What has been your business/work highlight of 2024 so far?

Who is your business hero and why?

Persons like Steve Jobs are really my business hero. The way they brought in 2007 a new product to market with all the risks and today still used by 1.6 billion users is really a hero for me. I know its always big challenge to bring a products to market and understand what the consumers really need especially in today’s fast changing market.

What’s the biggest business mistake you’ve made and what did you learn from it?

I worked in my early days as a datacenter security consultant implementing and designing firewalls, routers and switches. I was ones in a hurry getting a consultancy job done and had to upgrade a Corporate firewall at a customer location. As I was in hurry and felt confident I just took the disk and started the upgrade process. I still remember that moment as after reboot the firewall didn’t come back again with hundreds of employee in the building who didn’t have internet anymore. I felt the heat of the whole organization. We found luckily a backup but that time this was not as fast as today. This felt to me really like a big business mistake and learned never to start an upgrade without a fail safe or backup scenario.

What’s the most inspirational book you’ve ever read and why?

I remember one book “Who Stole My Cheese?” which was really inspiring. It addresses the fear that change causes and show how to successfully overcome it and create new opportunities, both at work and at home.

Do you see change as a challenge, or are you paralyzed by it? The Cheese is a metaphor for what we strive for in life and what we attach ourselves to: an interesting job, a warm relationship, money, a home of our own, health, spiritual balance. Once we have found our Cheese, we are tempted to cling to it. But the Cheese supply is not inexhaustible: a company reorganizes, a partner leaves, illness strikes. The book shows what kind of fears change can bring about, how you can successfully overcome them and how you can create new opportunities from change.

What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role in 2024?

I see work-life balance was one of my biggest challenges in 2024. The work part in 2024 took me lot of time as with all the changes but on the other end also gives me energy. I just need to reset from time to time to find the right balance between work and life.

What technology will have the greatest impact on your business this year and why?

I think the most impactful technologies are AI, hypermobility, and intelligent machines with lot of work being automated the next couple of years. This will grow exponentially next couple of years. I see other movements as well like Sustainability, Operational Efficiency, Environmental responsibility and Supply Chain Resilience I guess things we learned the hard way from the pandemic which really needs to improve for any future pandemic or disaster which could happen.