Kai-Olaf's life

  • 1960Born in Leipzig – my hometown, a safe home, fatherly in the bosom of St. Thomas Church, 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 it!
  • 1980I graduated from the Goethe School in Hanover. After that, I wanted to study medicine, but after a few breaks and a bit of reorientation, 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
  • 1983Start in Munich at the TU with the study of mechanical engineering
  • 1986A 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
  • 1989Completion 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's important? What can be improved? These were and still are my priorities. Are there parallels to my original desire for medicine? I think so, improving, staying fit, that's important for the survival of both the human organism and companies.
    When asked who influenced me, it was Prof. J. Milberg. Working at his institute was simply exciting and offered a great deal of freedom. And everything you came up with had to be built as a prototype/model—very good practice.
  • 1989I started working for Planring System GmbH in Friedrichshafen, a subsidiary of ZF Friedrichshafen AG and MAAG AG (Switzerland), in the production and logistics department. For the first time, I realized that it's not enough to make machines faster and better; the entire system has to work. Along the way, I learned about accounting; logistics doesn't work without debits and credits!
  • 1994I moved to Ploenzke AG (later CSC Ploenzke AG) and thus definitively 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 are willing and able. At CSC Ploenzke, I had the opportunity to build the Automotive Practice with other colleagues. Starting in 1998, we broke down the structures together and developed the automotive topic throughout Germany.
  • 1997Co-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 to support start-ups as mentors with their personal experience and their own network in a joint charter.
  • 2000 Lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Nürtingen/Geislingen, Institute for Automotive Management with Prof. Diez – I am still grateful for the experience and have not been able to get away from this activity since then
  • 2000 First founding of KOD Power, a practical consultancy focused on advising small businesses on improving their internal processes and structures
  • 2001 Change as a lecturer to the DHBW Stuttgart and has remained there until today
  • 2004 Training as a behavioral trainer at the "Konstanz Seminars", I wanted to finally understand what drives us humans and why we are the way we are (one step closer, but I didn't really understand)
  • 2005 I moved to Capgemini and stayed for 7.5 years. I learned about strategy consulting, with my heart always on implementation. Many studies that I initiated at Capgemini, which are still relevant today, date back to this time. The most recent study, on technological change in the automotive industry, is particularly relevant today; we can still observe the behavioral patterns that have developed. I also learned that massive communication barriers have to be overcome so that the various levels within a company can communicate and understand each other (if the captain of the Titanic had listened to his crew,...) – do you know what that means?
  • 2012Moving 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 Techedge's position in Germany, increased sales—in short, we have grown. We have been able to convince major customers of our services, position ourselves in new areas, and with a new team, we are now ready to take 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 our dreams come true.
    For well-known reasons, this trip could not take place in 2020. No problem, though, we'll do what was originally planned for afterward.
    We are establishing the new pillar “Digital Advisory” within the Techedge Group in Germany – strategic consulting for our customers in digital transformation.
  • 2022 July 2022 Departure for our adventure One-Year-One-Road - Return December 2023.
  • 2024 Founding the LUiS GmbH
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