Andreas Schmelzer: Hyper-Automation, the Next CX Boom?

Andreas Schmelzer: Hyper-Automation, the Next CX Boom?

Andreas Schmelzer: Hyper-Automation, the Next CX Boom?

Episode 91

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Episode 91

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Andras Schmelzer is the Head of Digital Transformation for Europe’s largest car distributor, Porsche Holding. His passion? Hyper-automation. As he puts it, keeping the stupid things inside the machine rather than outside. In this episode, we discuss how hyper-automation can be used to innovate any customer experience strategy, and why it can change the game of process efficiency.


Episode Summary

Why Automation Should Be Hyper

Andreas’ vision for the future is to free up unqualified working time and create more quality time for individuals. He believes that time is a precious, but often undervalued resource. Yet his goal isn’t to eliminate the workforce. No, rather he aims to automate mundane and repetitive tasks so that people can focus on more meaningful and strategic work.

By using hyper-automation, Andreas envisions a future where inefficient processes are automated and run by machines, allowing humans to engage in more fulfilling and valuable activities. This approach would lead to increased productivity, improved customer experiences, and greater overall satisfaction. All in all, he believes hyper-automation can pave the way for continuous innovation and flexibility in business processes, enabling companies to adapt and meet changing customer expectations effectively.

Want to learn about the details and depths? Keep scrolling!

Why Data is Irrelevant

Andreas’ controversial take is that: to implement truly innovative methods and technologies, the existing data really doesn’t matter. Because how can it? If you’re trying to bring change by trying new things, then there is no blueprint for its success. Instead, you have to go out there and do it. You have to make the data. And the same applies to hyper-automation for CX.

Inspired by the profound words of Steve Jobs, who dared to create the iPhone without customer input, Andreas envisions a future where transformative breakthroughs transcend the boundaries of existing data. By fostering discussions and embracing the power of human imagination, Andreas propels the CX world into uncharted territories, defying the constraints of traditional thinking.

And in his quest to unlock the extraordinary, he redefines the very essence of innovation, inviting us all to dream beyond the confines of what is known. Together, this episode embarks on an exhilarating odyssey of customer experience, where data takes a backseat and the realms of creativity and possibility reign supreme.

To discover more and learn about the potential of hyper-automation, check out our full episode with Andreas – available on all your favourite channels. Now including YouTube!

This article summarises podcast episode 91 “Hyper-Automation, the Next CX Boom?” recorded by CX Insider. For more information, listen to the episode, or contact Andreas on his LinkedIn profile.

Written by Marcell Debreceni




Full Episode Transcript

Marcell: Thank you very much once again, Andreas, for joining us today on CX Insider Pod–

Andreas: Who cares? I mean, which customer cares? The customer does really not care.

Marcell: Interesting. Okay, so how many kids do you have?

Andreas: Two.

Marcell: And, uh, what time do you usually go to sleep?

Andreas: 7 p.m. to. I don’t know…

Marcell: Yeah. And where do you live?

Liam Neeson: I will look for you. I will find you. And I will k–

Marcell: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the CX Insider Podcast. Today we speak to Andreas, head of Digital Transformation for Porsche Holding, the retail division of Volkswagen and the largest car distributor in Europe. We’ll be taking a look at the Hyperautomation revolution that Andreas has been driving forth and learning how you can improve your own internal processes to enjoy the conversation. And if you do, why not subscribe to our YouTube channel for CX Insider’s Best Content? And by the way, this podcast is sponsored by ACF Technologies Global Leaders in Customer Experience Management Solutions. Thank you very much once again, Andreas, for joining us today on CX Insider podcast. To get started, would you like to tell us a bit about yourself, who you are, what you do?

Andreas: Yeah, sure. First of all, thanks for having me and really happy to be part of the podcast and at least having one episode on the series. So yeah, I’m Andreas Schmelzer. I’m the head of Digital Transformations and Services at Bosch holding what’s my background? Just know process automation and I’m doing this now for quite a while. Let’s leave aside the years because then I’m feeling even older, but before doing all the process automation part. So really it’s about, from my point of view, hyper automation and getting as much as possible of the workshops into the machine and not in front of the machine. That’s my background. Before that I’ve been pretty much into management, accounting and finance processes. And so at some point I think I conquered and at some point it just got bored. And that’s since then I’m really into process automation and Bosch holding just to maybe to clear this. We are not producing the cars so sorry. We are basically just we are the retailing part, meaning we’re responsible for getting the cars out into the world with our dealers, but also the financial services kind of environment.

