Thomas P.-Leading global senior organizational change executive, AI / digital transformation & post-merger integration

Organizational Change Management for the strategic setup of a hybrid GBS rollout as part of a global, AI-driven Finance Transformation. End-to-end management of the OCM architecture in a highly complex on-, near-, and offshore partner setup [IN, PL, RO]. Successful completion of Phase 1 (Initial Strategy) and strategic pausing by the Executive Board after the early disclosure of critical vendor-side OPEX risks

• Systemic Baseline Assessment & Stakeholder Diagnostics: Evaluation of the global organization and analysis of the process landscape across 21 countries [AT, DE, CH, FR, UK, SI, RO, UA, RU, US, CD, CN, AR, MX, ZA, IN, JP] to precisely determine change requirements

• Architecting the OCM Strategy & Master Roadmap: Independent development of a comprehensive, AI-centered Change Roadmap for end-to-end management of all change initiatives across every project phase

• Data Quality & AI Agent Risk Mitigation: Auditing of Process Data Repositories (Celonis analysis); prevention of the ingestion of 58% synthetic training data to safeguard AI model reliability amid geopolitical supply chain tensions

• GBS Vendor BAFO Triage & Contractual Commitment: Critical review of Tier-1 vendor pitches and contractual commitment to a reduced Non-STP rate (from 7% to 4%) to avoid extreme manual rework with a planned FTE reduction (-63%)

• Executive Enablement & Board Alignment: Design of the GBS Transformation Executive Board Deck to strategically enable C-level executives and transparently present completely overlooked AI tokenization costs

• Targeted Change Communications & Engagement: Design and development of audience-specific communication measures to align the highly diverse, globally distributed stakeholder network

• Adoption Velocity & Resistance Measurement: Engineering of quantitative measurement tools (Pulse Check Survey) using Behavioral Dyads to identify resistance based on data and ensure sustainable success measurement

Results:

• Avoidance of disruptive misallocations: Stopping the ingestion of 58% synthetic AI-agent training data after discovering only 42% compatibility with existing processes, preventing critical GBS cascade errors
• Significant OPEX & effort reduction: Reduction of the Non-STP rate in Tier-1 vendor BAFOs from 7% to 4% alongside an impending 63% Finance-FTE reduction; avoidance of thousands of time-consuming manual correction processes
• 100% Delivery of the OCM architecture & ROI protection: Delivery of all OCM artifacts (Change Roadmap, Comms Plan, Executive Board Deck, Pulse Check Survey) and protection of ROI by identifying incalculable LLM runtime token costs

Organizational Change Management as part of a comprehensive transformation initiative across the entire corporate group; focus: restructuring into a product-centric organization (PCO) alongside the agile transformation of IT (initiated in global IT and serving as a group-wide role model), with additional responsibility for designing and establishing new ways of working and fundamentally strengthening leadership capabilities

• Strategic management of the transformation process toward a product-centric organization, beginning within global IT as a pilot area with a positive pull effect on the rest of the group, across silos and cultural boundaries

• Identification and analysis of all key stakeholders within IT and at relevant interfaces; based on this, development of a tailored Change Roadmap for structured navigation through the change process

• Active support of transformation implementation through continuous progress monitoring and establishment of a robust 2-way feedback system using Pulse Check Surveys and 1:1 stakeholder discussions for ongoing evaluation and adaptation

• Iterative identification of critical leadership capability gaps (especially prioritization, ownership, psychological safety, and decision inertia) through targeted analyses in individual discussions, Executive JFs & TownHalls as the basis for the development approach

• Design and facilitation of specific Leadership Off-Sites (workshops) to strengthen the ability to effectively (re-)prioritize under a high workload, cultivate a genuine ownership mindset, and clarify responsibilities consensually

• Ongoing Executive Leadership Coaching Sessions to specifically promote psychological safety and trust-building at the two highest leadership levels, creating an open, error-tolerant, and performance-enhancing culture

• Continuous assurance of ongoing communication and genuine alignment throughout the process to ensure transparency, promote acceptance of the changes, and maintain the momentum created

Results:

• Fundamental increase in leadership effectiveness (+68%) through improved prioritization skills and the establishment of a clear culture of responsibility ("Ownership") within global IT
• Rigorous qualitative improvement of the organizational climate (+39%) and increased psychological safety at leadership level, with a top-down role-model effect accompanied by more open communication and feedback culture
• Successful embedding of the transformation effects in global IT, which now serves as a recognized and sought-after blueprint for group-wide adoption

Agile transformation of globally distributed Business Units alongside the digital transformation of the core business model to enable frictionless scaling across three continents and establish a new Target Operating Model while operations continued.

• Complete digitalization of the core business model through the development of a Digital Twin of the entire process landscape, buildings, and building technology, including the design, setup, and use of an IoT for sensor data generation as a PoC for an MVP that became the flagship product (AR headset support for early corrective interventions and predictive scenarios).
• Preparation for global expansion (EU → US → APAC) with rapid scaling to around 700% of the company’s size; ensuring controlled, healthy growth despite pandemic-related staff shortages and resistance to change, including safeguarding strategic, administrative, regulatory, and operational aspects.
• Agile transformation of all Business Units based on DevOps to harmonize heterogeneous development processes and bridge existing silos and cultural boundaries, especially between physicists, engineers, and software engineers.
• Sustainable establishment of the new Target Operating Model with significantly improved internal communication after overcoming entrenched silos.
• Significant increase in EBITDA despite the early scaling phase and high expansion costs.
• Creation of an agile, efficiency-enhancing sense of community and mindset as a critical success factor.

Strategic realignment to increase the competitiveness of an outdated business model through far-reaching operational changes, organizational development and project management for the system integration and upgrade of core applications and technology platforms (Secure Translation Brokerage Platform).

