Statista

Agents in the Org Chart – don’t miss this one ⬇️ A smart and thought-provoking title chosen by Annika in der Beek and Joe Atkinson that I fully endorse! 😎 Yep, you can sleep well... our AI agents don’t manage people :) But... 👉 Are we driving AI transformation at Statista gradually and smartly? Yes! 👉 Do we believe that fair AI use in the hiring process is cool? Yes! 👉 Do we ask ourselves, “Hype or real value?” Absolutely! If you find the topic interesting... sign up below!

Continuing our Statista R topic cluster series: this time, we're turning to Recruiting. Finding the right recruiting partner has become increasingly complex. Companies are not just looking for access to talent, they are looking for expertise, trust, and long-term fit. That holds true across markets and geographies. Bringing transparency into this fragmented landscape requires consistent, survey-based methodology. Recruiting is one of our global topic clusters. We produce rankings in several countries with different media partners, each adapted to the local market but built on the same methodological foundation. Together with Forbes, we recently published the tenth edition of America's Best Recruiting Firms. The ranking covers three categories: Executive Search, Professional Search, and Temporary Staffing, reflecting the full breadth of the U.S. talent acquisition market. The evaluation draws on tens of thousands of responses from recruiters, HR leaders, hiring managers, and candidates. Peer recommendations and direct experience assessments are combined into a scoring model that makes quality visible across firms and industry sectors. After ten editions with Forbes, what I value most is seeing how this work has become a reference point for an industry that thrives on relationships but rarely gets measured. The full list is on Forbes' website: https://lnkd.in/egXFQDrJ

Agentic commerce sounds like a bit of a buzzword at first, but it’s actually a pretty interesting shift. Among State of e-commerce in Europe and Social Commerce, Koen van Gelder spoke with Zalando’s Insights Team about exactly that. We covered trends, background, and how e-commerce is changing right now. And it really is changing, especially in the discovery phase. Not too long ago, Google was the default starting point. Now, people are already using AI to find products or get inspired. That alone is starting to reshape things. And if you take that idea a step further, it starts to feel a bit sci-fi: personal shopping agents that know your size, preferences, and payment methods, and just handle purchases for you. You say “I need a new T-shirt,” and it shows up the next day. No browsing, no webshop, nothing. Kind of a wild thought. Of course, there are still plenty of open questions. Legal, commercial, trust-related. Especially in Germany, there’s still a noticeable level of AI skepticism (see slide), even if it’s slowly declining. Let’s see if or how quickly this actually becomes reality. Thanks a lot to Dr. Alexander Witmaier for welcoming Sophia Kappus, Koen van Gelder and me at Zalando HQ in Berlin (PS: Looking good in Statista merch 😊). If you want to go deeper into AI Consumer, the whitepaper “Decoding AI-Consumers” has some interesting perspectives (link in comments).

A personal note to my network: Someone from my personal close network — a highly experienced senior finance executive across controlling, accounting, governance, compliance, and HR — is open to a new challenge in the Cologne region, or in a commutable hybrid set-up. I know him as a true team player, rock-solid also in turbulent time, highly trustworthy, and someone who works against high standards and brings structure and reliability to critical roles, so important in today's times. To be clear, this is not a hire for Statista. I’m simply sharing someone I believe could be a great addition to the right organization. If this sounds relevant for you or your company, feel free to reach out to me directly.

We were sad to hear about the layoffs at Bauer Media Group According to the press, the German digital unit will be closed by September 2026, affecting around 160 employees. We encourage the Hamburg-based colleagues who were impacted to go through our vacancies and see whether there’s an interesting opportunity for them at Statista . 🔗 Link to our job board in the comments

Not only the aircraft but also time flies when you're moving your life across the ocean! It has been a few weeks since my final day at Statista on April 2nd. While I intended to share this update sooner, the sheer intensity of an intercontinental move with my family from New York City back to Germany has kept me away from the keyboard until now. Reflecting on my time leading Operations in the Americas and working alongside the incredible Revenue team, I am filled with gratitude. Moving to New York was a pivot point. It was undoubtedly the most transformative chapter of my career and my life. I want to thank Statista's leadership team for the opportunity to work and live in New York for the past five years. And I want to thank my colleagues for all the fun we had and all the experiences we shared. What’s next? We have officially landed and are settled back in the Munich area. The next weeks will be filled with travel, reconnecting with friends and family across Europe and enjoying my beautiful home - the Allgäu. While I don't have a specific next step to announce just yet, I am incredibly excited about the future and the new perspectives I’m bringing back with me to Europe. Stay tuned for what’s coming next! In the meantime, I’m looking forward to re-engaging with my network. Whether we’ve worked together in the past or haven’t met yet, I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to lately or simply grab a virtual (or local) coffee to catch up. Feel free to reach out. I’d love to hear from you.

Continuing our Statista R topic cluster series, this time focusing on Innovation. Innovation has always been a defining feature of the American economy. The companies that move entire sectors forward are those that continuously rethink how they operate, what they offer, and how they create value. But identifying these companies in a rigorous, comparable way requires more than intuition. It takes methodology. That is exactly where our work begins. About two weeks ago, together with Fortune, we published the fourth edition of America’s Most Innovative Companies 2026. The ranking evaluates 300 U.S. companies across three dimensions: Product Innovation, Process Innovation, and Innovation Culture. What makes this approach robust is the combination of perspectives and data sources. Large-scale employee surveys capture the internal view by showing how innovation is actually lived within organizations, while external assessments add context on how companies are perceived within their industries. In addition, the total strength of each company’s patent portfolio is taken into account, providing a further data-driven dimension to the evaluation. What I find particularly meaningful about this ranking is that it goes beyond the obvious names. It highlights companies across sectors that may not always be in the spotlight but are doing genuinely innovative work and creating lasting impact. The full list is available on Fortune’s website. You can find it here: https://lnkd.in/egQe4z39