See photos from Niels´ session.
» Sunday, November 16, 2008
Niels impresses 400 Swiss leaders at "Swiss Leadership Forum", Zurich, Nov/2008- Niels offers a 50-minute tour-de-force through the new world of "beyond budgeting" leadership and transformation - and delivers a keynote widely recognized as the best of the conference.
See photos from Niels´ session.
See photos from Niels´ session.
» Saturday, November 15, 2008
Meet the authors. Alongside the "Frankfurter Buchmesse", Frankfurt/Germany, Okt/2008- At the Author´s Lounge, hosted by Agentur Gorus www.gorus.de, Niels is being interviewed by Oliver Gorus about career, writing and about how to create impact through publishing.
Niels in talks with fellow BBTN colleagues Gebhard Borck and Andreas Zeuch, and consultant Stephan Meyer.
Niels in talks with fellow BBTN colleagues Gebhard Borck and Andreas Zeuch, and consultant Stephan Meyer.
» Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Wirtschaftswandel: Delivered. Niels speaks at "Wirtschaftswandel Event 2008", Stuttgart/Germany, Feb/2008 - www.wirtschaftswandel.de, Ralf Nemeczeks wonderful initiative for a better business world, hosted its first conference in 2008.
The next event will happen Saturday, 28. February 2009, in Stuttgart-Echterdingen. Niels´ session was also video-taped and the edited keynote is available on DVD. Check our web store!
The next event will happen Saturday, 28. February 2009, in Stuttgart-Echterdingen. Niels´ session was also video-taped and the edited keynote is available on DVD. Check our web store!
» Sunday, October 21, 2007
Rapid Business Meeting "Beyond Budgeting" at the Performance 2007 conference, Nürnberg/Germany, Oct/2007- At the annual Performance conference organized by Cognos Germany, Niels Pflaeging and Gebhard Borck ran two interactive 4-hour workshops on Beyond Budgeting and "Leading with flexible Targets". On each of the two conference days, a group of 21 participants had the opportunity to learn more about the Beyond Budgeting model, and to discuss the topic with the other participants and Niels Pflaeging, within the innovative Knowledge Turntable method.
Watch out for the Rapid Business Meeting "tour" on Beyond Budgeting which will take place in early 2008!
The workshops took place in Nürnberg´s ultra-modern conference center, the CCN.
The workshop facilitators.
Both workshops started with a short introductory keynote on Beyond Budgeting, presented by BBRT director Niels Pflaeging.
The second and much longer part of the workshop consists of going through the Knowledge Turntable method. This group interaction method creates a playing field within which a highly intensive exchange among the participants can be achieved – in absence of any kind of hierarchy. The participants generate a joint group knowledge and understanding of the chosen topics and participate actively to develop new knowledge and concepts.
Preparing the topics for the Knowledge Turntable session.
Putting the pieces together: During our workshops, we make use of our exclusive 3-D "congress edition" Beyond Budgeting models. Here, the tayloristic management model and the post-tayloristic networked model are being prepared for the workshop session.
There are additional "table-top" models, which are now also available for companies, trainers and consultants. This series of models is called the "board edition".
Niels Pflaeging and our assistant at the Performance conference, Silke Asselmeyer.
Taking a seat in the Knowledge Turntable setting.
René Reinhold, general manager at Paradigma Energie- und Umwelttechnik, presented an overview over his firm´s Beyond Budgeting journey for the first time, at the Performance conference. His two "case" presentations were among the most commmented in Nürnberg.
Watch out for the Rapid Business Meeting "tour" on Beyond Budgeting which will take place in early 2008!
The workshops took place in Nürnberg´s ultra-modern conference center, the CCN.
The workshop facilitators.
Both workshops started with a short introductory keynote on Beyond Budgeting, presented by BBRT director Niels Pflaeging.
