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News

News

From the world of KWS

Symbolic act: Managing Director Qiaoni Linda Jing cuts through the white tape to open Genective’s headquarters

Genective’s Managing Director Qiaoni Linda Jing talks about her childhood in farming

Opening ceremony at the Research Park, Genective’s new headquarters in Champaign, Illinois (U.S.)

Talking with guests: Managing Director Qiaoni Linda Jing

A warm welcome: Genective at the Research Park of the University of Illinois in Champaign

Happy together: The core Genective team and delegations from Germany and France

Genective employees show guests the new premises

Managing Director Qiaoni Linda Jing and guests on the guided tour

Good working climate in bright rooms that foster communication

Genective’s headquarters on a floor of the Research Park consists of meeting rooms, a multispace and the lab, including a room to breed insects and larvae

A guided tour through the bright rooms of the new headquarters, which are furnished with loving attention to detail

Research and Development

Genective 2.0

In former times she worked in Chinese rice fields; today Qiaoni Linda Jing is looking for biotechnological solutions in corn research as the Managing Director of Genective, our joint venture with Limagrain. This personal journey from traditional agriculture to modern research was highlighted in March at the opening of Genective's global headquarters at the University of Illinois Research Park in Champaign (USA). A delegation led by our board member Léon Broers witnessed the start of a new era in bright and communicative rooms: After six years, research and management are no longer spread over three countries, and through a cooperation agreement with the crop research start-up AgBiome, Genective 2.0 now has access to solutions for insect control. |

▶ Impressions from the opening


Rollout of new training hub

Our human resources department is currently working on implementing a new learning and training platform: SuccessFactors Learning will initially be available to all employees in Germany as a pilot project. By the time ONEGLOBE is complete, the SAP system will also be rolled out worldwide, with the aim of replacing a number of parallel systems at KWS.

In the future, the platform will map the entire range of internal training offerings: from the onboarding of new employees to legally required instructions, language and IT training and leadership development. Via an individual start page, every employee can book, manage and recommend training offerings and even complete full digital training modules.

An additional advantage: The users have an overview of all completed and future training measures and build up a learning history. And superiors can recommend specific further training opportunities as part of their employee appraisals and keep an eye on the training progress of their employees.

The project team, which includes the Expert Hub Performance, Talent and Development and GTC HR, is responsible for the development of the platform with increasing training offerings and content and will roll it out worldwide after the pilot phase.

All information about the kick-off, the training materials and dates, as well as the further development of the platform will be made available on the KWS intranet at Me@KWS / People Development. |

Info:
Stefanie Diehl
stefanie.diehl@kws.com


A year of Vegetables

Our Business Unit Vegetables celebrates its 1st birthday! With the acquisition of the Dutch company Pop Vriend Seeds, KWS became the world market leader in spinach seeds straight from the start. The development of the Business Unit is very long-term oriented and is based on three pillars: acquisitions, licensing, and the development of our own breeding programs. The main focus here is on the “Big Five” in the vegetable business: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, melons and watermelons. A longer report on our youngest Business Unit awaits you in the fall issue of insideKWS. Then we will also take a look at our new office in Wageningen, the Netherlands. |


Thumbs up

Donation for zoo animals: Our colleagues from Poland donated two tons of wheat to the Wroclaw Zoo during the Corona closure. At the same time, they used a playful marketing campaign to raise awareness of KWS. This was preceded by a deal: users were asked to share a photo on Facebook on which a parrot was picking for grains from the first donation (1,000 kilograms). For each “share” of the photo, KWS wanted to supply the zoo with another kilo of wheat until another ton was reached. In the end, 4800 shares were collected – and more than 400 people gave the KWS Facebook page a “Like”. |


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