Keynote UFIS23: Business Model-Impro on Ice

First of all: I don't own an ice cream parlor

I am the managing director and partner of MORGEN Consultancy. MORGEN is a specialized management consultancy for business model development in the SME sector.

But I was planning to open one

During my studies, I founded a company with a friend that produced flavorings for water pipe tobacco (see What did I do before? MORGEN made?). The same flavorings are also used by ice cream parlors in a similar, usually poorer quality.

To get started, everything would have been available, from production to food standards in our own production facilities, to the necessary health training and the corresponding know-how! It was therefore a legitimate idea to expand our business model and offer our more than 120 unusual ice cream varieties to ice cream parlors or to sell them ourselves.

An ice cream parlor was evaluated, as were ice cream stands at events, trade fairs and festivals or mobile seasonal concepts in parks. In the end, it always failed due to the cost calculation. Ice cream parlors and the food sector in general are rarely a good business model for small and medium-sized companies to earn money on a scalable basis.

I founded MORGEN because I believe that the biggest starting point for any change in a company is the business model. So much is derived from the business model, it is simply the biggest lever for change.

I want to stand for change and I want to drive change.

At the end of the day, it's important to me to have put my work into something that makes sense and really makes a difference. This is what drives me and ultimately led to us founding a consultancy in the field of business model development.

I spun the consultancy off from the agency medienreaktor together with my former bosses Daniel and Jonas. We know that we can work together productively and have a common goal in mind. I also simply have the consultant gene (see What can I do?), because whether in a business or private environment... I always "end up" in an advisory position.

We are MORGEN

2017-2022 Digital consulting at medienreaktor

I originally joined medienreaktor as a developer. After learning how to program for our own web and store projects in the "Handschlagmarkt" (see below), the agency with its mix of consulting and development was a good opportunity for me to develop further. In addition to project and team management, I quickly ended up in consulting.

In addition to various projects in digital consulting, I developed scalable management consulting products, some of which are now also mapped with MORGEN are now also mapped. Here I had the opportunity to work intensively for a long time with small to group-like companies, especially in the SME sector, and have advised and implemented projects in the 6-digit range. This was also the basis, together with the managing directors of medienreaktor, for founding the business model development MORGEN to found

2015-2023 Freelance consulting and contract programming

Many contacts have remained from my start-ups, which I regularly advise on a freelance basis and for which I implement smaller and larger projects via contract programming. The projects are very different in themselves and the customers are diversified in various industries. This gives me a lot of fun and balance and I have the chance to keep in touch with old friends and acquaintances, with whom one otherwise talks and exchanges far too little!

2013-2020 Business model in the "handshake market"

During my studies (2013), I founded a company with a friend that produced flavorings for water pipe tobacco. These flavorings were sold with the other necessary ingredients for waterpipe tobacco in retail, wholesale and direct sales, so that customers could make their own waterpipe tobacco at home. This was very lucrative from a tax perspective at the time, as no tobacco tax was payable on private production.

The brand and the business model were sold in an exit in 2020. As it turned out in retrospect, this was exactly the right time: at the end of the e-commerce hype during coronavirus and before massive tax regulations were imposed on our business model at the time. The industry is difficult, fast-moving, trend-driven and dominated by a few large families. Even the biggest deals are concluded with a handshake. Lucrative but extremely risky - hands off!

But even though the industry is difficult, I have learned a lot from an entrepreneurial perspective. From dealing with authorities in highly regulated industries, to how valuable it is to do something sustainable in order to be more resilient, to managing our 15 or so different employees.

2018-2020 Business model marketplace concept

As a sideline, I founded another company together with a developer colleague from medienreaktor and another contact from the target industry. The aim here was to set up a platform as a marketplace that uses interfaces to collect the stocks of wholesalers on a daily basis and offers the goods in mixed shopping baskets from all retailers. A business that would require a banking license for payment processing for the retailers or on a commission basis, as required by Ebay, for example. After a long legal evaluation, we launched a concept that successfully sold goods via dropshipping. In the course of my other exit, however, I received an industry ban in the target market of the marketplace concept for a few years (a common process for an exit) and subsequently gave away my shares to another shareholder of this company.