Marcell: Okay, great. So just as a first point for some of our viewers who may not be familiar with the term, could you start by defining what hyper automation actually is?

Andreas: Actually, it is, at the very end, the combination, depending on the use case of various technologies. From my point of view, the most important part about hyper automation is really to combine the technologies depending on the use case, not the other way around. By having a technology and then trying to figure out what’s a good use case for the technology. And obviously if you’re talking a process automation, because digital transformation and service means we want to put something in place and we want to change the workforce in terms of what do we have to do in front of the PCs. This means we have to really take into consideration how to orchestrate everything and keep the things in place and that the people are really using that. So it’s really human centric. Even though we are talking so often about bots and technology and I don’t know, but actually we’re just talking about how to improve the workplaces.

Marcell: So that’s really interesting. What was it that initially drew you to this field because you’ve worked in quite a few different companies, all in the same kind of area. So what is it that most interests you about hyper automation?

Andreas: Hyper automation, from my point of view, is really the possibility to ease the workforce in terms of putting the stupid things into the machine. And that’s what driving me, I want to give the people quality time. My home turf is basically the hyper automation part. By understanding the processes the customer needs, the end results and getting them done. And really I’m really looking forward to that. People have as much time as possible to spend them either on high qualified tasks, for instance, or even better family friends and maybe false.

Marcell: Yeah, I guess it’s not just all work is it? It helps in all areas of life as well. So that’s really great. Could you share any like bigger, more exciting projects maybe that you’ve worked on where you’ve seen this from birth and all the way through where it’s really made an impact?

Andreas: Yes, because I’ve built many hyper automation teams now. I think this time it’s now the third time I’m ramping up an automation team inside a company and obviously in different stages because as a scalable startup is simply different like I’ve been before. But nevertheless there are I’m struggling a little bit in terms of having an impact because I don’t know which kind of solutions didn’t have effect. So I’m coming from the other side a little bit. Biggest possibility or change we’ve done is that in every company I’ve been working and I’m talking about process automation, we always challenge the process at the very beginning. So what is the job to be done? Is it really necessary in the future or is it just something we are doing today? And what is the end? So if you’re talking about user experience, customer experience, actually, first of all, to really fulfil these things, I have to understand what is the requirement? What do they need at what certain point in the process, in the delivery, in the product, in the service, you name it? Actually, that’s the most crucial part. That’s the most important part. And without even having done one single development, we already changed basically how we are working because we are questioning our end results. So that’s why I’m a little bit struggling in terms of where we made the biggest impact.

Andreas: I think the biggest impact is actually by those things we haven’t done because it was not necessary and we simply got rid of it. I think that’s by far the biggest impact you can have. And then obviously the second one is if you are really keen on yes, we want to keep that. Okay. Then what is the process in terms of with the least possible manpower in the operation as well as in the delivery then going forward, one example would be the finance process where we at the very beginning got into like, let’s use the invoice process because that’s really easy in terms of everyone can rely on. At some point everyone got an invoice and had to pay. So you’re getting, you’re getting the invoice. And for instance, with OCR, you’re extracting the stuff. But the OCR itself is just basically copying from some kind of input format into a digital format, all the things. But that’s it. That’s OCR. It’s no, there is no intelligence, anything. Then adding machine learning on top of intelligent document processing. If you’re really talking about paper documents or paper document things like PDF and then extracting everything and putting it into an approval workflow. So there is already the integration of like the workflow engine. There is machine learning at some certain point or I think nowadays GPT is substituting AI at any point.

Andreas: So let’s say putting it to GPT and at the very beginning you have the OCR part and you really have to make sure that everything is running. And at the very end is delivered into the ERP system. And I think this is one of the biggest impacts we already had and I think in nearly every company, because that’s a no brainer. At some point, at the very end, no one wants to put an accountant basically in typing stuff from left to right, like from a document into or wherever. Actually, you just want to, if you receive the invoice, have the approval. Yes, that’s what we’ve got. No, that’s not what we’ve got. It’s because we’ve got a different kind of service or a different kind of quality or a different amount for instance. But at the end you want the approval workflow and that’s it. You don’t want accountants touching the invoice. That’s something. What really had the biggest impact? This is also something where accountants can be really a pain if your solution is not working because they don’t want to get this process back. That’s why we are always figuring out how to operate and deliver those services continuously because that’s definitely the biggest impact in terms of keeping them happy and not just making them happy at the very beginning.

