February 2, 2019
January 24, 2014
Urs Berger – Der CEO im Dialog mit dem Unternehmen
Urs Berger ist heute Präsident des Verwaltungsrats der Mobiliar Versicherung. Zuvor war er CEO der Mobiliar, und davor CEO Schweiz der Baloise Versicherung. Im vorliegenden Gespräch schildert er, wie er als CEO auf methodische, seiner eigenen Art entsprechende Weise mit den Mitarbeitern an der Unternehmensbasis in den Dialog tritt und dadurch eine Vertraunensbeziehung im Unternehmen aufbaut, die als Basis dient für konstruktive Auseinandersetzungen.
July 24, 2013
In Memoriam Carsten Schloter
We are devastated by the tragic death of Carsten Schloter, CEO of Swisscom.
I cannot understand what has happened. But I would like to help those of us who want to remember the person he was, at least as a professional. Someone who has a very compelling way of reflecting about his behavior and leadership.
Earlier this year I have published a text based on an interview with Carsten. I am reposting this text below, together with the full audio recording of the interview. Maybe it transmits more of how this man has been reflecting, how he developed his thoughts on the corporate mindset, on leadership, and on himself.
That is how I would like to remember him.
Carsten Schloter – People’s Energy for the Corporation
Carsten Schloter in conversation with Bernhard Sterchi, 4 December 2012
How to run a business that has to compete in an ever faster moving world of innovations in technology and customer needs? Swisscom has mastered these challenges better than many in the industry. In addition, in my opinion, Swisscom stands out by the fact that the management team has a high awareness of the importance of the common mindset for the performance of the company. On another occasion, Carsten Schloter has even gone so far as to say that the bottleneck in the recent complexity crisis is not the technology, not the money, but people. The following key messages from our conversation describe his present focus in leadership.
Carsten Schloter_Energie von Menschen
Carsten Schloter_People’s energy
July 17, 2013
The Discipline of Innovation at SRI
What we can learn from the organization whose innovations are in just about every technological device around you!
When it comes to groundbreaking digital, technological and scientific innovations, SRI International is the backbone of Silicon Valley. SRI’s very business model is innovation, either as a contract research and development institution, or with the purpose of developing, and then selling or licensing out breakthrough technologies. Examples range from the computer mouse to LCD display, SWIFT banking system, HD television, and the software at the basis of SIRI and Nuance – all these technologies have been developed by SRI. Just watch this short summary of the “mother of all demos“. And then think that this demo is from 1968, the year the first mass-marketed PC was just introduced, the office cubicle was just invented, and many of us were not even born yet – and let me know if your brain is still in the same place.
So how do they do it? Is it just because they have managed to collect a bunch of geniuses?
Not quite.
In this conversation, SRI’s CEO Curt Carlson and Palladio Associate and EDG Principal Herman Gyr talk about SRI’s current innovation system. Describing some of its central elements, principles, and processes, and sharing the experience they have made with SRI’s legacy and its latest development, they show how tangible, practical, but also how disciplined a systematic approach to innovation can be.
June 11, 2013
Freitag – Authentizität als Unternehmensbasis
Starke Marken transportieren Authentizität.
Wie kommt es denn, dass viele Firmen, die diesen Weg zu gehen versuchen, in irgendeiner Form “nicht echt” wirken? Ich glaube es gibt zwei Aspekte, die das Echte vom Aufgesetzten unterscheiden. Authentizität muss im Kern entstehen, sie ist nicht das Resultat eines Designprozesses. Was aber bewusst gestaltet werden kann und muss ist die Stringenz zwischen der Markenidentität und der internen Funktionsweise der Firma. Intern muss gelebt werden, was beim Kundenerlebnis wirksam sein soll.
Ein herausragendes Beispiel ist der Schweizer Taschenhersteller Freitag. CEO Monika Walser zeigt im Gespräch, woher diese Authentizität kommt, was das Verhältnis zwischen den Mitarbeitenden und dem Kundenbedürfnis ist, und vor allem wie sich die Firmenidentität in Abläufen und gemeinsamen Verhaltensmustern niederschlägt, die bewusst so gestaltet – oder öfter: bewusst so zugelassen worden sind.
April 29, 2013
Carsten Schloter – People’s Energy for the Corporation
Carsten Schloter in conversation with Bernhard Sterchi, 4 December 2012
How to run a business that has to compete in an ever faster moving world of innovations in technology and customer needs? Swisscom has mastered these challenges better than many in the industry. In addition, in my opinion, Swisscom stands out by the fact that the management team has a high awareness of the importance of the common mindset for the performance of the company. On another occasion, Carsten Schloter has even gone so far as to say that the bottleneck in the recent complexity crisis is not the technology, not the money, but people. The following key messages from our conversation describe his present focus in leadership.
April 17, 2013
Self-organisation: A Company Managed by a Document
What happens if a company is self-managed, meaning it has no clear, pyramid-shaped hierarchy of command and control? The Seattle-based, 300+ employee game developer Valve is a great example – if we are to exaggerate a bit, they are run by a document.
We’ve heard that other companies have people allocate a percentage of their time to self-directed projects. At Valve, that percentage is 100.
(Valve Handbook for New Employees)
This is not just a company happening to be like that because that’s how it happened, but the founders have made a lot of experience in large and small IT companies, and have concluded that since the market is moving so fast, their organization needs to focus on innovation, speed, and flexibility. Amongst today’s many voices on self-organisation taking on a moral tone and going along the lines of “I’m not happy with the kind of management I have to work for, therefore management is bad”, it is refreshing how utterly pragmatic Valve’s approach is. It is also not the application of a boxed set of tools, but a design by Valve, for Valve. And that’s how it should be.
It’s worth checking out the implications on self control functions they have thought about. If every employee has comparatively huge freedom of decision (and responsibilities!), it is essential to have a very thorough recruiting process. If everyone can decide on which project they want to work, they must be careful not to start a fierce and continuous competition amongst projects for the best people. They have also created two peer feedback processes which have a large impact on people’s development and (is this old-school?) salary.
Here’s a Valve employee’s blogpost which describes the experience of working at Valve in the context of the IT developers industry.
If you want to have a look at the real thing: Valve Employee Handbook