Kai-Olaf's life
Kai-Olaf's life
- 1960born in Leipzig – my hometown, a safe home, fatherly in the bosom of the Thomaskirche, influenced early on by the competitive sport of “swimming”
- 1975 Escape to the Federal Republic of Germany – the first break in my life, a new beginning – never regretted!
- 1980
- High school diploma at the Goethe School in Hanover. After that, I wanted to study medicine, but after a few breaks and orientation, I ended up studying mechanical engineering. Did I regret it? No!
- It is what I really like and enjoy, although I would not want to miss the time in the hospital
- 1983
- Start in Munich at the TU with the study of mechanical engineering
- 1986
- A nearly half-year internship at VW in Peru – the first time outside of Europe, immersing myself in a then foreign world, it had a massive impact on me
- 1989
- Completion of studies, at the end of the studies it was clear to me what I wanted!
- Implementation – from development to production. How do you do that? What is important? What can be improved? These were and still are my topics. Are there parallels to my original desire for medicine? I think so, improving, staying fit, that is important for the human organism and for companies to survive.
- If I am asked who influenced me, then it was Prof. J. Milberg. Working at his institute was simply exciting and involved a lot of freedom. And everything that was thought up had to be built as a prototype/model - a very good exercise.
- 1989
- Started working for Planring System GmbH in Friedrichshafen, a subsidiary of ZF Friedrichshafen AG and MAAG AG (Switzerland) in the production and logistics sector. I realized for the first time that it is not enough to make machines faster and better, but that the entire system has to work. I also learned about accounting; logistics without debit and credit doesn't work!
- 1994
- I moved to Ploenzke AG (later CSC Ploenzke AG) and thus finally entered management consulting. In the almost 11 years I was able to fulfill many roles and tasks. They were very exciting years with many great colleagues and I learned that people are part of the overall system. Changes and improvements only work if people want to and can. At CSC Ploenzke I was given the opportunity to set up the Automotive practice with other colleagues. From 1998 onwards we broke down the structures together and developed the automotive topic throughout Germany.
- 1997
- Co-founders of the Forum Kiedrichs, an initiative of CSC Ploenzke and partners under the motto “Those who demand must promote”, personalities from business, science and politics expressed their intention in a joint charter to support start-ups as mentors with their personal experiences and their own network.
- 2000
- Lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Nürtingen/Geislingen, Institute for Automotive Management under Prof. Diez – I am still grateful for the experience and have not been able to get away from this job since then
- 2000
- First founding of the company KOD Power, the practical consulting with a focus on advising small businesses on improving their internal processes and structures
- 2001
- Changed to the DHBW Stuttgart as a lecturer and has remained there until today
- 2004
- Training as a behavioral trainer at the "Konstanz Seminars", I finally wanted to understand what drives us as humans and why we are the way we are (one step closer, didn't really understand)
- 2005
- I moved to Capgemini and stayed for 7.5 years. I learned about strategy consulting, but my heart is always in implementation. Many studies that I initiated at Capgemini and that are still relevant today were carried out during this time. The last study on technological change in the automotive industry is particularly relevant, and we can currently observe the behavioral patterns that have developed. I also learned that there are massive communication hurdles to overcome so that the different levels in the company can talk and understand each other (if the captain of the Titanic had listened to his crew,...) - do you know what I mean?
- 2012
- Moving to Techedge as Managing Director in Germany - a new adventure has begun! Moving to a small company in Germany. The challenge of developing a company had gripped me.
- To date, we have jointly built up Techedge's position in Germany, increased sales - in short, we have grown. We have been able to convince large customers of our services, position ourselves in new areas and with a new team we are now ready for the next step
- 2020
- I actually wanted to go on our big tour with my wife - One Year - One Road. Take a year off and make dreams come true.
- For well-known reasons, this trip could not take place in 2020. But no problem, we will do what was originally planned for afterwards.
- We are establishing the new pillar “Digital Advisory” within the Techedge Group in Germany – strategic advice for our customers in digital transformation.
- 2022
- July 2022 Departure for our adventure
- One-Year-One-Road
- - Return December 2023.
- 2024
- foundation
- LUiS GmbH
- ...
