08.10.2024 / Marie-Theres Hilpert

I've Always Found the Topic of Cyber-Attacks Fascinating

Marie-Theres Hilpert has spent her entire professional life at Muller Martini. A few months ago, the 30-year-old support agent at the Spare Parts Center (ESC) successfully completed her two-year further training course to become a graduate in business administration. She received the highest possible grade of 6 for her diploma thesis on BCM (Business Continuity Management). Read the following blog to find out why she is a big BCM fan, why she enjoys making emergency plans, what her diploma thesis is all about and why she likes working at Muller Martini so much.


 
When I was young, I actually wanted to be a veterinarian, but then I quickly realized that I can't stand the sight of blood, that's why I decided to do a commercial apprenticeship after secondary school, even though no one in my family works in that profession. The commercial apprenticeship is a good foundation for later professional life. It offers many opportunities for various interesting activities, and I also enjoy being  in an office and working on a PC.

The choice for me to complete my three-year apprenticeship at Muller Martini was mainly due to their location as I live very close by. However, the choice to stay with Muller Martini after completing my apprenticeship is because I like the spirit of the family business and the great sense of solidarity among all the employees. There is no elbowing among colleagues, nor is there unnecessary pressure from above. Of course you have to perform, but I think the working atmosphere is excellent. I therefore plan to stay at Muller Martini for many years to come.

Completely happy
After my time as an apprentice, I first worked as a clerk in the spare parts center (ESC). After two years of further training as an executive assistant at the Minerva School in Aarau, I switched to ESC Support. There I am responsible for pricing of spare parts and the webshop. By trying to better understand the user experience, we are constantly improving the webshop and, together with our IT Department, adding even more customer-friendly features. There are approximately 250,000 items in our webshop and our goal is to continuously develop it. Two or three times a year, I visit Swiss customers to get feedback and measure customer satisfaction – always with the aim of optimizing the webshop for our thousands of customers worldwide.

I'm very happy in this job. No two days are the same. My job is extremely diverse and varied and that's how I like to work. In addition to customer contacts, I particularly like the various projects – such as the synergy gains following Muller Martini's acquisition of Hunkeler. For example, individual Muller Martini market organizations are already ordering Hunkeler spare parts from us.

My role doesn't have anything to do with the machines we build, but I regularly take a look at our Print Finishing Center in Zofingen and am amazed that all our webshop parts are in there.

I like to make contingency plans
I don't have any specific career plans for the future but I am very inquisitive and enjoy contributing to the company's development and to achieving its goals. This is why I completed a further two-year, part-time course at the HSO Business and IT School in Aarau to become a graduate in Business Administration HF and my diploma thesis was on the topic of BCM. In business administration, Business Continuity Management (BCM) refers to the development of strategies, plans and actions to protect activities or processes whose interruption would cause serious damage or devastating losses to the organization (e.g. operational disruptions) and to enable alternative processes.

I'm a big BCM fan and I like making emergency contingency plans. After all, there are many kinds of emergency scenarios: damage caused by natural forces such as fire or water, power failures, cyber-attacks or internet outages. This is why every company – regardless of size – should have an emergency plan in place to ensure that their day-to-day business continues.

18,000 words and a coffee machine put to the stress test
My final diploma thesis relates to our ESC. Here I focused on the IT component – specifically a cyber-attack. My work had to have a business benefit and I've always found this topic exciting. Alongside a specialist from Muller Martini I was able to explore this in depth. Of course, I cannot reveal here exactly how I did it – after all, I don't want to give potential hackers any free tips – but I will say this much, Muller Martini is now well prepared for a cyber-attack.

I worked alone on the 18,000-word diploma thesis for five months. My coffee machine was in high demand during this time! The five copies required by the school, of 120 pages each, were digitally printed at our in-house Print Center. After that, they were bound on our Vareo PRO perfect binder in our Print Finishing Center.

Top grade 6
I received a grade 6, the top grade,  for my diploma thesis. Of course, I was delighted with this as it made all the effort – including several weekends – completely worthwhile. I was so happy when I found out about the grade that I invited my family to a restaurant for dinner so that we could toast my success together.

Thanks to this additional training, I now have a broader knowledge of business administration that I can use in my day-to-day work. I don't have a clear career plan yet,  I'm taking each step as it comes however, I can see myself doing further training in the next few years.
 
Yours
Marie-Theres Hilpert
Pricing and eShop Manager ESC Müller Martini
 
Read this blog by Marie-Theres Hilpert from February 18, 2020 on the Muller Martini website.
08.10.2024 Marie-Theres Hilpert Export Clerk in the Spare Parts Service Center