The People Factor

Anna is a Business Coach and Consultant with a specialisation in Strategy, Performance Culture and Organisational Design.

Based on her own experience both as a former serial entrepreneur and scaleup coach, Anna helps leadership teams navigate the strategic transformations that are paramount to long-term business success. She combines a select toolkit of frameworks and methodologies with an experienced practitioner's best-practice know-how to create an ideal management operating system for scaling companies and teams. Applying a holistic view, she helps founders and their teams identify and resolve blind spots throughout the entire organisation, enabling companies - and the people within them - to thrive.

Shownotes

00:00 - Intro & Context
04:55 - How to become an Org design expert
08:50 - Scaling up methodology
19:15 - Org design in early vs late-stage
24:00 - Org design by industry
32:30 - Managing oneself, burnout

Links

LinkedIn Anna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-michel-a66179/

Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/
Thomas e-mail: [email protected]
pplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Scaling Up - Book: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Verne-Harnish/dp/0986019526

René Insam is a Digital Product Strategist with close to 20 years of experience working for large financial services companies in the United States, including American Express, Charles Schwab, AIG, and most recently Morgan Stanley. René was born in Luxembourg and spent his childhood living in Germany and Greece before immigrating to the United States, initially to earn his MBA, then to embark on his professional career. He lives with his wife and son in Denver, Colorado. Read more about him in his blog: www.insamity.net

Shownotes

00:00 - Intro
07:42 - Financial Services Industry, 2008 and 2022
23:42 - US vs Europe
33:22 - AI

Links:

René Insam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneinsam/

Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/ Thomas e-mail: [email protected]
pplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Johanna is Chief of Staff at Haiilo with 8+ years of global operations management experience in a global SaaS scale-up, building the company from seed round to acquisitions and integrations. She has managed various aspects of business operations at Smarp (now Haiilo) to ensure efficiency and achieve growth targets and has diverse experience in HR, talent acquisition, fundraising, legal, finance, strategy, and leadership in operations and sales across key markets like the Nordics, DACH, United Kingdom, and North America.

Shownotes

00:00 - Intro & Context
07:46 - Values & Rolling them out
12:11 - +8 years in the company, development of her role, Start-up, Scale-up, Mature company
24:16 - Differences & Challenges in growing across markets like Finland, UK, and the US
30:16 - Learnings & Recommendations

Links

Johanna Rauhala: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannarauhala/?originalSubdomain=fi

Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/
Thomas e-mail: [email protected]
pplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Juliane is a fashion retail professional with expertise in sustainability strategy, CSR, and corporate development. She is known for her strong personality, positive mindset, and agility. Highly motivated and a skilled team coordinator, Juliane is eager to expand her international business contacts and explore new markets. A team player with a passion for driving positive change, she brings a valuable combination of skills and a dynamic approach to any organization she joins.

Shownotes
00:00 - Intro & Context
05:26 - Retail
11:26 - Sustainability & Transparency, Greenwashing
15:26 - Tom Tailor sustainbility & Gen-Z programm
18:26 - Implementing sustainability
24:49 - Success of sustainability
29:26 - Person & Organistion fit

Links
Juliane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliane-nowakowski-89410294/

Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/
Thomas e-mail: [email protected]
pplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Merten is the founder and co-CEO of Ravio. Prior to starting Ravio, Merten spent several years at Deliveroo where he first led the company’s international expansion before stepping into the managing director role for Deliveroo’s APAC and Middle Eastern business. Merten started his career as an investor and has been working in the tech industry ever since.

Shownotes

00:00 - Intro, Berlin vs London
08:27 - Founder Story, VC, Operator, Founder
12:12 - Ravio Purpose
24:12 - Rewards Philosophy, Founder impact
24:27 - Learnings from Deliveroo, APAC, Middle East
29:27 - Ravio vision & next steps
33:27 - Recommendations

Links

Merten Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwulfert/

Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/
Thomas e-mail: [email protected]
pplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Hilary, an experienced entrepreneur and HR leader, believes in the power of positive human interactions for peak performance and well-being. With a background in startups and corporates across multiple continents, she is the CEO and Founder of bestselfy, an AI pocket coach for workplace excellence. Hilary also heads Quahog, an HR consultancy assisting scaling tech companies with various aspects of organizational development, and is a Founding Partner of Strengths Circle, promoting strengths-based leadership. Co-founding The Secret HR Society, she advocates for networks and open-source collaboration. Hilary is from Massachusetts, USA, and welcomes discussions on the Future of Work, Biergartens, American sports, and is fluent in German.

