The GDI has reorganised itself, bringing research, innovation and leadership together

Media release

Rüschlikon, 30 January 2024 - The Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI) has reorganised itself. It has combined its traditional trend research with the complementary areas of innovation consultancy and leadership development under the management of Susan Shaw and Tanja Ineichen. This new orientation enables the institute to build a bridge between research and practice. 

The GDI is one of the most renowned think tanks in Switzerland. Since the start of this year, it has been offering not only research but also innovation consultancy and management development. The GDI's activities focus on the retail, food and healthcare sectors, which it examines from the points of view of society, technology and the environment. "Especially in times like today, in which we are witnessing increasingly dynamic change, carrying out research into future possibilities and implementing specific innovations are all the more important for society and companies alike," says CEO Lukas Jezler. "Our research, innovation consultancy and management development give our customers the right tools to tackle and master their main challenges." 

Susan Shaw is the new Head of Strategic Services

Susan Shaw has been managing our innovation consultancy as the Head of Strategic Services and a member of the Executive Board since 1 December 2023. A social scientist with extensive experience in market research, she was most recently the managing director of GIM Suisse. Throughout her career, she has intensively studied the interactions between people and brands, products and services. She has conducted countless studies on customer needs in a wide range of industries and worked with companies to determine the future behaviour patterns of consumers. "At Strategic Services, we explore what the findings of our think tank mean for individual sectors and companies, as well as their target groups. We support companies with everything from identifying and evaluating trends to defining action fields and developing trend-based innovation concepts," Shaw says about the GDI's new offering.

Tanja Ineichen is our Head of Leadership & Transformation

In addition to researching trends at the societal level and providing strategic innovation consultancy at the corporate level, the Leadership & Transformation team under Tanja Ineichen rounds out the GDI's product range at the personal level. "The senior managers that shape the future are the driving forces for innovation in companies. Their vision creates a bridge between a possible way of shaping the future and the way that their organisation is actually doing so. Our services assist managers with their personal development and support them in shaping their teams and organisations," Ineichen says. Tanja Ineichen has extensive experience in the retail industry, having spent more than 15 years setting up and managing group-wide leadership development initiatives within the Migros Group. 

Along the value-added chain 

The GDI's new offering builds on the established strong foundation in trend research laid by Gottlieb Duttweiler more than 60 years ago. Under the management of Dr Johannes Bauer, the GDI's research department now offers studies, presentations and leading international trend conferences. The findings of its research flow directly into practice. "Our strong team dedicated to trend research, innovation consultancy and management development enables us to keep our promise of 'creating futures'. We are researching the future and shaping it together with companies," Lukas Jezler says.


Media contact

Franziska Wiesner
Head of Marketing and Communications
GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
Rüschlikon
Phone +41 79 542 00 30
franziska.wiesner@gdi.ch 

Über das Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut

 www.gdi.ch