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The first six initiatives from the café+co Explorer project will be implemented in the next financial year. An exciting phase within the café+co Group will thus start and we would like to invite you all to actively participate in our new initiatives. Your input and your commitment are essential for the success of our common goals.

After four intensive months of planning and discussion, we selected six strategic initiatives in mid-June during our management workshop in Regensburg; the implementation of these initiatives will commence in the next financial year 2024/25. These initiatives aim to develop our core competences further, to strengthen our market position and to open up new fields of business.

Four intense months have passed since our meeting to conclude the project on 25 January 2024. Four months in which the course has been set for the implementation of the café+co Master Guideline. The means for achieving this goal were defined at the kick-off workshop in Znojmo on 22 May 2024.

After twelve months of extremely hard work, the 12 café+co Explorers presented the café+co Master Guideline to the café+co management on 25 January 2024. This marked the end of an exhaustive process, but also the start of the next phase of the café+co Explorer project. Over the past four months, the café+co Explorers, together with the project managers and management, have been laying the foundations for the café+co Master Guideline, which will be implemented step by step from June 2024. We will show you what’s been going on in the café+co Explorer project since February. But first, Fritz Kaltenegger, CEO of café+co International, will give you a brief overview. Take a look!

After 12 months of intensive work, the café+co Explorers handed over the Master Guideline to the café+co Management Team on 25 January 2024. This day marked not only the end of the café+co Explorer journey but also the start of a new era for café+co. The café+co Explorers have shown that, with professionalism, expertise, vision and cross-border collaboration, challenges can become opportunities.

The 14 café+co Explorers from all café+co countries have done great work over the last twelve months. Their task was to explore the future of café+co, identify new business opportunities and develop innovative solutions. And they did so with passion, dedication, and creativity.

When we talk about growth, we often think of key performance indicators such as turnover or profit. But in the context of the development of the café+co Explorers, a substantially more fascinating form of growth is revealed – the transformative journey from a group of individual talents into an efficient collective of self-confident experts who act in a skilful and clever manner on the international stage and have reset the strategic course for the international café+co group.

The café+co Explorer journey is coming to an end. In Krakow, the 14 café+co Explorers met up for the last time. Over the last 12 months, they have worked together on the future of café+co: They have developed and discussed scenarios and derived measures from them in order to make café+co resilient for the challenges of the future. The result is impressive: a 64-page master guideline that specifies the strategic framework for the future of café+co.

Just imagine you were given spaghetti, string, adhesive tape and a marshmallow. What would you do with all that? In November, the CEOs and managers of the café+co Group met up together with the café+co Explorer Team in Burgenland to find out precisely that. The result was highly inspiring and already now characterises the new collaboration within the café+co Group.

Murphy’s Law says that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. At café+co we take this “law” as a challenge: When tackling the “wild cards” from the last meeting, our café+co Explorers in Barcelona not only defied Murphy’s Law; they also found a strategic path through many an uncertainty, using creativity and ingenuity.

The second CEO Sounding Board of the café+co Group was held on 9 October, an important milestone on our journey. The joint meeting of managers from all areas of the café+co world aimed to create a more in-depth understanding for scenarios, to conduct a lively discussion on the immediate future and to develop specific measures in order to not only achieve this future but also actively shape it. The insight that a strategy is more than just a mere plan was key on this day. Strategies are like a compass that guide us through unknown territory.

Creativity is not just a tool; it is also a key to understanding and shaping the future. If you would like to know more about this method, please contact one of the café+co Explorers and have it explained to you!

It is impossible to predict the future, even if we would sometimes like to. But it is possible to paint a picture of the future from trends that are already developing. A proven method that helps, step by step, to gain an idea of future developments can be of assistance here. But it is no easy task. The café+co Explorer team took on precisely this challenge with impressive commitment and attention to detail. Their work shows how in-depth analyses and lively discussions lead to clear visions.

The café+co Explorers Michaela, Jan, Felix, Pawel and Patrizio are sending personal greetings to you directly in their native languages. Have a look what they have to say to you!

In business, flexibility and adaptability are the key to success and growth. Have a look which tips Michael Höllerer, CEO of Raiffeisenlandesbank Lower Austria-Vienna, offers for navigating through stormy waters and keeping an eye on the unforeseeable.

