Gerald Pötzsch, welcome to ContextVision. You know, the second quarter was fantastic and needs an explanation. Now, how is it possible?
Well, yes, the first and the second quarter were fantastic, if you have a look at the sales figures, up there. There are some one-offs included, but I think the trend is very clear. Sales is growing. That has a reason. We have strongly focused on the core business, and that is really bearing its fruit. Let me give you one example. For instance, in ultrasound, we have invested heavily into new products. We were able to launch two of them, earlier this year. Rivent 3D and Rivent Mobile. You see the impact in sales increasing.
Will this growth continue?
That I'm very sure. Working most of my career within the OEMs, I'm very confident that we can deepen and increase our strategic partnerships with the OEMs. You know, keep in mind, we have a unique position in the image processing chain, so we're deeply integrated into the system architecture, and that allows us to deeper integrate our collaborations with the OEMs.
You know, you say you've been working, you know, most of your adult life at an OEM, but who is Gerald Pötzsch?
Well, indeed. Time flies, and there's been many leadership positions that I've been through, both in the market organization as well as in global business. I have been living in, you know, different geographies and different countries, in APAC, in Europe, and in the U. S. I think it was back in 2010 where one assignment to lead the imaging business within Philips took me into the Nordic countries, and I moved the family to Stockholm. Although we moved later on for business reasons into the US, our heart somewhat stayed in Sweden. I'm actually very happy to finally find an opportunity to come back into the Stockholm area.
Okay. Philips, a big conglomerate. Now you're working at ContextVision. It's a bit smaller. You know, does it scare you?
It doesn't. Actually, a lot of my former colleagues said, "Once you've successfully landed into a small organization, you're never gonna come back into a big corporate organization." I think also from a more professional perspective, the large OEMs have understood and are trying hard to become more agile. I was given early on the opportunity to build up a global solution business, and that was mainly to raise funds internally to create new venture teams and to quickly generate new revenue streams within corporate. I think that is a learning that really will help me in landing well in ContextVision.
Yeah. All right. You've just been there for, you know, nearly two weeks, so it's not too long. So far, has ContextVision met up to your expectations?
Well, more than that. If you look into the results, what more can I expect as tailwinds for a good start? Other than that, I have already had the chance to talk to many of the people in the organization and the different teams, and I must say, I'm impressed by the people that we have, strong senior experts, but also young and fresh talent influx. It's a fantastic opportunity ahead if we look to our capabilities. Also the investor base I see as very strong, and I'm really looking forward to work together.
Yeah. All right. One last question. How will your leadership impact ContextVision?
Well, that's a good question. I think first and foremost, the core business has a huge opportunity given the collaborations, the partnerships that we're seeing with the OEMs, and that is something that we really can push forward, and it'll give us big opportunities. Other than that, I think I would love to strengthen the outside in perspective really driving those strategic partnerships into deeper collaborations. Not only integrating our software into the system architecture, but really collaborating and integrating the development processes together. That's a kind of solution thinking where I also believe the strength of our service organization is vastly under-evaluated.
It is a very, very strong asset in deeply working together with our customers, and that's something we're going to strengthen.
Well, you know, it seems like ContextVision is heading for a good time. Thank you, Gerald, and good luck.
Well, thank you, and hope to talk soon.