Wiener Linien (Viennese Lines) and Leitbetriebe Austria invited ORF journalist Stefan Gehrer to a controversial business talk in the new Verkehrsmuseum (Traffic Museum) in Vienna. With a number of experts, Hidden Champions discussed about the potential and the challenges of the city of Vienna, particularly in connection with achieving soft location factors, which could make the city attractive for qualified employees.
City of Vienna – Planning Director Thomas Madreiter loos into the future: “Vienna is part of the global competition and public transport is an essential infrastructure factor in international competition.” Monica Rintersbacher, CEO, Leitbetriebe Austria, emphasized the importance of soft location factors for domestic companies: “It is clear that soft location factors are becoming increasingly important in an information and science society in order to obtain and retain qualified employees. Therefore, the importance of quality of life and infrastructure should also increase in this context. In other words, the key figure for the economic development of a city is not just the number of companies located there, but the perceived quality of life – and not just that of existing residents, but also that of potential newcomers coming from outside the city limits.” Günter Steinbauer, Chairman of the Management Board of Wiener Linien GmbH & Co KG, adds: “After all, we do not orient Wiener Linien as a transport company. We produce location advantages on the basis of the operative business of a transport company.”