The exclusive fireside chat with Raiffeisenlandesbank Lower Austria-Vienna CEO Michael Höllerer was one of the highlights of the workshop in Andau in the region of Burgenland. Höllerer, who is an experienced manager, shared his knowledge of the strategic development of companies with the café+co Explorers and showed what is required to operate successfully as a company in the long term. Höllerer aligns his day-to-day work to the common Raiffeisen vision and to four pillars of success:

Our café+co managing directors are not only observers, they also actively accompany the café+co Explorer journey. By developing scenarios together with the café+co Explorers they gain in-depth insights and a new approach to the company’s future. Their participation in this exciting journey into the future of café+co, however, also means they have the responsibility of incorporating the insights into the future corporate strategy. They all share a deep gratitude for the great commitment of the café+co Explorers and they express this in the video. Have a look!

On 14 and 15 June 2023, Seewinkel National Park in Burgenland in Austria was buzzing. More than 50 people from all areas of the café+co world met up here with plenty of energy to talk about influencing factors and alternative developments over the next 12–15 years. The result of the two-day, large-scale workshop was overwhelming!

Those who want to shape the future need to know where they have come from. That is why the café+co Explorers were also there when café+co celebrated its 50th anniversary in Vienna on 28 April 2023. A look at the company's history together heightened the perception of the future for the café+co Explorers. Have a look at the video!

At the end of April, the managing directors of all subsidiaries of café+co met up in Vienna for a first sounding board on the café+co Explorer project. It was a day full of energy and inspiration because the goal of the meeting was clear: to inspire the managing directors for the methodology and the way of working in the project and to directly and actively start the work on the scenarios with our consultant Ute-Hélène von Reibnitz in order to create trust in the approach and in the opportunities.

Over the past few weeks, the café+co Explorers obtained external input on the topics of Big Data, AI, innovation management and creativity. The managing directors of all café+co subsidiaries were now called upon to contribute their ideas and opinions to the Explorer project. With this aim in mind, they held discussions with the café+co Explorers and provided interesting insights into their own ideas regarding future challenges.

After an inspiring journey through three workshops, the learning phase of café+co's Project Explorer has come to an end. With newfound knowledge, skills, and an unrelenting sense of curiosity, the team is now fully equipped to blaze new trails and embark on exciting adventures as café+co Explorers in the months ahead.

Behind the doors of the Museo della Macchina del Caffè of the Gruppo Cimbali in Milan, you can discover the history of the coffee machine. The café+co Explorers used their trip to delve into the origins of coffee culture in these venerable museum rooms.

Who can imagine an espresso today without crema? Probably nobody! At any rate, no coffee lover. That the crema is just as much part of coffee as the bean, however, happened by chance and is down to a technical innovation.

Be creative and develop an innovative idea! Who hasn't heard this sentence at least once? But is it really possible to be creative at the press of a button and to continuously come up with innovative solutions? These were the questions addressed by the café+co Explorers during their third workshop in Milan at the end of March. They have brought with them two solutions that aim to assist you in your day-to-day work.

With a jam-packed schedule in hand, the café+co Explorers made a stop-off in London from the 7th to the 10th of March 2023. But the Big Data and AI Convention was not the only reason for their visit – they also had two action-packed days of workshops in store for them.

At the start of March, the café+co Explorer team made a stop-off in London. On the agenda were several action-packed workshop sessions and a visit to the Big Data and AI World conference. The events highlighted the fact that data and technology already play a crucial role in our business operations and will become even more important in future years.

In an era shaped by the energy crisis, climate change and new ways of working, companies are now faced with the task of future-proofing their operations. Having a clear business strategy is a proactive way of tackling the challenges involved head-on. That’s why the café+co Explorer team are now taking the first steps to doing so by using the scenario method to positively shape the future of café+co.

Fourteen Explorers have now set out on the journey to examine our future intensively within the framework of the Explorer project. However, this trip is not to be made by the 14 Explorers on their own.

In a competitive application process the leaders of Project Explorer chose 14 outstanding personalities who now take on the exciting task of designing the company´s future. Get to know them a little better!

Project Explorer was kicked off successfully by its 14-member-team on January 26th in Austria. In the coming year the explorers are going to do no less than challenge the future of café+co.