Marcell: Andreas is clearly very meticulous when it comes to hyper automating business processes to increase workforce efficiency, but so far we’ve only explored the benefits to such a hardcore approach. Bring any negatives to Surely there are some instances where Hyperautomation simply can’t or shouldn’t be applied?

Andreas: Yes, for sure. Most of the time this is happening. If you’re not taking resistance really serious like in the workforce because not everyone has my kind of approach to automation. There is also the opposite where people are not really happy. I can’t really persuade everyone into that’s the best, but at least you can talk with them and putting the fear a little bit aside by telling them, let’s put it the other way around. Automation is a necessity and not a cost reduction program. The reason behind yes, at the very end, automation has to have an ROI and a positive impact on the company. But this does not mean a reduction in the workforce. Positive ROI is already there. If the existing workforce can do better jobs, more reliable and they are not leaving your company, there is already an extremely high ROI just by workforce not leaving because you don’t have to rehire, get the expertise to the workforce. And for instance, automation is always there. But those are so that’s from my side, the very first beginning where it’s not working. And also the pullback resistance is also coming. If your automations are not working in a reliable way, meaning you’re spending way too much time on maintenance and this does not really if I’m talking about maintenance, it does not mean just on a technical level. We are also talking about maintenance in terms of talking with the business, like, for instance, the process we have to redesign the process every week at some point.

Andreas: They really are they are not keen in seeing you and talking again over the thing because it’s simply not working. There are some certain limitations and I think the third one is really if you focus on the technology, if you just want to, to use the hammer for every problem. So in this case. One certain technology use, don’t you name it, it’s always the same. But this has a huge impact because you’re trying them to fit everything into one technology, even though it does not make sense. Biggest challenge is at the same time, even I do want to automate everything. You always have to say no to things which are not making sense. Don’t try to do everything, but that’s a call you we don’t have to do on our own. That’s also a call. Basically we have to do together with the business units and showing them what’s the impact of doing this or what’s the non impact if you’re doing stuff, for instance, yes, we could develop this and this cost the amount of zero actually you pay, you’re getting yourself more troubles than a benefit. But we could do it. But at some point they are also then saying, okay, this does not make sense. But it was great at least to challenge the status quo and think once again, the biggest impact on automation and all the stuff we are doing is actually by not doing the stuff. So at the very beginning, avoiding it.

Marcell: Interesting.

Adam: Andreas, you’ve mentioned a lot about people and even in what you were just saying there about ChatGPT and I was giggling away because I completely agree. And the main thing that I’ve definitely picking up, forgive me if I’m wrong here is you seem to have a real focus on people and their effect. So when you were talking about ChatGPT there, you could just take the answer it gives you. But unless you’ve got the right personnel and the right people to understand that information, you’re at a huge risk there, aren’t you, of producing potentially the wrong, wrong thing. You know, we spoke in a previous conversation about digital transformation, and I know that’s something that obviously you’re very passionate about and that you’re a big part of your role. I think your approach, and I’m sure Marcell will agree on that people are a huge part of that, you know, consumers, customers and personnel. But what do you think is the biggest challenge with delivering advancement into digital transformation is going to be like merging the people with the technology. What do you think is the biggest challenge in that?

Andreas: I think the biggest challenge is that this is not a 0 to 100. It’s really a transition and a transformation over time. So what does this mean you really like in in a typical development kind of effort when you want to get to a proper user experience or customer experience, you are going to increase the lever over time. You’re not building 100% of the features, then putting it out and then being surprised that no one is using it. You want to learn on the way, basically. And that’s exactly what we have to why It’s called digital transformation. We need to make some certain parts, like for instance, GPT nowadays, at least let them play around preparing stuff for them, for instance, helping them assisting at the very beginning. Then they can take it from there to the next level. So it’s a little bit use it now for preparation and maybe in the next step, training the people how to implement your own data and rely more and more on the technology. So don’t assume that by just having a technology or a use case or a service that it has to be the one thing to rule them all from tomorrow onwards. It’s really a transition into the new way of working. We still have to deliver ongoing revenue streams by changing business models, for instance, but you still have to play both worlds. There is not just one. There is not just current revenues. And then tomorrow there is the new business model and new revenues. There is something in between. And exactly. That’s what we have to it’s an evolution. I think that’s a little bit the challenge. This is not a typical project where, say, that’s the starting point. Those are the requirements I need to develop. And at the end I’m done. Yes, at the end you are done. But you can’t really have the milestone and saying and then my transformation is done.