Shownotes
00:00 - Intro
02:32 - HR in early stages
06:22 - Leadership insights
10:32 - Context & Background of Hilary
14:32 - HR victims
23:32 - Internal Hiring and Development
28:52 - Leadership mistakes & learnings
33:32 - Recommendations

Links
Linkedin Hilary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilaryklassen/

Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/
Thomas e-mail: [email protected]
pplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Constanze Buchheim is a pioneering entrepreneur in Germany's digital economy, specializing in "future leadership" and intrapreneurial culture development. With over 15 years of experience, she has successfully built and transformed digital teams in various industries. In 2009, she founded the executive search consultancy i-potentials to address the lack of market solutions for scaling companies. Constanze actively serves as an advisory board member, angel investor, and strategic partner, guiding serial entrepreneurs and boards in navigating the challenges of leadership, recruitment, and organizational culture. Her influence in German business was recognized by the Boston Consulting Group and "Manager Magazin" in 2015, and she was honored as one of Focus magazine's 100 Women of the Year in 2020.

Shownotes

00:00 - Intro

02:52 - Fit & Authenticity

11:22 - Evaluating Fit

19:37 - Context & Background of Constanze

23:52 - Difference in leadership styles and executive teams

31:52 - World Change and Leadership

40:52 - Recommendations

Links

Constanze: https://www.linkedin.com/in/constanzebuchheim/

Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/

Thomas e-mail: [email protected]

pplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Charlotte von Riess is the Director of Talent Acquisition of Doctolib, a healthcare Scale-up from France. Charlotte has a background in Sourcing, Employer Branding and Talent Acquisition at the probably biggest TA organization in Germany, Deutsche Bahn. She is also an Ambassador for female HR excellence and a global leader.

Shownotes

00:00 - Intro
08:22 - Sourcing, Talent Acquisition & Business Partnering
14:30 - Building and running a sourcing team
23:30 - Career tracks, goals & KPIs of a Sourcer
31:30 - Sales Hiring & Sourcing, Recommendations

Links

Charlotte: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottevonriess/

Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/
Thomas e-mail: [email protected]
pplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Gitte is an exceptional leader who embodies forward thinking, change-driven, and global-oriented qualities. She excels at transforming grand visions into tangible realities by developing and fearlessly executing robust strategic plans. Gitte thrives on embracing innovation and staying ahead of the curve to drive progress. Her leadership style is characterized by a strong focus on adopting and implementing change, adapting to new environments, and fostering a global perspective. Gitte is a visionary who combines her strategic acumen with bold action to achieve extraordinary results.

Shownotes

00:00 - Intro
02:30 - Creator industry
08:25 - Background & Deezer
10:30 - Operating System for an organization, C-Level, Board
14:00 - Building trust with Executives, Communication
24:30 - Probem Solving, Politics or Influence
31:30 - Executive Teams, Role of the CEO & Individuals
41:00 - Recommendations

Links

Gitte: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gitte-bendzulla-/

Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/

Thomas e-mail: [email protected]

pplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Christin Glaeser-Seidel is the Head of Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding at wefox. She has a background in talent acquisition, previously working at Deutsche Bahn, working in one of the largest talent acquisition departments in the world. She is also an Ambassador for One Young World, a global organization for young leaders.

Shownotes

00:00 - Intro
05:52 - Corporate vs Scale-up
12:42 - EVP, values, talent pooling
26:52 - Internal mobility
39:42 - Recommendations

Links

Christin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christin-glaeser-seidel-b4b322104/ 

Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/ Thomas e-mail: [email protected] 

pplwise: https://pplwise.com/