The second and much longer part of the workshop consists of going through the Knowledge Turntable method. This group interaction method creates a playing field within which a highly intensive exchange among the participants can be achieved – in absence of any kind of hierarchy. The participants generate a joint group knowledge and understanding of the chosen topics and participate actively to develop new knowledge and concepts.
Preparing the topics for the Knowledge Turntable session.
Putting the pieces together: During our workshops, we make use of our exclusive 3-D "congress edition" Beyond Budgeting models. Here, the tayloristic management model and the post-tayloristic networked model are being prepared for the workshop session.
There are additional "table-top" models, which are now also available for companies, trainers and consultants. This series of models is called the "board edition".
Niels Pflaeging and our assistant at the Performance conference, Silke Asselmeyer.
Taking a seat in the Knowledge Turntable setting.
René Reinhold, general manager at Paradigma Energie- und Umwelttechnik, presented an overview over his firm´s Beyond Budgeting journey for the first time, at the Performance conference. His two "case" presentations were among the most commmented in Nürnberg.
» Monday, April 23, 2007
Book Launch "Leading with Flexible Targets" at Buchhandlung Manz, Vienna/Austria, Mar/2007- Authors Niels Pflaeging and Rainer Petek shared a book launch event at one of Europes most beautiful book stores: Manz, in Viennas historic centre. Both authors presented contents from there recent publications "Managing Uncertainty with the Nordwand principle" and "Leading with Flexible Targets". The event was booked out.
» Saturday, March 10, 2007
Dinner keynote "Leading with Flexible Targets" for IEE, Porto Alegre, Jan/2007- Evening keynote for members of Instituto de Estudos Empresariais in Porto Alegre
» Thursday, December 28, 2006
Cognos Performance 2006 - Oct/2006 - Shortly after publishing "Führen mit flexiblen Zielen", my new book on Beyond Budgeting, I had the opportunity to speak at the 2006 edition of "Performance", an annual customer event organized by software firm Cognos, in Germany. The conference had a whopping 600 participants.
Corporate Insight Leadership Seminar in Sao Paulo - Oct/2006 - Photos from the seminar on Leadership I shared with US speaker Rick Brinkman.
» Saturday, September 02, 2006
Harvard Business Review Seminar in Bolivia - Aug/2006 - Bolivia´s second biggest city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, boasts a surprisingly vivid business life. The city is clearly the country´s economic motor. About 160 managers from Santa Cruz, La Paz and even Sucre joined HBR´s first seminar in the Bolivia.
» Friday, September 01, 2006
Snapshot from Beyond Budgeting in-house workshop in Peru, Aug/2006 - A 2-day in-house workshop for an organization´s top management team is often the first serious step towards a Beyond Budgeting implementation initiative. Here are five snapshots from such a workshop developed with the owners and a dozen top managers from one of Peru´s most distinguished companies. A quote from Eduardo Lira, General Manager at Wong Supermarket Group/Peru: "Working with Niels during a workshop with the top management team of our company has been an almost religious experience! We find his ideas, concepts and approach highly coherent and valuable for our organization and look forward to working with Niels towards implementing a more adaptive and decentralized management model."
» Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Harvard Business Review Latin America Seminar Series 2006: Argentina -Bolivia - Chile - Colombia - Panama - Peru, Apr-Jun/2006 - This is the 2nd series of seminars the BBRT is running together with HBR. After having covered three countries in 2005, we have now extended the seminar tour to 6 countries - and with more to come. Thanks a lot to Edward McCubbin and his team from HBR in Uruguay and to Jorge Hurtado and his team from HBR in Chile! These photos were taken during our 1-day "Beyond Budgeting" seminar in Lima, which was the 2nd in the country and which had about 150 attendees. The response on the seminar was great and I had the pleasure to meet the board of one of Peru´s largest and best-run companies the following day, whose president also attended the seminar. Let´s hope we will see some Beyond Budgeting cases appear in Peru soon! There is also a video for download on this website, from a TV interview I gave at Peru´s Channel N, during my stay in Lima.
