board of Directors has opted for an experienced personality in Vincent Ducrot as CEO in 2020: Ducrot studied electrical engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, specialising in computer science, and began his career as a computer scientist in various positions in Switzerland and abroad (Europe and the USA).
"We are currently investing large sums in important digitalisation projects in the railway's core business." Vincent Ducrot, SBB CEO
In a recent in-depth interview with VerkehrsMonitor, he responded vehemently to the claim that digitalisation is low on his list of priorities: "That's not true, quite the opposite. We introduced automatic brake testing last year, are developing digital automatic coupling for freight transport and recently presented a remote-controlled train. We are also currently investing large sums in important digitalisation projects in the railway's core business, which you don't see much of from the outside."
For headhunter Wirz, there is another reason why railway companies such as SOB rely on board members who come directly from the IT sector: "This is also intended to achieve a certain appeal for the recruitment of digital experts on the labour market, along the lines of: Look, our company even has IT specialists on the Board of Directors. You can assume that your knowledge is in demand and will be honoured accordingly."
Tobias Wolf, for example, is a well-known and highly decorated expert: he was named "Digital Shaper 2021" by Bilanz, Handelszeitung, PME and Digitalswitzerland, making him one of the 100 most important people in Switzerland who are driving digitalisation in the country.
Gregor Poletti is the editorial director of VerkehrsMonitor. He has worked in various roles in domestic journalism for over 30 years, specialising in transport and social policy.