Adam: That is a tough one. That is a tough one, definitely.

Marcell: Now, there’s a persistent view in the automotive industry that since it’s pretty old, it’s also resistant to change. And Hyperautomation is all about change. So does Andreas think this belief is a myth? More specifically, how does the industry look from the inside out and how can Hyperautomation shape a new era of development?

Andreas: First of all, that’s my own belief. So I’m not talking about the company statement or something like that. So that’s my own gut feeling. No, I don’t believe the industry is resistant to change, but it has a due to the history, it’s hard to change a system which has run like that more or less over decades, and it’s really decades. This is the same like now trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re using the wheel for ages. I mean, literally, even if we have the challenge to reinvent the wheel, we couldn’t or at least it feels like it would be a tough one. And that’s exactly where we are from my point of view in this industry, that for a really long time it worked exactly like that. At some point feel the change is necessary, but at the same time a little bit depending or simply feeling in the future. It was not really necessary or possible. I’m not sure what it was, but once again, that’s my own feeling. I don’t think that I know everything about the industry.

Adam: No, of course. You’ll complete it in about a few years, just like you did SAP.

Andreas: Haha, yeah maybe.

Adam: Is it fair to say, though, that there is without a doubt a change happening in the automotive industry?

Andreas: For sure. I mean, just look at the change basically in the customer behaviour. There is now way more people financing or renting or sharing cars than before. I mean, think a few years back, who would have shared his car or her? No, that’s mine. I know most of the day it’s just standing out there because I’m in the office, but it’s mine. I’m not sharing it. And now you’re having.

Adam: You might move my seat.

Andreas: Yeah. Yeah. But no, that’s. That’s really changing. And simply our approach to mobility or to mobility services is from my point of view, changing. But once again, this is a very personal view. I mean, who would at some point in the past agreed by your purchasing a vehicle and someone like the manufacturer can turn on and off certain services? In my car?

Adam: Outrageous.

Andreas: Yes. And now it’s like, oh, yeah, for sure. No problem. Even paying for it. This has to have a huge impact on your business model or on the approach what you’re doing, obviously.

Adam: No, absolutely. Because obviously technology has made a big thing. Do you think consumers and their use of technology is changing? They’re kind of not only buying behaviour but also what they expect as a customer experience? And is that making a big difference to technology that consumers are using?

Andreas: I’m not sure if the technology is really the leverage or the changing factor. I think it’s it’s simply the more customer and user centric approach. First of all, they are valuing and the technology is enabling that. But I’m not sure if the technology is really the driver behind it. Again, personal assumption is more that my expectation and by seeing bits of different services, online services, stuff like that, by being more international and seeing what’s happening in other countries, in other industries, I mean, just look into the banking sector and all the fintechs in there. Why shouldn’t this happen in my industry? Yeah. And once again, I think technology is really the enabler. But if it’s the driver behind, I’m not 100% sure.

Marcell: As generations grow up and society moves forward, customer expectations, needs, wants, and demands, they’re all evolving too. How then does this idea of hyper automation align with the current trends of customer experience? In essence, how can this kind of digital transformation improve customer satisfaction?

Andreas: I think one of the biggest impacts which we have to take into consideration, and you can see this in many industries, but also processes and services or basically everywhere, we have to take the consumer and the user experience way more into consideration. So having really the outside view on my services and not the inside. What does this mean? Who cares? I mean, which customer cares? How many cost centres are touched by a certain business case? For instance, the customer does really not care. They want to have a service, a good or whatever. That’s what you really have to centre. And not just using this as a headline. You really have to get this into the culture. And I think that’s why we are here in terms of really enabling and questioning, like where is the benefit for the customer, where is the input or the impact on the end result? Are we now faster, cheaper, better? Is there actually a real effect on the customer or is it just because we are used to the, this kind of an approach? There is the bigger leverage in the transformation and this is then basically driving you all the way also for the future benefits or requirements or services by constantly challenging the things.

