Journalism needs to be backed up by technological competence, cooperation and flexibility, Axel Springer’s Tilmann Knoll says.

Reporting on last year’s trip to Silicon Valley undertaken by the German publishing giant’s entire 80-strong top level management, the Berlin-based head of management development says commercial staff and IT experts need to work together on “product ideas and optimisations”.

“What is more, the working environment – and by that I mean how the technical factors, spaces, and time schedules are designed at work – must be better aligned toward interdisciplinary cooperation and communication,” he says in a blog post for INMA.

At its core the three-day learning journey brought changes of its own: Executives, editors-in-chief and the management board flew economy and shared rooms – and even beds – in a “charmingly hip three-star hotel in one of the city’s less noble districts”. The result was that participants would “leave your comfort zone and come together to embrace the role of the inquisitive learner”.

The US hub of technological innovation is home to a huge number of technology and internet-based corporations, and group visits included Apple, Google, Facebook and eBay. On a visit to Stanford University and elsewhere, they learned about collaborating at new levels and having conversations which had been impossible before.

Above all, they shared an opportunity to catch the vibe of innovation which permeates the San Francisco Bay area. Knoll says participants could also exchange ideas with young company founders, investors, and accelerators who support and network start-ups.

The intense programme – like “tanking up at high pace” with the spirit of Silicon Valley – is proving to have “quite an impact” on attitudes and corporate culture, he says. Ideas and suggestions – for specific areas and the company as a whole – have emerged with follow-up workshops and practical applications.

“One of the main impulses for change that emerged from the trip to Silicon Valley was the realisation that not only must journalism remain at the heart of our corporate identity, but technological competence should also become an integral component of the company’s activities and its journalistic work,” Knoll says.

He also says implementation will call for more open spaces, flexible working, and large newsrooms in which all work steps and processes can be better networked with one another.

“Ultimately, we reached the conclusion that transformation and innovation work even better when decisions are made faster and with less hierarchy,” he says. “Senior members of staff must place trust in their employees and managers and give them enough space to act on their own.”

The value of the Silicon Valley trip continues to resonate: Ultimately it “made the change process tangible and real” to those who took part – and “caused things to happen at a symbolic and emotional level in the company and in the industry far beyond the small circle who travelled to San Francisco”.

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