Wenn aus Projektpartnern Freunde werden

Welche Freude zusammen mit einem meiner Lieblings-Design-Thinker und guten Freund Joern Bruecker auf gemeinsame 5 Jahren Design Thinking zurückzublicken.
Wenn aus Projektpartnern in der Tat Freunde werden, haben wir doch alles richtig gemacht oder?

Six years ago, in January 2013, Jochen Gürtler, Senior Design Strategist and Design Thinking Expert at the SAP AppHaus Heidelberg, and Jörn Brücker, Product Group Manager, Innovation Methodology at Nestlé in Vevey, met for the first time. Since then, both have become recognized global experts in innovation culture who know about the power and challenges change can have. While Jochen intensified his role as coach and change catalyst, Jörn became a main driver of IT innovation methodologies in Nestlé. In an interview both share some insights in their relationship and how it evolved.

Joern and Jochen, how was your first meeting?

Jochen: Our former SAP Chief Design Officer, Sam Yen, had asked my team during the first day in the office after the Christmas holidays 2013 to support colleagues from Nestlé in implementing Design Thinking within their organization. This was a special request for me and the whole SAP AppHaus team for three reasons: First, we did not yet offer Design Thinking trainings officially these days although we had a lot of experience around the topic. Second, we knew the Nestlé IT organization quite well due long intense collaboration as well as some escalations we solved together. And third, I was happy to come back to Lake Geneva and Montreux, as I had the pleasure to perform several times at the jazz festival some years earlier.

Joern: At this point in time, Nestlé IT just recently reorganized one part of the IT function and created a new operational unit called ASI Architecture-Strategy & Innovation. This unit focused on the IT architecture vision, strategic partnerships and trends, and finally on how IT becomes an innovative partner to the business. With the newly created role of Innovation Champions we aimed to provide guidance and structure on how to deliver more desirable IT solutions to the business, and more importantly, to our employees. This was the beginning of a long transformational journey! Because of the long lasting professional and trustful relationship between Thomas Wildi, our Nestlé ASI lead, and Sam Yen and his team, SAP was our strategic partner on this journey. That way, Jochen had been appointed to become our first Design Thinking coach. And he became my volunteer partner in exploring and designing a long transformation journey together with me.

Neugierig, wie es weitergeht? Hier geht es zum kompletten Interview.