Dr. Michael von der Horst, Managing Director Internet Business Solutions Group Europe, Cisco Systems GmbH 

Michael von der Horst is managing director and Europe lead for the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG). In this capacity, he leads the activities of IBSG for all European geographies. Michael joined IBSG as one of the founding members of the team in Europe. In addition to his management responsibilities, he works for customers in the financial services and manufacturing sectors. Customers covered include Allianz AG, Lufthansa, and BMW.  Within Cisco, von der Horst is member of the German Management team, as well as the European enterprise council.

Before Joining IBSG, von der Horst lead the Boston Consulting Group (BCC) as its principal. His focus was on strategy development, process, IT, and organizational change engagements for high-tech, manufacturing, and financial services clients. He was a core member of the HighTech and IT Practice Group.

During his tenure at BCG, von der Horst received his MBA with distinction from INSEAD, France and took a leave of absence to write his Ph.D. thesis in business administration at the Handelschochschule Leipzig, Germany (published as "Bewältigung von Unternehmenskrisen", 2000 ).

Prior to BCG, he studied at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, and at Stanford University, receiving a German MSc in computer science.

Market Intelligence at Cisco, Keynote, 25th of October

 Cisco is known for its strong rebound after the Internet crisis in 2001 and the successful entering of new markets such as security, IP communications or consumer connectivity products. One important element of this success is a structured and multi-faceted approach towards competitive intelligence. Dr. von der Horst will give an overview of the different elements of Cisco's activities in competitive intelligence and how they support Cisco's strategy formulation and execution.