Product Marketing Specialist and InCube Expert Mentor
“Have the courage to start. Either it’s the perfect path, or it’s a lesson you grow from."
Samuel Blaettler still remembers what it felt like to look at ABB from the outside:
a vast, complex organization with countless products, teams, and technologies.
“It’s not easy to understand ABB at first,” he says. “There are so many layers. But once you’re inside, you start to see how everything connects.”
That perspective is exactly what makes Samuel such a valuable mentor in the InCube Challenge.
Just two years ago, he was a student himself, navigating the transition from university to corporate life through ABB’s Discovery Trainee Program.
The experience gave him more than just technical exposure, it gave him a network, a sense of belonging, and the confidence to grow.
“Sometimes it felt like a student group entering the corporate world together.
That helped a lot. We were learning as a team.”
Dominique Stucki
R&D Lead Advanced Service Solutions
Now in product marketing, Samuel works at the intersection of innovation and customer needs. He’s part of a dynamic ecosystem where sales teams responsible for different channels, R&D teams and manufacturing units collaborate to bring new solutions to life, Now in product marketing,
as well as strategically place the existing ones in the market.
"To develop and sell a sucessful product, we all have to work very closely. Without that collaboration, we stand no chance*.
He's seen fisrt hand how small ideas can spark big change. One of his proudest moments came when a product improvement - developed with a colleague - was picked up by the global development team, prototyped and tested with customers, and is now pending release.
“It’s exciting to see something you helped shape move toward release,” he says. “That’s impact.”
"Innovation doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking.It can be a small change.
Something that improves a product, a process, or a customer’s experience.”
Dominique Stucki
R&D Lead Advanced Service Solutions
Samuel’s advice to students stepping into the cube is grounded in experience and empathy.
He knows what it’s like to hesitate, to want to keep every option open when stepping into a profession.
But he also knows the power of choosing a path and learning from it.
"Just decide something. Go there. Have the courage to do it.
Either it will be the perfect fit, or it will teach you what to change next."
Dominique Stucki
R&D Lead Advanced Service Solutions
For Samuel, the InCube Challenge is more than a competition.
It’s a chance to connect, to collaborate, and to show the next generation what ABB is really about.
“I hope they have fun,” he says. “And I hope they leave with a clearer picture of what we do.
And maybe even see themselves here in the future."