» Sunday, April 30, 2006
Cognos Finance Forum 2006, Düsseldorf, Germany, Apr/2006 - The event, organized by Cognos, featured keynote presentations by Dr. David Norton (BSCol) and Niels Pflaeging (BBRT). See below two photos from Niels´ afternoon session on "Beyond Budgeting - a new model for planning, managing and leading in the 21st century"
In talks with Wolf Müller Schulz, editor of Business Intelligence Magazine, and Erich Leitner, Vice President Continental Europe, Cognos.
In talks with Wolf Müller Schulz, editor of Business Intelligence Magazine, and Erich Leitner, Vice President Continental Europe, Cognos.
» Tuesday, April 11, 2006
SGU event in Zurich/Switzerland, Feb/2006 - Presentation on Beyond Budgeting to professionals from the Swiss organizational development community.
With SGU´s president Barbara Leuner. Barbara works as an Organizational Development consultant and helps organizations in the profit and the not-for-profit sectors in facilitating change processes - tackling strategic, structural and cultural issues.
With SGU´s president Barbara Leuner. Barbara works as an Organizational Development consultant and helps organizations in the profit and the not-for-profit sectors in facilitating change processes - tackling strategic, structural and cultural issues.
» Thursday, March 23, 2006
BankingClub event Frankfurt, Germany, Feb/2006 - Three snapshots from the keynote session on "Beyond Budgeting in Banking", hosted by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
IDG Summit Services and Retail in Guarujá/Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sept/2005 - Three snapshots from the expert panel on IT Management in Services and Retail.
» Saturday, September 17, 2005
“HBR Beyond Budgeting Seminars”, Bogotá/Colombia - Montevideo/Uruguay - Lima/Peru, September/2005 - Harvard Business Review Latin America and the Beyond Budgeting Round Table jointly held a series of 1-day Beyond Budgeting seminars in South America. 120 particpants attended the introductory seminar in Bogotá, 150 in Montevideo and 200 in Lima.
The pictures below were taken at the Lima seminar, on September 8.
The pictures below were taken at the Lima seminar, on September 8.
» Friday, July 08, 2005
“Beyond Budgeting Summit”, Frankfurt, June/2005 - The first Beyond Budgeting summit in Germany was held on June 8/9 at Starnberger Hotel in central Frankfurt. Jointly organized by WSF, FAZ-Institute, Juergen Daum and the BBRT, it brought together participants from Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
The summit´s agenda featured keynotes from academics, from companies that have been using the Beyond Budgeting model for decades (Svenska Handelsbanken, Aldi) and members of the Beyond Budgeting movement. Among the company case studies presented in parallel forums throughout the two conference days were Unilever, Borealis, Hilti, and Boots.
The photos from the conference shown below were taken by Prof. Andreas Klein, who generously made them available for publication on this site.
Juergen Daum, SAP, opened the conference with a small introduction on the event´s agenda and content. Juergen also chaired the conference during the two days.
Lennart Francke, CFO of Swedish universal bank Svenska Handelsbanken, took charge of the first presentation of the day. Handelsbanken is one of the companies with the most outstanding track record in applying the Beyond Budgeting model. During his speech, Lennart outlined that Beyond Budgeting is much more than "abolishing the budget" - and that it is indeed about "creating organizations that are aligned with human nature." Different than tayloristic, mechanistic management model from the industrial age, "the Beyond Budgeting model works in harmony with human nature, not against it".
Robin Fraser, the BBRT´s international director, continued with an overview over the foundations of the Beyond Budgeting model, on decentralization as its main purpose, and on how to implement it in a way that allows an organization to transform itself and lead it towards a new, highly adaptive and decentralized model.
Prof. Péter Horváth is a reknown academic in the German-speaking countries. He held the chair on management control at the University of Stuttgart and runs a successful consulting company that focuses on performance management. Prof. Hórvath has also co-translated the "Beyond Budgeting" book by Robin Fraser and Jeremy Hope into German.
