Katzenbach Executive Consulting started its operational activities on 01.08.2013 and is now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

 

 

Ten years of intensive and successful cooperation with more than 50 clients, additionally more than ten advisory-engagements with SME´s and start-up´s in more than ten countries on three continents. 

 

In all these engagements, the focus was concentrated on the customer’s success rather than on achieving maximum sales. Perhaps that is the foundation for a never expected commercial success.

 

I was able to get in contact with many people with diverse cultural backgrounds and with different attitudes to think and act. This was awesome and inspiring. 

 

Projects outside my homefield of automation and transportation industries were exciting. These broadened the horizon and provided completely new insides and experiences. This expanded my field of view. 

 

The individual projects enable also my opportunity to reflect on my many years of management experience in order to expand my knowledge for future work and consultancy services.

 

As a result of these activities, two key areas have emerged where people are the focus and the foundation for projects and initiatives success.:

  • Human Change Management
  • Intercultural Cooperation

This leads me to develop methodical toolboxes for consulting and trainings. Meanwhile these toolboxes are approved and used successfully on the client side.

More you can find on this webside below.

 

All the knowledge and experiences could also be developed in the interaction with science and teaching. Both areas, consulting and science, complements each other very well and create mutual added value.

 

I am looking forward to the next years of dedicated and successful cooperation with my customers and partners.

 

best regards yours Alfred Katzenbach

 

 

Successful collaboration in companies and partnerships-

People in complex value creation processes

Creativity, innovation and progress occur when people use their knowledge to generate new ideas. They also have the skills to inspire others in order to further develop the results achieved together in a creative interaction.

In addition, the courage is needed to tackle things and to lead them to success in a goal-oriented manner, even in the face of reservations and resistance. Thus, the cooperation and interaction of people is the starting point of all progress.

The increase in the gross national product in the industrialized countries over the last twenty years has hardly come about through an increase in the production of goods and commodities, but almost exclusively through services. Digitization is certainly of great importance here, but digitization also has as its starting point knowledge/creativity and a willingness to change in the sense of breaking new ground.

The seminar and coaching offer: "People in complex value creation processes" addresses precisely these three aspects:

  • Organizational Change- Successfully
  • Intercultural Cooperation
  • Knowledge and Knowledge Management

 

The individual semi-parts can be booked individually or as a complete package.

Alternatively, a general seminar can be offered (1 day per topic) or a company- or task-oriented adaptation to the respective challenge (2-3 days per topic, depending on the depth of penetration).

A reasonable number of participants is 4-10 people.

The seminars can be offered in German and English.

Of course, the range of services can also be offered as coaching in preparation for or alongside a project.

 

Organizational Change - successfully

In last years in particular, many profound changes have taken place. People like to talk about disruptive innovation, and disruptive means disruptive.

Many companies that previously operated successfully in the market have become irrelevant or disappeared from the market altogether in a very short time. Other companies were able to shape these changes and remain successful. However, it was not always the best technologies that were successful.

Peter Kruse describes a change process as a deliberate instability and uncertainty in an organization to move from a stable state to a higher stable state. He warns against a permanent instability in the sense of "panta re" (everything flows). This has nothing to do with a continuous improvement process that enables permanent small optimizations in a stable organization.

The decisive factor is our willingness to change. Evolution has taught us to behave in the sense of an energy minimum. This means remaining in our individual comfort zone. Often a threat is the basis for a successful change. Change is most easily accepted when the question of “why” can be clearly answered and is emotionally perceived. (S. Sinek, "Start with the Why", 2011)

In the early 90th, G. Moore described the behavioral patterns of visionaries, pragmatists, conservatives and skeptics in his book "Crossing the Chasm" and postulated that these groups require a different approach. These thoughts were also further developed by G. Dueck, among others, "The New and Its Enemies," 2013. It also becomes clear that people from all four behavior patterns make a valuable contribution to the success of a change. However, this must be controlled in a targeted manner

This goal can be achieved by applying a five-step plan. The concept developed shows how changes in companies can be designed and how these four different behavioral patterns, from the visionaries to the skeptics, can be addressed in their respective world of thought and concept in order to successfully implement change projects, as well as organizational changes.

 

 

Intercultural Cooperation

"Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group of people from other groups" (P. Bourdieu, 1930 - 2002).

"One's own culture cannot simply be queried, but only becomes visible in contact with other groups. In this process, each individual is a member of different groups and cultures", (E. Schein, 1986).

"Companies with higher cultural diversity have more customers and make higher profits. Among Nobel Prize winners, research groups from different cultural backgrounds are particularly frequent" (Chr. Hesse, 2018).

If knowledge requires people to interact, then it is especially important that people understand each other and see different attitudes and perspectives as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Using two scientific explanatory models, different aspects of culture are considered.

  • Cultural dimensions according to G. Hofstede, 2017
  • "Cultural Map" according to E. Meyer, 2014

In addition to the pure presentation of the various aspects and points of view, it is important to reflect these explanatory models on one's own experiences in order to gain a better understanding and increased sensitivity in dealing with other people.

