Our anniversary events celebrating 100 years of König + Neurath

Karben, 23 September 2025. König + Neurath celebrated its 100th anniversary not by looking back, but by looking ahead: K+N LIVE 2025 transformed the WORK.CULTURE.CAMPUS in Karben into a future laboratory – for everyone who wants to rethink and redesign work in the office. Over 400 invited guests, partners and friends openly discussed work culture, circularity and artificial intelligence. The format deliberately focused on dialogue rather than commemoration: no glossy slides, but open questions, clear positions and ideas that will have a lasting impact. In the evening, a festive gala with around 400 guests crowned the anniversary week.

The day's programme consisted of three blocks of sessions with renowned thought leaders. The presentations ranged from innovation and transformation strategies to sustainability and AI ideas for office and work culture.

• Tijen Onaran (entrepreneur, investor): ‘Diversity is not about being a do-gooder. It is an economic imperative.’ Her appeal: think more courageously, inclusively and visibly about leadership – without fear of change.
• Holger Stanislawski (entrepreneur, former professional trainer): ‘Leadership means seeing people as a whole – not as resources. And that also requires courage at the decisive moment – because defeats come all by themselves.’ His credo: more genuine communication, less management jargon.
• Anders Indset (economic philosopher) opened up spaces for thinking about technology, ethics and economic responsibility: ‘There is no shortage of answers, but rather a shortage of the right questions.’
• Tim Jansen (ProjectTogether / Cradle to Cradle): ‘Systemic change instead of symbolic politics: sustainable value creation needs new alliances and responsibility beyond corporate boundaries.’
• Dr. Jens-Uwe Meyer (Innovationskultur) showed that true disruption does not come from tools, but from freedom of thought: ‘Innovation is not a project. It is an attitude.’
• Dr. Nadja Henkel (Und wie willst du arbeiten?): ‘Self-organisation and psychological safety as the basis of modern collaboration.’ Her central concern: Leadership must enable – not control.
• Yaël Meier (ZEAM, Gen Z expert) spoke about the changing expectations of younger generations regarding work culture: ‘We don't want a table tennis table. We want to be taken seriously.’ An eye-opener for many visitors.
• Dr Michael Trautmann (OTWTNW) combined experience, pace and depth: ‘New Work is not a feel-good project – it is a leadership upgrade.’
• Johanna Matheis (solicitor at Oppenhoff): ‘Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular need to address succession planning at an early stage in order to ensure the long-term and cross-generational preservation of assets.’
• Anna Alex (founder of Planetly and Outfittery) demonstrated with clarity and entrepreneurial conviction that sustainability is not an image factor, but a strategic lever for success. ‘We must stop thinking of sustainability as an extra. It is the new normal.’

Holger Steinbrecht, Head of the new seKNd.life business division, outlined how König + Neurath integrates the circular economy into its value chain: manufacturer-independent take-back, professional refurbishment and reuse of office furniture, and resource-saving recycling.

This bundles the R strategies Re.use, Re.furbish and Re.cycle into a continuous recycling cycle.

‘Sustainability only works if it is systematically thought out and consistently integrated into the business process – not as an add-on, but as a matter of course.’

The message of the day: the circular economy is not a vision – it is reality.