Prof. Utz Schaeffer from EBS university, held a presentation on recent empirical research regarding budgeting and beyond budgeting.
Juergen Daum introduces Werner Kemke, of UBS, the Swiss finance service company which is currently reinforcing its initiative to move towards the Beyond Budgeting model.
Steve Morlidge is Leader of "Dynamic Performance Management", the initiative that is taking the international consumer-goods giant Unilever beyond budgeting. Steve made one of his compelling and passionate presentations about recent progress at Unilever and key concepts applied at the firm both in terms of new process design and Unilever´s approach towards change management with respect to the transformation of the management framework.
Dieter Brandes was, over many years, a top manager at Aldi, Germany´s biggest and most successful supermarket retailer. He has written several bestselling books on leadership and management at Aldi, "simpler management" and better ways of controlling a business - one of his books is also available in English language. Mr. Brandes is now a freelance consultant. Aldi, the company Mr. Brandes derives most of his advice from, has never used a budget and can be considered one of the most successful retail companies in the world. The company´s results have been outstanding, over decades.
Niels Pflaeging´s presentation at the summit provided an overview over lessons learned at the BBRT on how to manage without fixed performance contracts, but within a new framework guided by the principles of the Beyond Budgeting model. The secret, he argued, is using relative performance contracts, highly adaptive and simpler processes and tools that sustain substantially more decentralized decision-making. His speech was entitled "The Power of Relative Targets" and gave participants a good opportunity to interact and share their views and thoughts on the topic.
The panel discussion on the 1st conference day featured most of the speakers of the day. Here, from left to right: Matthias Steinke, of Boots Healthcare International, Niels Pflaeging, Péter Hórvath, and Lennart Francke.
The discussion was facilitated by Juergen Daum, here with Robin Fraser, of the BBRT.
The summit´s agenda featured keynotes from academics, from companies that have been using the Beyond Budgeting model for decades (Svenska Handelsbanken, Aldi) and members of the Beyond Budgeting movement. Among the company case studies presented in parallel forums throughout the two conference days were Unilever, Borealis, Hilti, and Boots.
The photos from the conference shown below were taken by Prof. Andreas Klein, who generously made them available for publication on this site.
Juergen Daum, SAP, opened the conference with a small introduction on the event´s agenda and content. Juergen also chaired the conference during the two days.
Lennart Francke, CFO of Swedish universal bank Svenska Handelsbanken, took charge of the first presentation of the day. Handelsbanken is one of the companies with the most outstanding track record in applying the Beyond Budgeting model. During his speech, Lennart outlined that Beyond Budgeting is much more than "abolishing the budget" - and that it is indeed about "creating organizations that are aligned with human nature." Different than tayloristic, mechanistic management model from the industrial age, "the Beyond Budgeting model works in harmony with human nature, not against it".
Robin Fraser, the BBRT´s international director, continued with an overview over the foundations of the Beyond Budgeting model, on decentralization as its main purpose, and on how to implement it in a way that allows an organization to transform itself and lead it towards a new, highly adaptive and decentralized model.
Prof. Péter Horváth is a reknown academic in the German-speaking countries. He held the chair on management control at the University of Stuttgart and runs a successful consulting company that focuses on performance management. Prof. Hórvath has also co-translated the "Beyond Budgeting" book by Robin Fraser and Jeremy Hope into German.
Prof. Utz Schaeffer from EBS university, held a presentation on recent empirical research regarding budgeting and beyond budgeting.
Juergen Daum introduces Werner Kemke, of UBS, the Swiss finance service company which is currently reinforcing its initiative to move towards the Beyond Budgeting model.
Steve Morlidge is Leader of "Dynamic Performance Management", the initiative that is taking the international consumer-goods giant Unilever beyond budgeting. Steve made one of his compelling and passionate presentations about recent progress at Unilever and key concepts applied at the firm both in terms of new process design and Unilever´s approach towards change management with respect to the transformation of the management framework.
