The early bird catches the worm! That’s what a respectable group of more than 20 EMBA alumnae and alumni said to themselves and were ready at 7 a.m. for the breakfast event at Migros’ administrative headquarters in Herdern, Zurich West. Fortified by coffee and croissants, we were ready for the presentation by Andrea Krapf, Head of Logistics/Informatics and member of the Executive Board of the Migros Zurich Cooperative. She gave us an insight into the impressive logistical and organisational work that is done every day to ensure that the customers of the Migros shops find the goods they want. (By the way, the really big truck work was already over when our event started – some birds were definitely on the road even earlier!)

The partly empty shelves in the supermarkets when the Federal Council declared an extraordinary situation in March 2020 are unforgotten. In addition to her regular function, Andrea Krapf headed the crisis team during this time – an extremely intensive task in which decisions had to be made repeatedly within a very short time and on the basis of very little information, and business had to be kept running. By the way, thanks to increased production and quickly restocked shelves, we were able to quickly calm the minds of the hoarders, as we learned.

After the “theory”, three logistics staff members took us on a tour of the company, where we were able to see the picking facilities, cold storage rooms, recycling facilities etc. An enormously exciting tour! With all the questions, we put a bit of a strain on the time budget, but thanks to a brisk pace we were able to make up for it.

Conclusion of the EMBA swarm: getting up early was worth it!