Foresight | Strategy | Leadership | xLAB
Value-based leadership and co-creating the future
Welcome to my xLAB platform / think tank for bright ideas, future thinking, circularity, ambidexterity, innovation and leadership development. The xLAB stands for e(x)perience (lab)oratory. As a matter of fact, scenario planning and holding a strategic conversation are used to envisage the future and understanding of what may lie ahead.
Foresight and vision: The outcome will result in foresight, vision and creates a thriving strategy for success and growth by exploration (value creation) and exploitation (value capturing). As the late Peter F. Drucker once said:
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast".
Value-based leadership with purpose and values: Leadership needs not only to be mindful and nimble, but also to have a strong focus on people and values in order to successfully implement strategy with real purpose. Hence, I purport a new leadership framework: Value-based leadership by leading from behind: "Ubuntu, I am, because we are". Moreover, my xTeam (x stands for extended) approach is the catalyst for change and transformation. Forward thinking together: I shall look forward to having an inspiring dialogue.
Foresight credo
"He who has insight can understand. He who has perspective can make decisions. And he who has foresight knows how to lead.” (Peter Amendt)
Understanding key drivers of change to build a better future
Forces and drivers: Technology, shared economy, green deal, digitalization, blockchain, climate change, virus management and social justice are key drivers of change and transformation.
Way forward: Political innovation, leadership and sustainability practiced in a holistic as well as comprehensive way are the means to its end.
In other words, manage ambidexterity, i.e. exploration and exploitation to the max. Understanding key drivers are not enough. They need to be shared, challenged and adapted.
Ergo, your constructive thoughts and ideas are most welcome. Let's build a better future together, now (Zukunft schaffen).
Themes, topics and my contributions
Addressing successful transformation and change that is needed to survive in a changing environment as well as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, I focus on six areas of strategic importance that run as follows:
- Business environment, sustainability and politics
- Strategic foresight and visioning
- Driving strategy and change
- Startups and innovation
- Leadership and practice
- Ambidexterity by visioning and co-creation: From xTeam to xLAB
In the following, articles, use cases, research papers and reports are presented with an objective to:
- stimulate strategic conversation
- provide insights
- share experiences
- disseminate know-how
- create postmodern management impact
1) Business environment, sustainability and politics
At Yale School of Management (SOM) Executive Education Programme, I learned to distinguish the business environment and focus on both:
- the market and nonmarket environment
The curriculum can be seen as a blueprint for sustainable management with regards to global Business and Politics. The eight modules outlined below run as follows:
Collaboration with all stakeholders: Moreover, the Leadership program for Business and Politics underlined the importance of collaboration with all stakeholders including regulatory authorities. The eight modules support the process to develop dynamic business strategies and frame the context in order to navigate in a changing global business environment. Also important was the interplay of lobbyism and framing the issue. As far as sustainability goes, there are great opportunities “doing well and by doing good”.
Doing well by doing good needs a change of mindset.
What is more, post-pandemic scenarios are an excellent example to showcase the interplay of society, government a business in challenging and uncertain times.
Post-pandemic worlds for society, government and economy (Infectious Futures, Book)
Post-pandemische Welt für Gesellschaft, Politik und Wirtschaft (WirtschaftRegional, Deutsche Fassung)
Mein Liechtenstein-Haus der Zukunft: Die 4 Säulen (Landtagswahlen 2021, Fürstentum Liechtenstein)
Gastkommentar: Der lange Weg zu den Klimazielen (Wirtschaftsblatt)
Wasserstoff (H2): der Antrieb der Zukunft (Unternehmer Magazin)
Wasserstoff (H2) betriebene e-Lastwagen klimaneutral in Liechtenstein unterwegs (Wirtschaft regional)
Erneuerbare Treibstoffe für eine saubere Umwelt (Springer Business Media)
Entwicklung und Zukunftspotential von alternativen Fahrzeugen sowie klimaneutralen Transporte (Mobilität2010plus)
2) Strategic foresight and visioning
Mobility vision: "I would experience a seamless and smart mobility, where I am transported from A to B in the most optimal way, using all possible transport modes in a climate-neutral, cost-effective and timely manner.
A shift to a new "Mobility as a Service" (MaaS) business model enables the best means of transport for every occasion, i.e., Horses for Courses.
From "ownership" approach to "use" by offering end-to-end management of a customer’s assets and services to boost a sustainable smart mobility".
