After exactly two years, Patricia Neumann returned on October 25 to WU as a guest speaker, now serving as the CEO of Siemens Austria since May 2023, where Siemens Austria covers 25 countries of CEE and Central Asia. Patricia, a WU Alumna and graduate of the WU MBA program, shared some valuable insights on technology-driven sales management within the course 1680 Personal Selling and Sales Management in the Global Context led by Dr. Zoran Latinovic. This talk created some highly interactive exchanges with our Bachelor students. Patricia emphasized points on the highly competitive insights, planning resource deployment, deal reviews, and tactical and strategic planning with an emphasis on stakeholder and relationship management. However, what Patricia highlights is the salience of CRM and customer voice. Regular update of CRM is a key success factor, thus ensuring diagnostic performance management in the coaching-driven relationship between a sales manager and a salesperson.

Before her CEO Siemens Austria role, Patricia has led the Sales for Data, AI, and Automation in EMEA at IBM since October 2021. Before that, she was the Managing Director of IBM Austria during 2017-2021. After an international corporate career spanning more than ten years, which took her to London, Milan, and Germany, among other places, Patricia, who grew up in Vienna, returned to her home market of Austria as General Manager to further advance the topic of digitalization in the cognitive age. Previously, she was also Vice President for IBM Systems Hardware Sales and Sales for General Business in DACH. Patricia gained broad international experience as Sales Director for Financial Services at IBM CEMA (Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa).

We are incredibly grateful to Patricia once again. Local executive leaders set a significant mark in the minds of our students.