“I want to create lasting values”

For Philipp Fischer, visits to doctors are the most important test of the quality of his work: “When I drive to a customer and he likes to take me to the devices that we have built and delivered, then I know: We have done a good job. That drives me the most. ”In the corona pandemic, the on-site visits were canceled. “I have a strong relationship with the customer. I especially missed the personal encounter, ”he says.

But Fischer can also judge for himself which technology helps medical professionals. He practiced as a doctor himself before moving to Siemens in industry. “I know how much you as a doctor rely on the technology that works around you.” However, it could also have been a degree in chemistry. Fischer recently found his Kosmos C3000 chemistry kit, which he experimented with as a child, in his parents’ attic.

Fischer recalls that he was completely enthusiastic – and even set up his own laboratory. “The great thing about chemistry is that it is playing with the elements that make us what we are.” He was fascinated by the creative and the experimental. The kit as inspiration – Fischer recently picked up the idea at Siemens Healthineers. Each of the 1,500 employees in the tomography division received a set for growing crystals. “We work with crystal technologies here,” explains Fischer.

He grew up in Hanover, but still became a fan of SV Werder Bremen. As a boy he wanted to play football in a club – but his parents wouldn’t let him. “They wanted us to spend the weekends as a family,” he says. Nothing came of the hoped-for career as a professional footballer.

After graduating from high school, Fischer did community service as a paramedic. The connection between “natural science and the human” – that was ultimately what brought him to study medicine. He practiced first in Halle, then in Munich. From 2006 onwards, Fischer worked as a scientist at the Hannover Medical School for four years – one focus was stem cell research.

The move to Siemens followed in 2009. Among other things, Fischer was assistant to the head of the healthcare division. In 2019 he took over the management of computed tomography at Siemens Healthineers. “What I can bring in above all is an understanding of the real value of using our technology,” says Fischer. “Which medical decisions can we support, how can we decisively improve the treatment outcome for the patient?”

A computed tomograph is not a “picture making machine”, but a “clinical decision machine”. “It’s about how doctors come to good decisions as quickly as possible,” says Fischer. “My background, my way of thinking and speaking helps me.”

He is a “rather serious person,” says Fischer about himself. “I am driven by lasting values, not the short-term. I like good craft and I like when you want to do things well. ”He is strongly influenced by“ being sustainable ”. And foresight also counts for him in business. “My father always said: there could be worse times,” says Fischer. “That’s why I always have to look at how medicine, technologies and the business environment are changing, what it means for us – and how you can prepare for them.”

Read the full interview here:

Mr. Fischer, do you remember what you wanted to be when you were little?
My first dream was to join the SV Werder Bremen soccer team and to set a playful tone in the Weserstadion. In my youth I became increasingly interested in the natural sciences – including practical application in chemical and physical experiments. Becoming a chemist was then my professional vision.

How do you measure your success? Does money matter or are there other factors?
Success is when we enable healthcare providers around the world to better treat their patients through technological innovations. The feedback from our customers about the medical benefits and the quality that we offer in our products and services are factors that are relevant to me and that, in addition to the operational performance of our business, I keep an eye on as target and therefore success criteria. For me it is important that we create lasting value – for our customers and for our company.

Are there character traits that are essential for a leader?
A consistent, lived value orientation that encourages identification. Passionate orientation towards inspiring goals. The will to understand things and achieve mutual understanding. Foresight. Courage. Resilience. Serenity. I would also mention the interest in different conceptions of reality and the belief in the creation of new realities in this list – perhaps not indispensable, but stimulating. So all in all a lot and above all: to learn all the time.

Please complete the sentence: In conflict situations am I …?
… interested in understanding the motivations of the actors – including my own. In an open culture of interaction, this often creates the opportunity to find the “third way” together.

What were your three most important (work) results over the past three years?
In our industry, success can only be achieved in strong teams with extensive skills and experience as well as diverse personality profiles. As part of such a team, the consequence for me is that I personally learn a lot more every day than generate work results that can be traced back to myself.

I am particularly proud that, from the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic to the present day, we have been able to provide a large number of hospitals worldwide with high-quality CT diagnostics to treat the most serious cases of illness – and in some cases at very short notice despite serious impairments to our supply chains. The fact that we were also able to strengthen our market position was made possible by the passionate commitment and a level of performance of our global production facilities and regional organizations that goes beyond the limits of the previous.

Together with our global network of clinical cooperation partners and thanks to the tireless efforts of our development teams, we have kept our important development projects on track even in these difficult times. We will be able to develop a groundbreaking new technology to market readiness this year and present it to the public. This will enable us to expand our innovation leadership in CT imaging for years to come.

I was also involved in various projects in shaping our corporate strategy: in our business area for image-guided minimally invasive therapies, in the integration of the Varian company and in the alignment of our business in China.

Over the next three years: What do you want to learn that you can’t today?
Due to the variety of different businesses in our company, I am in contact every week with topics that I learn from working with colleagues. In particular, I would like to better understand and implement how we use the possibilities of digitization to bring the medical data we generate to the respective medical user and patient in a targeted and valuable manner. In the private sphere: start playing the piano again – and get by in the local language on your next holiday in France.

What is your long-term goal or your vision?
I consider it worthwhile and possible to offer everyone a consistently high level of medical care in order to increase the quality and duration of life beyond what is today. Medical technology has great potential to shape individualized medicine in this direction – far beyond imaging diagnostics. Imagine a world in which, at any point in life, the complete medical data would be available in an individualized manner and on this basis, with the expertise of our global customer network and continuously learning algorithms, the best personalized therapy decision could be made at any time.

If you asked your friends, what alternative career options would they suggest for you?
The creative possibilities I currently live out and the responsibility that comes with it fulfill me and I suspect my friends would see it that way too. But broadening my horizons is welcome. In addition to the path to chemistry, I could imagine that the suggestion would arise to turn my passion for forest work and mushroom picking into a profession – but I cannot say what it would be called.

Mr. Fischer, thank you for talking to us.

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