So it is no surprise that the large teams with a complex structure that invest a lot of time and money in the continuous team building process are much more successful.

 

Because in the end, the equation holds:

Competitive collaboration = 20% efficient technology + 30% efficient processes + 50% collaborative people

 

Knowledge and Knowledge Management

  • Knowledge is a social process based on prior understanding, data, and information (Capurro 1998).
  • Knowledge management is the systematic, goal-oriented application for controlling, monitoring and supporting knowledge processes across company boundaries

(Thoben 2002)

 

Also frequently heard is the statement, "If the company knew what the company knows, then ...."

In the seminar, the topic of knowledge is examined in more detail from different aspects. Questions of perception and the interplay of explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) knowledge will also be examined.

In the knowledge management part, different methods of knowledge management are presented and discussed.

At the end, knowledge is considered as intellectual capital of an organization and evaluation procedures for knowledge are shown.

 

 

 

 

On this home page you find information about the following topics:

  • Executive Consulting: all about my professional services as an independent consultant and coach.
  • Presentations and publications: summaries and downloads of presentations, publications and interviews.
  • Science and Lectures: latest information and downloads concerning my lectures "Information Technology and Knowledge Management in Product Development" as well as information and links of my scientific network.
  • Links: interesting links to business topics, things of general interest and from the lake constance region.

 

To several contributions  downloads are provided. For download please registre yourself.

All contributions are available in German and English. Downloades are available only in the original language.

 

DIN Spec 91383-2021 published (JTIAP V2): 

    • As predicted DIN Spec 91383 was updated during the last months and enhanced by the several recommendations of JT-Workflow-Forum und dem JT-Implementer-Forum of the international prostep ivip Association, as well as German VDA AK PLM. It is available until now.
    • The new DIN Spec can be downloaded under https://www.beuth.de/de/technische-regel/din-spec-91383/341903011 free of charge.

    • Related to this work the  referenced documents  prostep ivip recommendations PSI-14-x:2021 were also updated
      PSI 14_1_V3 JTIAP format specification defines the JT-Format
      PSI 14_2_V2 Industrial JT Use-Cases describes thirty one Use-Cases, which are implemented and used in industry succesfully.
      Both recommendations can be downloaded under https://www.prostep.org/mediathek/veroeffentlichungen/?no_cache=1.

    • We will be still engaged to bring this new specification into the formal ISO process for updating  ISO 14306 related to to international industrial demands as soon as possible

    • For further questions or new ideas please don´t hesitate to contact me

 

 

 

 

Implementations on DIN Spec 91383 (JTIAP V2): results of the fourth survey

  • In March 2019, the fourth worldwide survey on the current activities concerning the implementation of the JT Industrial Application Package Version 2 (DIN Spec 91383)  was carried out. Here are the results in summary:


  • CAD ISV´s:

    • Autotdesk will deploy JTIAP V2 fully for their authoring-tools and integrate it in their ATF-translator
    • DS will support ISO 14306 ed1 as well as  JTIAP V2 by partner solutions
    • PTC uses Siemens JT toolkit for their JT compatible products 
    • Siemens products that create and utilize JT are compatible with JTIAP V2

    System-Integrators:

    • Eleven out of fifteen system-integrators have a complete solution available today
    • Two have parts of the solution available and are engaged in further development
    • Two are waiting for customer request

  • To sum up: 
  • We have reached in a short periode of time an outstandig maturity
  • On the user side we have more than 250 Mio JT files in the databases done by more than 100.000 Users 
  • We have the direct support from nearly all ISV´s
  • We have integration solutions from nearly all relevant systemintegrators
  • So the deployment project of JTIAP V2 and DIN Spec 91383 has completed it´s mission and can be closed. All further activities will be done by prostep ivip JT Workflow and Implementor Forum


 News Januar 2019

  • DIN SPEC 91383 is now formally approved and publishedl
  • The continuous development of JT standardisation has reached the next milestone. JT Industrial Application Package V2 has been updated and enhanced (e.g. taking ISO14306-2017 into account). So we have generated a formal and public available document with the crediablity of the German Standarisation Organisation DIN. DIN Spec 91383 - 2018 can now be used and has the potential to be the starting description for the next version of ISO 14306.

  • The document combine different specifications and standards to a comprehensive industrial approved concept:
    • The definition of precise geometry is based on ISO 14306-2017, with  XT-B-Rep as mandatory mathematical representation 
    • The XML-structure- and kinematic-definition is based on ISO 10303  (STEP AP 242 -XML)
    • The extensions of JT specification and a mor powerful data-compression is based on  prostep ivip recommendation PSI 14-1:2016 (JTIAP V2)
    • The use-case-descriptions of JT Workflow-Forum are linked to  prostep ivip recommendation PSI 14-2:2015
  • The specification  is available and can be downloaded under  Download DIN Spec 91383

 

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