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Chef für 1 Tag (Be a boss for one day)

Connecting worlds by visits from bosses

The project Chef für 1 Tag (Be a boss for one day) focuses on very special visits from the boss: top managers from renowned enterprises make themselves available for intensified discussions with pupils, thereby connecting the worlds of school and economy. This project, which is continued in 2009 and generating high interest, was initiated by the Anna Schmidt school in Frankfurt and is organised by Focus Money magazine and Stiftung Lesen.

Chef für einen Tag is highly popular with Germany’s managers: supporter Norbert Hansen is human resources director at Deutsche Bahn (national rail company), and is in charge of 237,000 employees. He wishes to highlight that ‘the Bahn as a growing mobility and logistics enterprise does not only bear economic, but also strong social, responsibility regarding all its employees’. Johannes Vöcking, another supporter, manages the operations of Barmer, the largest health insurance company in Germany. The president of its board of directors tells about how Barmer tackles societal problems and how it ‘joins in shaping the future of medical provisions.’

Each award-winning class receives three prizes:
- Close contact with the boss
The boss comes to your school and you can interrogate him for one lesson period.
- Boss material
The whole course or class is invited to a ‘boss casting’ for two days held at a luxury hotel
- Close to being a boss yourself

Winners become bosses themselves for one day at Barmer, C&A, Deutsche Bahn, DEVK, E-Plus, Hessischer Rundfunk, Rewe, Santander Consumer Bank, Tetra Pak and Toll Collect.
Participants include: Thorsten Dirks, director of E-Plus mobile group, Birgitt Gebauer, chief merchandise officer for the European board of directors of fashion chain C&A, Friedrich Wilhelm Gieseler, president of the board of directors of DEVK, Helmut Reitze, chairman of radio/television broadcasting company Hessischer Rundfunk, Alain Caparros, chief executive officer of REWE Group, Andreas Finkenberg, chief executive officer of Santander Consumer Bank, Alfred F. Zopf, president of the managing board of directors at Tetra Pak Germany and Hanns-Karsten Kirchmann, president of the board of managing directors of Toll Collect Germany.

This project is run by Stiftung Lesen (Germany)