Overview

AI is everywhere. But when margins are under pressure, is another technology investment really where manufacturing’s next efficiency gain will come from?

European manufacturers are being forced to rethink the economics of the business. Energy and labour costs remain difficult to absorb, regulation is adding complexity, and economic and geopolitical uncertainty are making capital harder to deploy with confidence. At the same time, leaders are being asked to fund AI, automation and digital transformation while delivering stronger returns from the operations, assets and networks they already have.

The harder question is: where is the value actually being left on the table?

In this session, Dennis Sasse, Group Finance Director at Roche, draws on more than 20 years of international finance leadership and experience to explore where manufacturers can find meaningful efficiency gains beyond the technology narrative.

The focus is not on cost-cutting for its own sake, but on the harder decisions behind sustainable cost leadership: where to invest and simplify, what to stop, and how to improve the economics of the business.

Discussion Points:

• Where is margin really being lost and which pressures are genuinely unavoidable?
• If AI isn't the answer to every productivity problem, where are manufacturers finding the real gains?
• How much complexity can manufacturing afford and what should leaders simplify, consolidate or redesign?
• Are manufacturers investing where value is actually being created and what should be funded, delayed or stopped?
• When efficiency and resilience conflict, how lean can manufacturers realistically become?
• Can European manufacturers remain competitive with structurally higher costs and what needs to change?
• Is finance becoming a driver of operational transformation and how can leaders improve capital productivity?
• What does cost leadership look like when cutting costs is no longer enough?