I don't know any company that changes so quickly.

Simply studying was not enough for Chiara Euler. It was important to her to gain practical experience during her studies. “I wanted to know what makes a company tick and to build a network,” says the now 24-year-old. While many of her friends were working in restaurants or helping out at gas stations during vacations, she already had a varied and well-paid job – for Viessmann in Allendorf (Eder). “Independence is very important to me,” she says. That’s why she wanted to earn money from the very beginning. The practical component is part of “Studium Plus,” the cooperative education program of the University of Applied Sciences of Central Hesse. So, at the age of 17, Chiara did not apply for a place at university but for a position as a cooperative education student at Viessmann. The place on the Business Administration course was then practically part of the package. “It was an amazing feeling to be accepted directly into a company,” she says.

Chiara completed five different internships during her studies at Viessmann. One of these was in market research: “I had the chance to go to China for three months,” she says. There, she oversaw the first customer satisfaction survey that Viessmann conducted in the People’s Republic. “I’d wanted to go overseas since the beginning of my studies, preferably to China. That was one of the best experiences of my life so far.”

Co-creation is increasingly important

She has experienced the change from the very beginning. She had already been with Viessmann for two years when Max Viessmann joined the company in 2016 and set up a digital task force of which Chiara was a member. “What really fascinates me about Viessmann: I don’t know any other company that changes so quickly and adapts so swiftly to the demands of the market and the environment,” says Chiara. “Everyone understood why digitalization and cultural change are so important to us.” Max Viessmann managed to get people on board and set the course for the future, she says. “The culture has changed dramatically. And today we also have lots of attractive new jobs in the company that are particularly interesting to young people.” The way we work has also changed enormously. “In the past, Viessmann always found its own solutions. Now we often work on development with partners. Co-creation is a central element of our daily work.”

Over the course of time, the focus of her work has changed, she reports. At the beginning, it was on the company transformation, making it digitally fit. “Now that we have implemented and internalized this, the focus is on how we can create added value for our customers from the ideas that come from inside and outside the company,” says Chiara. “We now have a great deal of attention for the topics on our platform – also from management. We are currently working on more than 50 projects at once, which is a challenge and a lot of fun, and I learn   something new every day!”

One of the projects that Chiara has accompanied from the idea to the successful execution is the  FörderProfi  (grant pro). The state provides financial support for switching to environmentally friendly heating systems. Yet many homeowners do not take advantage of this because the applications for the support programs are costly and lengthy. “The FörderProfi team has changed this,” Chiara explains. “You can submit your application quickly and easily to them, and you will get immediate feedback as to whether the system is eligible for a grant or not.” This is not only good for the environment but also for the authorities, who can now actually pay out money – and for Viessmann, because the customer may now be able to afford an even more convenient heating system.