Mobilität in der Zukunft, Antrieb: Verbrenner, Hybrid, Elektrik und Wasserstoff, eFuels etc. (Liechtensteinischer Volksblatt)
In 10 Jahren fahren auf unseren Strassen autonome Fahrzeuge (Liechtensteiner Vaterland)
Autonomes Fahren erhöht die Sicherheit (Automobil Revue)
Autonomous driving enhancing transport safety: Mobility as a service by drivetech mobility (SmartShuttle at LIHGA)
Mobilitäts-Erfahrungen und Verkehr: Szenarien der Zukunft (Formatio Bildung-Anstalt)
Freightvision 2050: Europa stellt die Weichen und "man sollte noch radikaler denken" (Der Standard)
Smart Mobility in the Blockchain: 360° Multimodal Logistic Supply Chain Management (CEDR)
Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung auf den Automobilhandel und -service (HfWU)
Revolution der Geschäftsmodelle in der Transportindustrie (Traktuell)
TOKENIZE EUROPE 2025: Scenarios, strategy and forward thinking vision for a Token Economy in Europe (Tokenize Europe)
3) Driving strategy and change
Having been a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences, Vienna, Austria (FHWien), I developed the "Internationalization Strategy" Module for part- and full-time students (English/German stream): The Internationalization Strategy House. My curriculum and complete course outline is shared free of charge for usage and application. Great thanks to all my students.
Furthermore, I share my Doctoral Research endeavors and papers leading to my DBA. The focus is on managing uncertainty, complexity, foresight, scenario planning, strategy development and vision. It includes also a thought provoking business and political strategy process outline and learnings. Holding a scenario-based strategic conversation has the potential to generate a common language and understanding.
Internationalization Strategy for Small Medium Entreprises (SME) and Start-ups (FHWien, Course Outline Student Version, free of charge available)
The Future of the Automotive Truck Industry: An exploratory perspective between a business and political strategy process (London Fora Series, Warwick Business School)
Strategic Foresight: Dynamic Scenario Planning in Action (IfM Impulse)
Managing uncertainty and complexity: The value of a scenario-based strategic conversation (Oxford Futures Forum - OFF)
Mind the gap: Strategy, scenarios and strategic conversation: An exploratory study in the European Truck Industry (Oxford Futures Forum - OFF)
My Liechtenstein 2039 (Projekt Zukunft)
4) Start-ups and innovation
Startups are the fuel for business development, innovation and sustainable growth. I had the opportunity to mentor startups during the last 15 years in various stages.
True entrepreneurship needs a lot of energy and passion to succeed.
Competence and know-how: It also requires to have the right competence at the right time for personal recruitment, finance, marketing and sales. While, it is key to have a laser focus on its strategy to navigate through a jungle of business challenges, a startup needs also a dynamic and creative business marketing strategy to succeed. Therefore, I share my lecturing script "Business Marketing Strategy: Der Marketing-Mix" free of charge with the objective to provide a learning space. Having designed the Marketing-Mix consisting of 7Ps, I was a Lecturer at the Institute of Management (IfM), Salzburg, Austria.
The 4Ps and 3Ps: The curriculum includes the 4Ps (price, product, place and promotion) developed by Prof. Philip Kotler, Northwestern University, Kellogg, USA, but is extended with the 3Ps (personnel, process management and physical facilities) and finishes with strategic and operative marketing controlling module (incl. forecasting, dynamic budgeting, foresight and ethics).
Plus the 5Cs: What is more, it comprises a sound Marketing analysis to start with by considering the 5Cs (customer, corporation, competitor, co-worker and context). In this vain, the 5Cs are the foundation to create value and 7Ps the platform to extract value.
Ecosystem by JutePP®: Jute high-tech solutions to liberate the world from plastic (Juteborg AB, Sweden and Razzaque Ltd. Bangladesh)
Startups / Finanzierung: Innovationsprozess und praktische Erfahrungen mit Business Angels (Blockchain & Innovation Circle (BIC), Stabstelle Finanzinnovation)
Innovation in Practice. Business Marketing Strategy: Der Marketing-Mix (IfM, Salzburg, Course Outline Student version, free of charge available)
5) Leadership and practice
Value-based Leadership by leading from behind: "Ubuntu: I am, because we are".
What exactly is Ubuntu, and can its philosophy develop new leadership that is able to impact postmodern management models? The following three statements summarize principles, and why it is worth considering:
- “The spirit of Ubuntu - that profound African sense that we are human only through the humanity of other human beings - is not a parochial phenomenon but has added globally to our common search for a better world”, postulated the late President Nelson R. Mandela, at his Oxford University lecture on July 11, 1997.
