How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

The numerous problems that the economy is currently facing also pose a major challenge in terms of ensuring and maintaining a good in-house legal service. The omnipresent cost and transformation pressure is forcing many companies to undergo strategic realignment as well as organizational and personnel restructuring measures, which naturally also affect legal departments. In addition to the tendency to have to cope with a greater number of tasks with fewer staff, there is also the problem of a constantly increasing density of regulation (particularly in the digital and ESG areas), a difficult labour market environment (keyword: shortage of skilled workers) and a changed work culture (keyword: home office, work-life balance). In order to reconcile all these aspects and facets, a qualified, motivated and loyal team is required, as well as an interaction based on appreciation, trust and transparency that promotes these characteristics – and I am happy to say that this applies to Konica Minolta’s legal department, because despite the difficult economic waters in which Konica Minolta is also currently navigating, we (i.e. my team and I, who have been stable in terms of personnel for years) have succeeded in manoeuvring our company through safely so far.

What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?

With regard to significant recent cases and transactions, a cross-border reorganisation/restructuring of the shareholdings of several Konica Minolta group companies can be highlighted in the corporate area. In the commercial sector, we were able to realise a number of above-average value deals and obtain a judgement in our favour in a test case concerning the legal qualification of the sale of service contingents

How have you integrated technology into your legal processes, and what impact has this had on efficiency and compliance?

Apart from the fact that all Konica Minolta business units have the option of signing documents digitally, Konica Minolta’s legal department does not have its own contract management system and does not use a specific legal tech solution so far (although one is currently being developed within the company; it is an AI-supported contract analysis tool). For reasons of efficiency, we have instead decided to ‘plug in’ to the IT systems already used by the various business units. This means, for example, that workflows have been implemented in the IT solutions used by the purchasing or sales department, which trigger and process – usually automatically – a legal review or approval of certain legally relevant documents (usually contracts). A separate contract management system is therefore unnecessary and (further) fragmentation of the IT landscape, including all the resulting acceptance and utilisation problems, is avoided. At the same time, the verifiability of (non-) compliance with certain processes or authorisation requirements is guaranteed.

What do you see as the major legal challenges for businesses in Germany over the next five years, and how are you preparing to address them?

From a legal perspective, I think the biggest challenge for companies over the next few years will be to implement the regulatory (EU-) requirements relating to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) as well as in data management and IT security and to anchor them permanently in the organisation. This is because these are not just cross-cutting tasks that fundamentally affect all functions of a company in terms of awareness, implementation and responsibility. Regarding the implementation of ESG-related requirements, it has also been considered, that this is not just a technocratic matter, but also requires a new entrepreneurial mindset, as it is ultimately about recalibrating the relationship between profit-orientation and (potentially cost-intensive) sustainability.