Workfolio

A good idea or a new technology are always a good start. To succeed we need to create a great product and a profitable business.

Examples:

• Enerliza: Smart Meters and other IoT sensors deliver tons of data around Energy usage.  With a data mining approach these data become a customer value. The software-as-a-service approach makes it attactive to customers. 
• PagePlace: In the early days of e-magazines and e-newspapers we decided to fetch customers where they are. So the team designed a digital bookshelf and a real-feeling turn-the-page experience across different consumption devices.

Defining and developing new business ideas, products and value propositions to enter new business fields and to create more revenue.

Example: Lead of New Projects Design Team at Deutsche Telekom AG, Product & Innovation (> 3 years)

For Deutsche Telekom I was leading the New Projects Design Team which generated ideas and concepts for internal Business Units to enhance Design Thinking and to improve customer experience. As part of Product Design team we established new business of over 4.6 mEUR per year in fields like Smart Home, Mobile Wallet (payment, vouchers & access), eHealth, Security, Automotive, and Customer Service.

Change can help realising transformation but cannot replace missing leadership and own authentic doing in transition phases.

Examples:

• As part of active Change Management during the restructuring of the Mobilcom service provider business the program plan was comprehensively aligned with all internal stakeholders. Furthermore the own planning process without external consulting ensured an identification and better involvement of the staff with the restructuring process.
• In a lot of cases demonstrators helped the team and also the stakeholders to identify with an upcoming product or initiative. Two very positive examples were the demonstrator for the corporate strategy "Connected Life and Work" of Deutsche Telekom and the demonstrator of the new product PagePlace which convinced some big players in the publishing industry to involve themselves with electronic versions of their newspapers and magazines at an early stage.
• Bottom-up conception was a major success factor in the definition and implementtation of a new product development process at Mobilcom AG. As project manager I moderated a team of senior experts from the main stakeholder departments in designing the new process. Therefore the departments were not only involved but also pro-actively informed along the whole design process by their own senior experts.

Co-working on corporate strategy as well as deriving and managing corporate-wide programs and projects for future transformation.

Example 1: Manager for Corporate Development at Mobilcom AG

Reporting and active steering of all programs and projects with corporate-wide impact including sales, marketing, IT and other functions, e.g. consolidation of four branded operations subsidiaries or SAP implementation replacing JDE as corporate ERP solution.

Example 2: Head of Corporate Development at Censio AG

Definition and management of corporate project landscape together with CEO and CFO.

Contributing the preparation and execution of share deals, takeovers and company sales.

Example 1: Commercial case for takeover Debitel - Talkline  (2 months).

• The task was to evaluate the commercial benefit (savings) of a potential takeover by defining a target organisation (staff, size, processes, IT).
• Achievement: Successful definition of a target organisation as a baseline for a commercial deal. Debitel took over Talkline for 560 mEUR.

Example 2: Winning Apple as investor (6+ months).

The company owners wanted Apple Inc. to invest in their small IT company with a very valuable product USP under patent. After creating a short sales exposé we pitched and were invited to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA. The presentation was very successful but Apple had a different investment focus (iPhone and AppStore).; therefore the pitch ended up in a comprehensive cooperation between the company and Apple.

The conception, development and launch of digital products and digitized processes. In some cases I was involved in Digitization before it became a buzzword.

Examples:

• Enerliza (Energy Data Management, 2015 / 2016): Conception of customer value proposition, product & information architecture and customer experience.
• Censio (FinTech / InsurTech, 2000 / 2001): Leading business process conception and corporate development program controlling for the first digital insurance broker in Germany.  Censio was the fastest growing start-up and raised a series C venture capital financing of 45 mEUR. The USP is still uncopied.
• Medien Center (Public Cloud, 2005): Even before Dropbox was founded T-Online International relaunched its consumer online storage solution. I did the requirement conception and collection and became the interim product manager around the successful relaunch. Focus was on media usage, e.g. photo.
• PagePlace (2008) was the first marketplace as well as the first cross-device distribution and reading platform for digital magazines, newspapers and books. I was leading the Product Design and the conception of the demonstrator which became a very successful tool for partner acquisition. This platform was also the software base for Tolino, the e-reader of Deutsche Telekom and Thalia.
• Mobile Wallet: Leading Product Design Team for the Mobile Wallet of Deutsche Telekom including digital payment, access and vouchers on mobile.
• Customer Service App ("DSL Hilfe App"): Leading the Product Design Team for the first two versions of a tool helping customers to solve DSL and WLAN router malfunction.  The main objectives to increase customer satisfaction and user self service ratio were incredibly achieved.
• Smart Home: Leading Product Design Team for conception and launch of Deutsche Telekom's consumer smart home app for heating, security & comfort.