- For Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, the meaning of Ubuntu and how it defines us as a society, runs as follows: “We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world,” he said. “When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity".
- Former US President Barack Obama outlined in his speech at Nelson R. Mandela’s funeral on December 10, 2013 that “there is a word in South Africa - Ubuntu - a word that captures Mandela's greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us”.
In the following, I would like to share my experiences, discussions and reflections based upon a learning journey that I undertook, following Nelson R. Mandela’s walk to freedom in South Africa with a cohort of fellow colleagues from the Institute of Management in Salzburg, Austria. As it is common knowledge that “everyone can develop Ubuntu further”, I present a comprehensive new leadership framework (see below) that is based upon Ubuntu. It considers a value-based driven leadership approach.
Ubuntu means: I am, because we are. The late South Africa President Nelson R. Mandela once said: “A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind”. The article outlines a value-based leadership paradigm that is based on purpose, values and a new leadership approach. The new leadership framework encapsulates the following:
Value-based leadership and purpose: It is argued that a new leadership paradigm for politics and business should be based upon distinctive purpose and values, in order to navigate and thrive in an uncertain, volatile environment and times. The leadership model has four cornerstones as its basis. They are: i) Entrance to life ii) Social justice iii) Co-creation and iv) Conflict resolution
Core value pillars: Core values define what is important to uphold in an environment and in an interaction with others, and more broadly, how to collaborate amongst each other in politics, business, and society. Collaborate with different perspectives ii) See the good in others iii) Demonstrate humanity and kindness iv) Be ready to forgive
New leadership approach: From an Ubuntu perspective, I purport four core values that must be integrated in a purposeful leadership approach. leading from behind is based upon the four imperatives: i) Self-management, i.e. it starts with oneself to change and transform ii) Team management and development iii) Network / relationship management iv) Ethical management and trust.
Leadership signature
What is more, leadership means to take initiative and to have a signature. A leader can be a hero or zero, depending on the way one is managed.
Mindful leadership with a circular mindset that has a touch of organizational ambidexterity (aka exploration and exploitation) is key to success. Purpose, passion and entrepreneurial spirit are critical drivers to innovate.
Well-feeling and well-being at work should be more important then status and salary.
In addition, a toxic boss can ruin ones life. Hence, I share my leadership contributions and reflection that are based on my 40 years of business and governmental practice: Leaders are learners. Is there a leadership signature and if yes how would it be? My signature attributes are as follows:
- Strategic
- Connected
- Innovative
- Decisive
- Circular
Mindful leadership, circular mindset and organizational ambidexterity (Leadership framework: Change rooms to stay fit and healthy)
Leadership: Hero or Zero? What could be done? (Experience sharing of what to do having a toxic boss)
Mentoring as a booster for career and life: From busy fool to crazy cool (Part 2: Linkedin)
Leadership System of National Road Office (Certified management and quality system)
Management Handbook: Formula 1 Team Approach (Driving for success)
Wozu in die Ferne schweifen (Wirtschaftsmagazin Trend)
6) Ambidexterity by visioning and co-creation: From xLAB to xTEAM
The notion of „ambidexterity“, i.e. a healthy balance between exploration (value creation) and exploitation (value capturing) as a strategic key factor in the prosperity of any organisational system. Exploration is about experimentation, variation, discovery and innovation, whereas exploitation is about execution, refinement, choice, optimisation and efficiency.
An xLAB approach is the means for xTEAMs to thrive and co-create new visions.
Putting visions and a successful strategy in execution mode will result in sales and turnover (value extraction). For more details see also: Foresight | Strategy | Leadership | xLAB
The innovative process will lead to:
- Value creation
- Value capturing
- Value extraction
- Value-based leadership
Ready to co-create the future with a postmodern management impact
NB: I am deeply indebted to all my friends, colleagues, co-workers, experts, media professionals and also Professors for supporting my life long learning journey. Thank you very much. What is more, xLAB stands for e(x)perience (lab)oratory. It is an integral part of my life and working mantra, i. e. rapid prototyping and testing (“Simply do it - try it - fit it”) in conjunction with an action, learning and reflection loop.
All my contributions have been either exploratory conceptualised and/or implemented prosperously in practice, i.e. management of practise with foresight, strategic vision and mindful leadership.
My motto is: "From busy fool to crazy cool".