Andreas: Because if you take user or customer experience really up, then you know your service or good is never finished. You have to constantly work on it and challenge the things and also look outside of your industry and look what others are doing. Simply have a look in who is doing the smartest invoicing process. I don’t care if it’s the smartest invoicing process at the moment in the retail part or automotive Ikea in which where is the best thing and that’s something I want to apply and think that’s something which is keeping you basically on top of by constantly challenging and changing yourself by closely listen to the customers and users. I think the challenging part is there to hear the right things from the user and customers. Not sure if I’m quoting correctly, Steve Jobs, where he said my customers don’t even know what they are doing because otherwise I wouldn’t have done the iPhone or iPod. I’m not 100% sure.

Adam: It was the iPhone.

Andreas: Yeah, but it was not there beforehand. So how could they tell me that they want it? But for the constant change and for the further development of your services and goods and services, I think that’s definitely a necessity.

Adam: Just looking at what you do, Andreas, and the challenges that you must have. Okay. And one of the biggest challenges I can think of is acquiring all this data. But also you are working across so many different departments. You know, you are touching for my understanding, and I think it struck me again, if I’m wrong. So you’re touching data in from sales side, from accounting side, from enquiry side. How do you go about acquiring this information and dealing with managing different parts of the business? Surely there must be some guarded people or not necessarily people, but departments?

Andreas: No, not really. Because I don’t care about data. No, no, because I don’t care about data. Okay. If we are talking about really new services or new approaches, there is no data for it because we are talking about how do we want to work in the future. So I’m starting at a really high level and with many, many talks and trying to understand and discuss possible ways of working. What is the end result? Is this really the expected end result? Is this the end result or is this just the end result you are seeing? But is this really what the customer is getting? Because there are limitations to departments, for instance, where to see where is the real end to end process. If we are talking about the future concept of things, there is not really much data you can already use. Yes, at some point, if you know where you want to go, then you can really zoom in on the existing data. Is it already supporting? Is it helping necessary to build a business case for it? At least there where I’m starting, there is no real data to base my decisions or the things on, so it’s highly communicative getting to the people, talking with them, and at the same time explaining and showcasing how technology could work.

Andreas: I’m not saying that I know your business process. This is how you have to use it, but I’m trying to at least find a use case close to them by just starting their ideas or a little jump start at least that they can get to, to possible ideas to understand where could I use it? Because once again, we have to get the technology into the business areas and also understanding how or where can we apply it. And this is not written in the user manual. This is helping for developers, this is helping for actual users. But if someone is at the very beginning not even knowing what the thing is about and where can it help me and what’s the possible use case, that’s something where we have to be a little bit creative to really jump the things, jump into the things and getting the hands dirty. That’s then the fun because then you can talk with the people and then you get them basically into the concept or not.

Marcell: We have covered how hyper automation can greatly improve the employee experience by reducing working time, making processes more efficient, etcetera. And that’s all great, but it’s largely involved in the internal side of things. But let’s link it back to what tangible real world benefits can hyperautomation bring to customers lives and therefore improve their experiences with your company?

Andreas: I think that we are starting with the customer experience in terms of end result, at least in our point of view. This does not necessarily mean always external customer. This could also be an internal one. But nevertheless, we always have to first of all figure out what it was, was this the end result? Is this the expected end result and challenging this constantly? And with a hyper automation approach, it’s really easy to redevelop stuff to make it more agile. I’m undervaluing hyper automation if I’m saying this has more like a pilot or mockup-ish approach, but at the end from my point of view. Exactly. That’s it. If you’re talking about all the stuff, low code, no code, I don’t know. Basically those are technologies helping you in building stuff pretty fast. Not necessarily reliable, but fast. So you can give it a try and you can get through a B testing then and stuff like that to understand I’m on the right track. Once you know it, then you can develop those things. It’s really getting the customer feedback, also their expectations and at the same time having the data, for instance with a B testing on processes or different workflows to understand are they really using new features, Are they actually hitting a button without the function by showing you, Look, there is no function right now, but it will be there soon.

Andreas: But at least you can count the clicks on the button. And then you see would they really use the function before even building the function? Once again, it’s I think from my point of view, hyper automation has exactly this kind of a playground approach. Again, I don’t want to undervalue it. I think this is the best thing you can have. At the same time, that’s a challenge for companies which rely on sustainable business processes. They are not really used to having this kind of a playing ground for processes, but I think this is one of the highest flexibilities and possibilities we are having here with various technologies. And at the same time technologies are no limitation anymore. You can interface everything with everyone if you want to and if you have the approval. But that’s another point. Basically, there is no technical limitation.

