Dr. Dominic Lindner, Autor bei agile Companies

Medium-sized companies 4.0 21. March 2021

From silo thinking to open structures with more cooperation – how breaking #project boundaries can serve as a problem solver for SMEs! –

Since At the beginning of my blog I deal with the advantages and opportunities that for SMEs by introducing agility and implementing related agile methods. As part of the Blog parade from projektmagazin.de I want to be specific in this post Dealing with the opportunities available to small and medium-sized companies Companies by optimizing physical and virtual collaboration in Can open up with regard to internal project management. In Germany the middle class is strongly represented. More than 99 percent of all companies are among the SMEs in this country and many of them can be attributed to technological Level in addition to pioneers and best practice examples. But how can it be that exactly these companies seem to be changing after all Ordinary methods, such as the introduction of holistic strategies, fail? How can it be that the role models from medium-sized businesses are still like this rigid boundaries…

Careers in IT 21. March 2021

Study: Satisfaction of applicants in small and medium-sized companies

To this day, the middle class is Germany’s secret weapon.Peter Altmaier During my doctorate, I made the decision to focus on small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) or medium-sized companies (owner-managed). The most important differences to large companies are the focus on often rapid growth, low budgets, short decision-making paths and the “myth” about the founder. Now, in the evening of some days, you ask yourself: where should I work? Where are people happier? In SMEs or large companies? Reading tip: Differences between SMEs and large companies To shed some light on this, the Stepstone 2019 (Q2) portal surveyed over 19,000 specialists and managers from all over Germany and obtained exciting results through a significance analysis, i.e. separation of the results according to large companies and SMEs. I would like to summarize the most important ones below. Reading tip: Link to the study Skilled workers are the backbone of companies and…

Digital change 21. March 2021

How do you actually do business in the digital age?

I often go to network meetings and I am told that digitization is good at writing new rules. But which ones are they and how does that affect the strategy for new innovations in business models? I’ve been wondering this for some time and have observed some startups as well as my current innovation projects that I oversee for customers. I’ve made some exciting discoveries. Finding 1: Mass wins against class! With new business models it is generally important to win the market. Let’s look at delivery services like Lieferando, Foodora and co. as well as the e-scooters around Voi, Tier and Lime. The current providers are trying to conquer the market with an almost blatant force. Often the providers win with large corporations in the background or good investors. It often applies: Enter the market at a loss and persevere. Amazon also made a loss with books or Home24…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

Command agility – does that make sense?

The subject of agility does not currently stop at any type of company. In addition to startups, a large number of large corporations and SMEs are now also taking care of the restructuring of work and organization. But regardless of whether it is about a modern start to business, the change to an attractive employer or the competitive advantage over the competition, the workforce does not always pull along. But how does that come about? Why do many employees initially close themselves off to agile methods? In the beginning it is mostly about the well-known problem of “change”. Employees in particular who have been working for a long time according to a certain and fixed principle and who have also coped well with it are less willing to leave their comfort zone. Because even if agile methods promise real added value and give employees more freedom to develop and organize…

Digital leadership 21. March 2021

Similarities between a gardener and an agile manager

Agility is a mindset and can often not be described that easily. While I have often discussed the manager’s own character for authentic leadership in many other articles, in this article I would like to give some more practical tips that can be used in everyday life. To do this, I use the metaphor of a gardener so that you can understand agile leadership more easily. What does a gardener have to do with agility? Grass doesn’t grow faster if you pull on it! (Proverb from Zambia) When I came into my first disciplinary leadership role, after a while an employee said to me: “I find it exciting that you almost never get involved in day-to-day business, but rather try to offer your people a good environment and create a stage ! ” That day I had an exciting conversation with the employee and I told him that “grass doesn’t…

Digital change 21. March 2021

Digitization in sales: tips for the B2B area

I have been working in IT services for more than 5 years and have always been advising B2B customers. I noticed that as consultants help customers introduce new approaches and digital processes on a daily basis, but our sales department often still works traditionally with tenders, letters and handshakes. In this article I would like to pursue the question: How can digitization support this too? Difference between B2B and B2C B2B and B2C sales differ significantly from one another. While in B2C there is often a high number of many customers with little turnover, it is the other way around in B2B. Furthermore, traditional channels such as posters, TV advertising etc. do not help. Even Facebook and Instagram hardly reach the decision-makers of the DAX companies. Another difference lies in the products. In B2C, these are often bought by the end consumer and are precisely tailored to their problem. The…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

Status of agility: companies work agile but are they too?

You have probably heard of agility in your company and tried out one or the other agile method. There are also numerous articles on agility, which discuss a variety of topics from methods to mindset. Companies have been introducing agile methods for almost 10 years now. But what about agility and how agile are companies really? In the following, I will show two studies which, in combination, show the current state of agility very well. The central questions are: How widespread are agile methods in companies?Do agile methods really make companies more agile? Study 1: Status Quo Agile In the first study that I selected Prof. Komus with the GPM Over 700 project managers surveyed in 2017. The aim was to record agile methods in German companies. The most important results in a nutshell are: 70 percent of agile methods are used almost exclusively in software development and are increasing…

Digital change 21. March 2021

Germany 2019: massive job cuts and a lack of skilled workers #Employability

Lately are piling up bad news . Deutsche Bank wants to cut 18,000 jobs and is not alone. Siemens wants to cut 10,000, 7,000 at Volkswagen, 5,400 at Ford, 4,500 at Bayer, 4,000 at Thyssenkrupp and cable giant Leoni is also planning to cut 2,000 jobs. On the other hand, we also have good news. Volkswagen would like to create 2,000 new jobs at the same time, Siemens also wants to create around 2,500 new jobs and also Thyssenkrupp wants to create 1,000 new jobs. In total, more than 65,000 jobs were cut in German corporations this year, but the job market is still going more than 700,000 skilled workers searched. But how does that fit together? Downsizing in Germany Ever more intelligent machines are changing our working world and demanding new skills or automating entire professions. Robots do not need a vacation and do work without fatigue and grumbling.…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

Agility is a mindset – but how do you learn that? – Download PDF

I would like to see a new article in the magazine Java Current Clues. You can download the article for free. Agile leadership is on everyone’s lips and according to modern management literature it should be the “best practice of leadership”. While searching in internet blogs, magazines or specialist books, more and more tips and hints can be found on how a manager can lead in an agile manner. It is noticeable that these tips have often been put together by coaches, researchers and experts. But how can a manager implement and learn this type of leadership in everyday life? It is important to follow certain behaviors and values that are associated with agile leadership. In my current research, I took the most frequently mentioned values and presented them to 66 executives in an online survey (Lindner 2019). I collected the data together with Tobias Greff from the AWS Institute.…

Careers in IT 21. March 2021

Maintaining a balance between short-term and long-term success

The pressure on results increases in the short term, the pressure of expectations grows in the long term. The following scenario sounds familiar to you: On the one hand, managers and customers demand quick decisions and immediate success without much consideration for the day after tomorrow and, on the other hand, the company should be made fit for the future. Issues such as sustainability, compliance and new technologies should find their way into the company proactively and at an early stage. What are the reasons: Political instability, new trends, new technologies, competitors and a still unknown Generation Z make long-term planning almost impossible. Even employees seem to have the motto when changing employers: “After three years you can, after five years you have to!” to be taken very seriously. Often the reasons mentioned force managers to opt for short-term success, as this is foreseeable and measurable. But how can you…