Dieter Brandes was, over many years, a top manager at Aldi, Germany´s biggest and most successful supermarket retailer. He has written several bestselling books on leadership and management at Aldi, "simpler management" and better ways of controlling a business - one of his books is also available in English language. Mr. Brandes is now a freelance consultant. Aldi, the company Mr. Brandes derives most of his advice from, has never used a budget and can be considered one of the most successful retail companies in the world. The company´s results have been outstanding, over decades.
Niels Pflaeging´s presentation at the summit provided an overview over lessons learned at the BBRT on how to manage without fixed performance contracts, but within a new framework guided by the principles of the Beyond Budgeting model. The secret, he argued, is using relative performance contracts, highly adaptive and simpler processes and tools that sustain substantially more decentralized decision-making. His speech was entitled "The Power of Relative Targets" and gave participants a good opportunity to interact and share their views and thoughts on the topic.
The panel discussion on the 1st conference day featured most of the speakers of the day. Here, from left to right: Matthias Steinke, of Boots Healthcare International, Niels Pflaeging, Péter Hórvath, and Lennart Francke.
The discussion was facilitated by Juergen Daum, here with Robin Fraser, of the BBRT.
» Thursday, June 23, 2005
Summit on "High Performance" in Bonn, June/2005 - This 1-day seminar on high performance leadership and management was held at the historic "Redoute", in Bonn, the former German capital. The day´s program included keynotes on high performance organizations (and how these substantially differ from traditional, tayloristic companies) and the Beyond Budgeting model. Executives from three high performance companies presented their case studies as well. These companies were Dell, the world´s leading PC maker, Schindler Parent, a thriving German marketing agency, and Linzer Polyfelt, a technology and engineering service provider based in Austria. To learn more about the seminar, visit the summit´s web site (in German)
» Wednesday, June 01, 2005
“Controller Congress 2005”, Munich/Germany - This remarkable conference - organized by the Bavarian Controller Akademie, attracts around 600 professionals from finance management each year. Here are a couple of photos from the forum on Performance Management, on the 2nd conference day, which was joined by approx. 150 conference participants.
» Monday, May 23, 2005
Networking event on "Beyond Budgeting" in Vienna, May/2005 - Vienna is said to be one of Europe´s most beautiful capitals. And rightly so. But there is also a vibrant management community in Austria. Consulting firms Harrer & Partner and Dieter Strametz & Partner jointly held a networking event with a keynote presentation from Niels Pflaeging.
The event was held at Management Club, in downtown Vienna.
After the keynote, Gernot Schieszler (VP Finance Telekom Austria), Dr. Helmut Schwager (CFO Constantia Packaging), Soeren Buschmann (CEO Strametz & Partner), Martin Kwauka (Editor of "Finanzen"), Elfriede Harrer (CEO Harrer & Partner), Austrian entrepreneur Prof. Dr. Manfred Winterheller (Winterheller software), and Niels Pflaeging discussed the implications of the new Beyond Budgeting model for Austrian businesses...
The event continued with an exotic buffet provided by chef Claudia Nichterl, with wine and cigars...
Dr. Manfred Winterheller in talks with Gunther Hübner of law firm Hübner & Hübner.
The event was held at Management Club, in downtown Vienna.
After the keynote, Gernot Schieszler (VP Finance Telekom Austria), Dr. Helmut Schwager (CFO Constantia Packaging), Soeren Buschmann (CEO Strametz & Partner), Martin Kwauka (Editor of "Finanzen"), Elfriede Harrer (CEO Harrer & Partner), Austrian entrepreneur Prof. Dr. Manfred Winterheller (Winterheller software), and Niels Pflaeging discussed the implications of the new Beyond Budgeting model for Austrian businesses...
The event continued with an exotic buffet provided by chef Claudia Nichterl, with wine and cigars...
Dr. Manfred Winterheller in talks with Gunther Hübner of law firm Hübner & Hübner.