• Conducting comprehensive fundamental analyses of the organizational structure, workflows, standards, critical processes, strategic partnerships (triage of a globally distributed, heterogeneous expert network), internal and external communication, go-to-market strategy, diversification efforts, competitive environment, market regulation, industry-specific standards, sourcing aspects and legacy systems in use.
• Design and implementation of Business Process Re-Engineering measures, including repositioning from a translation service provider to a full-service translation agency with a focus on project management for more efficient use of onshore resources.
• Establishment of a strategic competitive advantage through the introduction of disruptive innovations, particularly radical reduction of effort through efficient use of the global offshore contractor network across all time zones.
• Comprehensive technology analysis, redesign and implementation of the entire ICT area, with multi-stage, incremental and cross-platform migration of the legacy enterprise software environment using agile methods (Scrum, Kanban).
• System integration and upgrade of all operating systems for internal ICT components (notebooks, servers, back-up systems, external data storage, cloud storage connectivity, audio and video telephony systems, mobile devices) while maintaining ongoing operations.
• Significant reduction of internal process complexity and shortening of go-to-market intervals.
• Reduction of qualitative and organizational heterogeneity to prevent further critical HR situations.
• Reduction of project lead times by around 80%.

Crisis intervention, re-stabilization and coordination of a large, intercontinentally distributed expert team, project and program management, system integration, upgrade of the Big Data applications and technology platforms directly relevant to the core business (Tax-Free Shopping Processing & Real-Time Currency Conversion)

• Immediate triage and intervention in a previously failed several times, historically evolved project that was business-critical and closely connected to the client's core business, involving numerous on-, near- and offshore teams at different matrix levels (overall coordination responsibility for an average of 2,000 experts distributed across continents)

• Re-stabilization of the substantial turnover effects in numerous on- and near-shore teams (national, cross-regional and interdisciplinary), partly caused by latent leadership weaknesses and psychologically driven retention difficulties, as well as unification of particularly fragmented teams to ensure the re-establishment of fast and efficient decision-making processes

• Integration of legacy systems and preparation of data for DWH use from economically unsustainable end-of-life-cycle systems, while simultaneously replacing and/or homogenizing highly divergent technology stacks (e.g. Microsoft .Net together with IBM BPM etc.)

• Definition of a successful approach for seamlessly embedding and operationalizing the newly created IBM BPM-based processes across the company; continuous analysis and ongoing reporting of overall progress at Board level

• Program Management in a highly dynamic, agile development environment (hybrid approach with Scrum and Kanban running in parallel with Waterfall) with constantly changing business requirements; immediate bridging function between business and IT (Requirements to Implementation); consolidation of existing internal success-monitoring mechanisms

• Mediation between Team Leads, elimination of toxic behavioral patterns in teams, removal of all foundations for covert bullying; significant reduction of silo thinking and restoration of interdisciplinary collaboration across all levels - vertically, horizontally and intercontinentally

• Overall responsibility for the design and sustainable implementation of an appropriate Change Management program while maintaining agreed parameters from a cost, time and quality assurance perspective

• Conducted numerous consulting projects in the areas of Contactless/Wireless/Mobile Payments, Mobile Banking, AML, KYC and CRM with, for and on behalf of companies in the Strategy, Packaging and Investment Banking sectors.
• Advised strategy firms such as Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey and Ernst & Young.
• Supported packaging companies such as MeadWestvaco.
• Advised investment banks and financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, MFC Global Investment Management, Fir Tree Partners and La Financière de l'Echiquier.

• Introduced a risk management system for the company.
• Conducted intensive, multi-stage training for all employees in the Trading and Supply & Logistics departments on the new risk management approach.
• Created a manual covering functionality, use cases, special variants and special cases in Commodity Trading, Supply & Logistics, including troubleshooting.

• Co-introduced a risk management system for oil and gas activities.
• Delivered broad and in-depth training to the Risk Management team on hedging strategies against physical cargo or freight losses involving large oil tankers and stationary oil and gas platforms in offshore areas of the Indian Ocean.
• Created a manual covering the functionality, capabilities, special variants and special cases of Risk Management, including troubleshooting.

• Transformation of all market communications into a communication environment based on Permission Marketing, including the introduction of Multiple Opt-In for electronic newsletters and mobile equivalents.
• Development of highly granular customer database segmentation, enabling new targeted direct marketing measures based on customer preferences instead of mass communication.
• Achieved high click-through rates and exceptionally high ROIs for customers through targeted use of enhanced existing data following data-cleansing communication measures.

• Introduction of Permission Marketing in an environment where spam was still widely used to increase reach.
• Preparation for the merger with Goldbach Media, including marketing strategy and product-related groundwork.

• Development and implementation of a fast, accurate, software-supported automated method for reconciling securities accounts.
• Improvement of efficiency and accuracy in the Custody and Reconciliation area of Treasury.

• Comprehensive analysis of internal processes, focusing on network optimization, integrative migration and homogenization of decentralized legacy data in a central database.
• Digitization and quality preparation of all planning data from legacy systems to visualize the network architecture and topography for all of Austria using Microsoft Visio.
• Design of a Smart Grid taking regional regulatory requirements into account by optimizing Base-Transceiver-Station-Positioning and the required transmission power.
• Support with the first experimental Proto-UMTS tests in Austria (laboratory/indoor) as a basis for decisions on license acquisition and grid upgrade.

• Introduction of the Routex Billing & Fleet Management System to the Austrian B2B market.
• Expansion of the telemarketing team by 250 % to support the market launch.
• Reduction of target costs to 33 % by redefining and consolidating the target group (fleet and truck fleet operators, transport & logistics, later SMEs through interest groups).