Marcus Dauck got Digital Media India off to an agile start with a view of Swiss media giant Ringier that can change every three months.

Head of publishing technologies and solutions, Dauck told virtual delegates of the moves which introduced a “scrum” mentality and willingness to accept change, how to “live with uncertainty, but do it together”.

The 188-year-old family-owned business has 6,800 people working at subsidiaries in 18 countries, and says one size doesn’t fit all situations, “but technology is at the core of it and we have to adapt.”

Part of the change came with “a little radio station” in Vietnam, which is still a springboard for new ideas and innovation. “Perhaps it was always for development, for media apps and marketplace apps, and as an opportunity to look at the Asian market,” he told his Indian audience.

“It still will be, and will be of greater importance with situations in eastern Europe not as stable as they were.”

Dauck (pictured) joined Ringier in 2010 after roles in transformation at companies in India (including the Times of India) and German giant Axel Springer.

He told delegates the concept of “build or buy” was outdated, and oversaw the move from monolithic systems to cloud-based solutions. In 2010 Ringier was the first to implement Google’s G-Suite, “getting into the mindset of getting flexible,” he said.

Backed by a CHF250,000 (A$370,000) investment in change, Ringier put tech at the centre of its thinking, and people who understand business at the centre of its tech. Today, project meetings include 50-50, “maybe 60-40” business and tech involvement at the table, with flexibility a core necessity, and a timescale ideally of three months.

There is still proprietary software, but Ringier has moved from Escenic to Stibo’s Cue, and Woodwing is just one of a greater number of print solutions, and everything is software-as-a-service.

“We learned the business side doesn’t understand the ‘scrum’ mentality, and you have to sell it differently,” he said. “We live with uncertainty but do it together.”

He said the challenge was to take people with you, to skill and create an environment in which change is a good thing. “Nobody likes change – we are all humans – but technology evolves, and makes it all a lot easier.”

The conference opened with comments from WAN-Ifra South Asia managing director Magdoom Mohamed, and from Warren Fernandez of what is now the SPH Media Trust in Singapore – publisher of the Straits Times – and Shanth Kumar, director of The Printers Mysore.

IPI Global Network’s Australian head of network strategy and innovation Jacqui Park told of the lessons of transformation from Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking of “friction and funding” she told how Australia’s major publishers had shed traditional overheads and moved to a subscription-based model. “They’ve been quite successful at reorganising their cost base and hastening the pace of reorganisation,” she said, with what might be termed modest understatement.

Peter Coleman