First practitioners' forum of the carpenters' guild & MCI

MCI recently presented the first practitioners' forum for carpentry entrepreneurs together with the carpenters' guild of the Chamber of Commerce. The kick-off event of the new series of events was attended by numerous carpentry entrepreneurs from all over Tyrol. Further in-depth events are to follow.

With the Practitioners' Forum, the ZFU Centre for Family Business and the Research Lab "SME.innovation.networks" at the MCI, together with the Tyrolean carpentry trade, are establishing a format that promotes exclusive exchange between small and medium-sized, family-run carpentry businesses and offers them the opportunity to learn from each other and thus strengthen their future and innovative capabilities. The aim of the event series is to transfer scientific findings into practice and make them directly applicable to entrepreneurs.

To start with the content, a comprehensive study was presented, which deals with the future image of the carpenter under the motto "Carpenter 2025". The study is based on a thesis by Thomas Auer, a graduate of the MCI's Business & Management program, and was sponsored by Festool and the Province of Tyrol, among others, with the MCI playing a leading scientific role. On the basis of internationally conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses, future scenarios were developed that allow possible future developments to be identified at an early stage and enable carpentry entrepreneurs to proactively shape the future.

In the style of a World Café, researchers from the MCI were then available to discuss issues with the entrepreneurs that are particularly relevant for owner-managed joinery businesses. For example, topics such as new technologies, structural change, shortage of raw materials, shortage of skilled workers, increasing fragmentation of the value chain, lack of knowledge and innovation management as well as succession issues came up.

Follow-up events are planned for the future to continue working on the particularly pressing issues of the future and to develop ideas and measures to strengthen competitiveness.