Andreas: Great.

Marcell: So the sky’s the limit.

Andreas: Yeah.

Andreas: If you dream it, if you can dream it, you can build it. There is really no or I can’t think of any use case I could not do within a hyper automation approach. This is a great way at least to pilot the stuff.

Marcell: And what is your vision, Andreas that that end end goal, what is the future that you’re trying to bring to life?

Andreas: To be honest, if I would say there is an end goal, I would be lying. It’s really the big thing that I just want to free up as much unqualified working time by having quality time because time is really one of the highest depreciate goods but undervalued from my point of view. But this is what I’m really thinking about. This does not mean I want to get rid of all the workforce. That’s absolutely not what I’m saying. But if we’re talking about a vision or some possible end scenario, this is really it. So all stupid processes are really where they belong or where they should be running, and that’s inside the machine and not in front.

Marcell: Great. That’s a quote.

Andreas: There it is.

Marcell: Thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed the episode. And if you did, why not subscribe to our YouTube channel for CX Insider’s Best content with full length videos, chapters and even YouTube shorts? Also, be sure to like share and comment on the episode to keep the conversation going. Or you can head over to cxinsider.com and join us there. We’d love to hear your thoughts and if you want to be part of our growing community of thought leaders, then head over to LinkedIn and follow us at the Insider podcast. Thanks again. I’ve been Marcel and I will see you again in two weeks. For now, though, enjoy these rapid fire questions. By the way, this podcast has been brought to you by ACF Technologies, the global Leader in Customer experience Management Solutions. Could you share any stories about like a really awful experience that you have had as a customer interacting with a brand, something that really like pushed you away from a product or service or made you see things differently about customer experience?

Andreas: Yeah, I went to a dealer and wanted to purchase something. I’m not going into detail. It was basically for a home wellness area. It was absolutely because I told them what I want to do and they basically sent me away and said, Yeah, no, no one is doing that. And so actually I really came there with a desire to buy and left with a huge disappointment and just told them, You’ve wasted my and your time because they even had me arrange a meeting or schedule a meeting with them on their side. And so I was really pissed.

Marcell: So that was the meeting they made you schedule that just to tell you that they can’t do it.

Andreas: Yeah, exactly. And even driving there. So was that was interesting.

Marcell: Okay. So Andreas, who is your biggest role model?

Andreas: To be honest, my kids. As stupid as this might sound, because I’m always getting raised eyebrows. How can your kids be a role model? But if you see kids growing up and basically when they’re trying to learn to walk, they are failing basically a year and they’re never giving up. There is no better role model because just think about your own personal learnings or experience and how often you’re refusing or nodding your head and saying, No, okay, it’s not working. And then having kids basically failing a year and at the end they are achieving what they want to do. That’s why they are still my role models.

Marcell: That’s great. How many kids do you have?

Andreas: Two.

Marcell: Two. And how old are they?

Andreas: They are both eight. Because twins. You know, I’m highly efficient.

Adam: That’s very efficient. Yeah.

Marcell: How do you hyper automate your parenting?

Andreas: I don’t know. That’s something I still have to figure out.

Adam: If you do figure it out, please let me know. Andreas.

Marcell: What kind of music do you like listening to?

Andreas: Most of the time. Indie.

Marcell: Yeah. Who are some of your favourite artists?

Andreas: Uh, basically. Really the whole genre. I really like that there are so many new bands I never heard about and they are making great songs and that’s what I like about the genre, always basically learning new bands, different way of music, even though they are still in the same genre.

Marcell: What time do you usually go to sleep?

Andreas: That’s a tough one. It really highly depends on the workload and the kids. And there is a bandwidth of 7 P.m. to, I don’t know, 3 a.m.

Adam: Probably a better question is what was it last night? Can you remember?

Andreas: Yeah. Actually that was 9 p.m. but I got up at three. So.

Adam: Three. Oh wow.

Marcell: Wow. Okay. Yeah. When do you usually get up then?

Andreas: Uh, depending on how long I have to make sport and when the first meeting is started. So I’m always trying to make sports before the first business meeting.

Marcell: What do you like to do in the summertime? What is your favourite thing?

Andreas: Any outdoor activity that’s possible If it’s kayaking, if it’s climbing, I don’t really mind. And the more my kids are with me, the better.