News

Verena at TEDxBerlin

Monday, den 6. February 2012

TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global nonprofit organization, focusing on “ideas worth spreading” through conferences.The intention is to find and support people with outstanding ideas and new projects, and to give these people a voice at the TEDxBerlin.

As each speaker is only given a limited 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging way possible, the speaker must present their thoughts clearly in an organized manner, with strong points for others to take away. Talks are available for free online viewing under a Creative Commons license, at TED.com.

On the 21st of November, last year’s TEDxBerlin took place with “High Energy” as the focus of talks. Our CEO Verena took part with her talk “Don´t be the boiled frog – jump”.

Verena spoke about companies getting too comfortable in their comfort zone that they start to lose their alertness and energy to constantly reinvent themselves. The companies behave like the frog in the warm water that misses the point to jump out of the pot before the water starts boiling. She explained that companies need to continually question and re-invent themselves in order to adapt to changing market conditions and create new needs. Anyone who reacts slowly, or in a pretentious or arrogant manner and does not leave their comfort zone, will not succeed. This is due to the fact that being successful in the past or in the present is no guarantee of future success.

At Young Internet, we have used brainstorming, innovation-days, open communication and lessons learned, to turn a browser into a mobile company. Verena shared 5 lessons learnt from Young Internet on how the company got themselves out of the hot water and how other companies can do the same.

The topic came naturally to Verena who strongly believes that the companies that will be successful in the future, are those that do not wait until the water boils but that stay entrepreneurial, stay hungry and actually jump to reach the next level.