Post-Corona in safe hands

The current crisis often exposes customer acquisition and strategic market development as “fair weather” strategies. They do not sufficiently withstand the particular pressure on the system.
Five questions to Dr. Robert Philipp.

What do you stand for, Mr Philip? What tasks do you take on?

Dr. Robert Philipp: I stand for innovative thinking to ensure the future viability of companies. Today, this primarily includes digitalisation, business development, strategic marketing and sales. Most companies often depict these important issues in a fragmented way in their organisation and “park” them at various points in the organisation chart.

Do you have a special approach? What makes your approach particularly successful?

Dr. Robert Philipp: I usually use the aspects of “Agile Leadership in the Digital Age”, which deliver fast and substantial results. The approach supports and strengthens managers, regardless of hierarchy, in shaping the sustainability of their area of responsibility.
Each manager works with the “triumvirate” of his or her own company, its culture and the market. In structured steps, the “harmony” within and between these three forces is sustainably and powerfully balanced. Meaningful diagnostic tools, reliable data as well as my many years of experience and creativity enable me to develop a successful and sustainable market presence with the aim of ensuring the future-proof profitability of the company.

How can Agile Leadership help me in the Corona crisis?

Dr. Robert Philipp: In the current situation, two aspects need to be dealt with in parallel: ensuring the operational survival of the company, i.e. prioritising according to “cash, cost, customer”. At the same time, the crisis is already the starting point for a successful “tomorrow”. Questions critical to the future can and must be worked out now and answered quickly. How can digitalisation generate value for the customer and reduce our costs? How can we maintain a regular, meaningful dialogue with the customer?  How can offers be prepared more quickly and invoices sent in an optimised way? If today’s short-term actions are already embedded in a longer-term consideration, they already serve as a solid building block for future success after the crisis.

Securing future viability? Isn’t that what companies have always done?

Dr. Robert Philipp: Indeed, most employees give their best every day. But often the financial plans, budgets and sales targets are not sufficient to grow, to build a strong competitive position and to be able to invest sustainably through sufficient profitability. This is a critical but always benevolent questioning: which of our current products/services are at the core of our self-image? Can we develop this further or does it restrict us in the medium term? Is our business model and processes sufficiently robust and resilient to be prepared for new imponderables (VUCA)?

Large branded companies such as Kodak, Nokia, Grundig or Quelle, which have failed to do so, are well-known negative examples and have long since disappeared from the market.

What do you do for your own “balance”?

Dr. Robert Philipp: Sport is an important balance for me – jogging in a running group, playing frisbee with my son or long-distance swimming. Here the body gets its money’s worth. The lively exchange with family and friends over a good meal or reading exciting biographies and captivating scientific books brings the working day to a pleasant close and allows me to enter the next day feeling strengthened.

The interview as a video can be watched here.

Photo: Fotostudio Balsereit