2012-2015 Excel-Ernie at Siemens

During my studies, I worked for a long time in what was then Corporate IT at Siemens. I was employed to develop complex Excel folders. If this raises any questions, you're right. But at least at that time, many processes were mapped using it. Of course, these Excel folders do not correspond to what we in SMEs understand by Excel files. While we use Excel as a spreadsheet tool, the folders enriched with VBA programs were used to programmatically map complex evaluations with interfaces. My job was to write these programs, develop them further and, as an Excel Ernie, solve every Excel problem from all departments that knew about me...

2013-2017 Studied industrial engineering with a focus on mechanical engineering

I studied industrial engineering at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, specializing in mechanical engineering. Dry and difficult, but a really good foundation for working with manufacturing companies. In hindsight, I would have gone into programming, which would have been a better fit with a specialization in "communication technology", but that's the way it is and the plaid shirts from that time are somewhere next to the certificate in the closet (sorry mechanical engineering joke).

My day-to-day work therefore includes direct exchange with other managing directors and the organization of workshops and conferences. Apart from that, marketing, especially in the content area, further training and the usual activities of a managing director, e.g. networking, billing, positioning and strategy as well as preparing the accounts.

I often hear how difficult it is to explain consulting. I can't understand that at all. In my view, consulting is when you sit down together and look for a solution to a problem. In most cases, however, the problem is not even known. Accordingly, I ask questions until everyone present (including me) knows exactly what the problem is and can formulate it. In most cases, the solution then almost finds itself.

With MORGEN is all about the business model. So I advise companies to revise the way the company generates value (i.e. money) now or in the future. This can be through the expansion of an existing business model, an overhaul (making it better) or a completely new way/new business model. You can find out more about this in the blog post What does MORGEN actually do?

I am passionate about consulting. I call it the consultant gene. It annoys me personally when I see improvements somewhere and these aren't implemented for base reasons. I am good at explaining why and where I see potential or not. As I am usually at an information disadvantage as a consultant, I am happy to accept the opinions and knowledge of others.

I am a good communicator and I enjoy exchanging ideas with others. I am said to have a quick grasp of things, which I like to use to ask in-depth questions in my private and business life. I love it when the answer is neither simple nor clear. Accordingly, I also enjoy writing texts and marketing, as long as I can choose the topics myself.

I am good at organizing and structuring myself and others. I love managing complex projects, interacting with other types of people and convincing stakeholders of my ideas and visions.

I have a broad technology stack and can program well. I have worked as a senior developer for a long time and have a separate sheet in my resume with programming languages I am proficient in.

I am not a visionary who sells things impressively with a loud bang. I am reluctant to break down complex relationships in an incomplete and oversimplified way. Of course, I would like to be the person who inspires others and gives the moving keynote on stage. Unfortunately, this often goes against my current way of working - I explain and interact. However, sometimes it would be very useful to achieve a big change in thinking with just a few words!

In addition to my job, I have many interests and hobbies. I'm an avid volleyball and beach volleyball player, I'm actively involved in my club and I love going to tournaments as a competitive type.

In my spare time, I enjoy tinkering and programming, especially realizing small projects out of pure passion - such as creating a cocktail machine with a CO2 compressed air dispenser and a Raspberry PI.

In the kitchen, I'm rediscovering my love of cooking and baking. There's nothing better than making my own creations, especially ice cream and pizza. With a penchant for good espresso, I love to extract the last flavors from quality dark roasts.

I am a big cat lover and have two myself. I find it enriching to discover their individual personalities and quirks.

Even in my spare time, my interest in business, entrepreneurship, brands and marketing remains. I follow everything from small startups to large advertising campaigns that cross my path.

As a DIYer, I am competent but without much passion. It's more "strenuous arm work" that usually doesn't offer much for the head. In my current home renovation project, however, I'm hoping to earn a multi-year break from DIY.