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WHO I AM

I have been very fortunate in that my career has been everything but linear. It has allowed me to gain an unusually broad experience and to work in different environments. From make-it-or-break-it startup situations over medium sized companies in turnaround situations to a multinational.

Here are some of the experiences I was able to make during my career:

Startup Founder / Growth and Transformation Driver for Startups
Head of Global Key Accounts and Sales Excellence for a 1bn EUR division
Head of Internal Audit / Inhouse Consulting for a 3bn EUR Swiss multinational
Turnaround Consultant
Financial Auditor

The core strength, which has allowed me to succeed in these widely different fields is the ability to:

listen to people,
understand (their) businesses and processes quickly,
combine (their) hands-on knowledge and my ability to think through process, and
break down problems into solvable chunks, in order to
identify weaknesses (together) and develop better solutions for the future.

EXPERTISE

COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS REVIEWS / RISK ASSESSMENT

Company Quick Check

Do your customers / product portfolio / conditions really serve your company best?

Review of available data / reporting
Identification of missing reporting output
Identification of missing data
1 FTE (Preparation & Report)

Especially for medium sized companies, working with a consultancy with pre-designed solutions is often not helpful. In my experience even companies inside the same international group are vastly different in their problems.

My strength is to listen to your individual situation and discover through data analysis as well as interviews your blind spots and to help you develop solutions as a team.

I am offering a range of services, depending on your individual needs, from fact finding missions (audits/due diligence), also in combination with solution development workshops to get your own team effort started, to longer term accompanied change processes.

B2B SALES PROCESS OPTIMISATION

Sales Strategy Review

Do your customers / product portfolio / conditions really serve your company best?

Review of available data / reporting
Identification of missing reporting output
Identification of missing data
1 FTE (Preparation & Report)

Sales Controlling Review

Do you get the information you need to make the right decisions?

Review of available data / reporting
Identification of missing reporting output
Identification of missing data
1 FTE (Preparation & Report)

Sales Force StepUp (light)

Equip your sales force for better negotations

Review of information gathering
Workshop to

Sales Force StepUp (complete)

Equip your sales force for better negotations

Performance review in product-customer matrix
Identification of mix or condition issues
Review of information gathering

Product Portfolio CleanUp

Margin review in product-customer matrix by sales person

Data based sales force performance reviews (volume / mix / condition issues)

Key Account FlexUp

Preparation / Support in the acquisition of accounts with higher negotiation power

Freelance management of selected key accounts

Better customer understanding leads to a more targeted sales force and deals which are better aligned with the individual company's targets.

Another area I see SMEs struggle with are negotiations with large corporate partners. I have successfully managed negotiations with giant partners like IKEA, Saint Gobain and Leroy Merlin, covering contracts worth well over > 100m EUR, always from the perspective of being the smaller partner.

Depending on your companies needs I am offering a range of services, from outside data analysis to discover blind spots, over accompanied sales force transformation projects to ad interim KAM role to manage difficult key account negotiations.

BUSINESS LEAD SOFTWARE INTEGRATION

Most ERP or CRM software implementations do not achieve the targeted results due to of a lack of acceptance on the local process owner level.

The implementation projects are often run by software engineers, resulting in a "rigid system meets resistant user" scenario.

Successful implementations engage business leads to help local process owner transition to new process standards as well as to ensure sufficient customisation to reflect local needs.

I have supported several projects like this including softwares like SAP and Sales Force.

I am offering to support your implementation process by helping your team to transition into the new processes, ideally starting with support f the spec development, but I also have experience to come in at a later stage and help save the the implementation effort.

See sample projects ....

TESTIMONIALS

"Michael is a very smart and committed professional. He is able to quickly analyse complex situations, develop actionable plans and drive sustainable improvements. I loved working with him! A true teamplayer!"

LARS VOELKEL, Executive Vice President, Head of Wood Products Division at Stora Enso

"I worked with Michael in Franke during the time he was our Group IA Senior/Head of IA.

He showed his professionalism and business acumen NOT only towards risk management and compliance but also gave our business unit a dozen of the brightest ideas how we could improve our business in Asia in terms of market capture and profitability during the bad time in 2009 when global market was in deep recession.

Michael is also an open minded person who is always willing to share his opinion and has excellent interpersonal skills with all staff grade which is adding bonus to him. I have no hesitation to recommend him to any business that needs a senior executive with a “can do” approach and global perspectives."

ANDY WONG, Executive Vice President of Franke Asia and MD of Asia Sourcing at Franke

"Michael and I knew each other for almost 10 years. As colleagues working together, he impressed me with great talents in many areas such as strong culture awareness; proficient operations and finance competences; excellent sales skills and super inter-personal skills. If he decided to come back to the cooperate world, I am sure that his competences, experiences and professionalism would contribute a lot and make him very successful in any industry. Bravo, Michael."

YANG GAO, General Manager at Condair China

"I worked with Michael for 2 years (2013-2014) in Franke Group. We first met in Moscow, as he was a Group Internal Audit Leader.

Michael is a genuine professional with very comprehensive knowledge and wide business acumen. I was positively surprised by the approach he was taking in the internal audit. Instead of concentrating solely on procedures and processes, he introduced a systematic methodology that included the assessment of the general strategy and action plans to win the market, as well.

He led the internal audit team and was a highly-respected leader whose authority was based on knowledge and expertise. Later on, he took over a global position in the Groups' biggest division to lead sales excellence initiatives and projects as well as responsibility for global key accounts (such as Ikea, Leroy Merlin, Saint-Gobain, Kingfisher). One of his main projects was the launch of CRM processes and tools.

I especially respect Michael for having the courage and determination to leave a very perspective corporate career to start his own startup. That is a very rare step that only the bravest take and it is also not often that former corporate executives find their way to success as entrepreneurs. Michael is among few that did exactly that. Above all, Michael deserves credits for his high moral characteristics and strong personal integrity."

Vladimir Covic, Former Cluster Head CIS, Managing Director Russia at Franke

"Michael is the smartest person I know, always at least 3 steps ahead of everyone else. While he always thinks in terms of strategy, he is down to earth and a true doer. Michael has a huge experience both in the corporate and the startup worlds and he is the best of both worlds. We have worked together in the startup side and his help and insights were priceless. I can highly recommend him for any position, where a change agent is needed to bring results like no other."

Tamas Laszlo, Co-founder at Genio Studio and Signt Innovative

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