Recognition and analysis of new trends as well as definition and implementation of an innovation portfolio.

Example 1: Implementation of new corporate strategy "Connected Life and Work" (CLW) at Deutsche Telekom AG

Responsibility for the conception of the key enabler online storage (cloud) and the development of the cross-device demonstrator (PC, mobile, TV) which became the main spot on CeBIT stand of Deutsche Telekom 2009. Briefing of sales and customer service units for the first cross-product approach enabling a wider customer experience for video, photo, music, e-mail and beyond.

Example 2: Re-organisation of the innovation portfolio of Mobilcom AG

After implementing a new product and technology development process for internet and telecommunication products the funnel of over 300 ideas and projects was completely redefined and prioritized. Project runtimes and product success improved significantly.

Ensuring continuity for a team, a department or a company and delivering output for daily business and projects.

Example 1: Interim Lead for Cloud Products Design at Deutsche Telekom AG, Product & Innovation (9 months).

• The task was to continue the existing team and responsibility for budget and delivery as well as disciplinary and functional leadership.
• Achievement: Successful design delivery for B2C and B2B products in time, quality and budget. Handover to new Lead for Design of Cloud Products.

Example 2: Interim Head of Marketing at Censio AG (3+ months).

The task was to takeover the responsibility for team, budget and outcome. The team performed so well that I was asked after three months to become the new Head of Marketing in addition to my existing responsibility for heading the Corporate Development.

Make a company or parts of it run perfectly in daily business.

Example: Lead Design Management at Deutsche Telekom AG

Responsibility for the full range of operations and finance management to run a group internal innovation and design team of over 300 people workforce at four locations, e.g. budgeting, accounting, recruiting, process integration, project management, procurement, contracting, IT, facility management, compliance, legal, risk management and so on.

Planning and realising projects as part of or besides daily business.

Example 1: Project management for the of the relaunch design of Germany's largest portal t-online.de (2009 / 2010)

Successful relaunch of t-online.de with designing and testing various versions for a new design. Together with the overall project managment the decision was taken to organise the project in result-driven sub-projects (e.g. start page, navigation etc.). The classic subproject organisation just copying the functions of the company was not succeeding properly.

Example 2: Program management for full market launch of start-up Censio AG

Successful planning of a multi-partner program to launch the first web insurance broker platform in Germany. Target of the program was to setup the whole operational business for consumers including IT landscape. The program included 12 projects, over 70 international people from six companies and a volume of over 8 mDM. The platform was launched successfully after seven months under intensive checks from VC investors.

Crisis situations such as turnaround and restructuring are a chance to change a lot of things at the same time - but for a high price.

Example: Program controlling for restructuring the mobile service provider business of Mobilcom AG

Planning and steering the whole restructuring program including over 60 measures to cut over 130 mEUR of annual operational costs. The program included staff layoffs, organisational restructuring, closing of operational locations, and comprehensive IT and sales measures. The program was successfully closed after 14 months and ended up in-time and 5 % over plan.

Managers and consultants are hired for either pure advisory (consulting) or to achieve results for the client (resulting). In the past I was more involved in creating fast results and success for the company or the client.

From pragmatic to organised success: Help entrepreneurs, young companies and new established units to create fast and sustainable success.

Example 1: Censio AG - From start-up to over 200 people in 18 months

I joined Censio as consultant to lead the team developing customer processes and experience. At this time the company had five to ten employees. The results of the whole Censio team and management convinced further investors and so the company was growing very fast - and with it the expectations of investors and the insurance industry. My tasks changed to Program Manager for launch and finally to Head of Corporate Development and Marketing: what an experience.

Example 2: Founding own start-up FONYM

Talking about founding a company is different to doing it. FONYM was founded to revolutionize telephony by innovative solutions for blocking customers by virtual numbers. Also two other products were developed but not sold good and early enough. At the end the company was closed running out of liquidity.

Learnings: Successful foundation is a question of timing, focus, right partnering and own will and capability to convince people.

Example 3: Growth of Product Design Team at Deutsche Telekom AG

Contributing as part of the leadership team to grow the unit from a workforce of around 80 people to over 300 within 24 months. The designers were involved in multiple forms of cooperation and co-working (waterfall, stage-gate, lean and agile especially scrum). The team in total won over 60 design awards in five years.

Instead of creating more buzzwords and generic "right stuff" I like to make you happy with concrete ideas and proposals.

Just contact me and tell me what you need to be solved.