» Thursday, March 10, 2005
Speaking at a seminar on IT Governance, São Paulo, Feb/2005 - Some snapshots from the 1-day seminar on performance management for IT, organized by IDG (editor of Computerworld Magazine).
» Monday, December 06, 2004
Conference “HBR World Forum: Beyond Budgeting & the Performance Revolution”, São Paulo, Nov/2004 - 140 participants from all over Brazil joined the BBRT, Harvard Business Review and Valor Econômico business journal for the first Latin American conference on Beyond Budgeting. Participants assisted keynotes from Robin Fraser and Niels Pflaeging (BBRT), case study reports from Svenska Handelsbanken, Unilever and the World Bank as well as tool-related presentations on the use of the Balanced Scorecard and of IT within a Beyond Budgeting framework.
The conference was held at Sol Meliá Mofarrej Hotel,, near Avenida Paulista, in the banking center of São Paulo.
Images from Robin Fraser’s opening presentation on high performance management and Beyond Budgeting. Robin Fraser is the BBRT’s International Director.
Steve Morlidge (Unilever UK) explained the challenges of moving one of the major players in international consumer goods business towards the Beyond Budgeting management model. Steve is the leader of Dynamic Performance Management, Unilever´s global Beyond Budgeting change program.
During the coffee break: Robin Fraser in talks with conference participants.
Robin Fraser, Steve Morlidge and Niels Pflaeging discuss particpant´s questions regarding Beyond Budgeting fundamentals and Steve´s change management work at Unilever.
Participants and speakers at the lunch break on the first conference day.
Lennart Francke, CFO of Svenska Handelsbanken, Swedens biggest bank, shared insights into managing a radically decentralized organization with highly adaptive processes. Handelsbanken abolished budgets and the centralized command-and-control way of management in the early 70s and has since then been one of the worlds most sucessful banks.
Lennart Francke, Robin Fraser and Niels Pflaeging on the 2nd day´s panel discussion, which focused on the practicalities of managing beyond budgeting at Handelsbanken, on corporate governance and implementation issues.
Odair Oliveira and Steve Morlidge at a coffee break.
The conference was held at Sol Meliá Mofarrej Hotel,, near Avenida Paulista, in the banking center of São Paulo.
Images from Robin Fraser’s opening presentation on high performance management and Beyond Budgeting. Robin Fraser is the BBRT’s International Director.
Steve Morlidge (Unilever UK) explained the challenges of moving one of the major players in international consumer goods business towards the Beyond Budgeting management model. Steve is the leader of Dynamic Performance Management, Unilever´s global Beyond Budgeting change program.
During the coffee break: Robin Fraser in talks with conference participants.
Robin Fraser, Steve Morlidge and Niels Pflaeging discuss particpant´s questions regarding Beyond Budgeting fundamentals and Steve´s change management work at Unilever.
Participants and speakers at the lunch break on the first conference day.
Lennart Francke, CFO of Svenska Handelsbanken, Swedens biggest bank, shared insights into managing a radically decentralized organization with highly adaptive processes. Handelsbanken abolished budgets and the centralized command-and-control way of management in the early 70s and has since then been one of the worlds most sucessful banks.
Lennart Francke, Robin Fraser and Niels Pflaeging on the 2nd day´s panel discussion, which focused on the practicalities of managing beyond budgeting at Handelsbanken, on corporate governance and implementation issues.
Odair Oliveira and Steve Morlidge at a coffee break.
» Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Professional Days 2004, Mallorca, Sep/2004 - Austria´s financial management software company Winterheller held its 2004 user and partner conference on Mallorca, instead of choosing Salzburg for location as in previous years. A smart move. Participants were in great spirit right from the start, to attend sessions on Microsoft´s OLAP strategy, Sarbanes Oxley, Financial Restructuring and Beyond Budgeting.
Arriving in Palma de Mallorca: Palma has one of Europes busiest airports. Surprisingly enough, the island has still preserved much of its charm, even after decades of massive tourist invasions.
Snapshot from the keynote presentation "Trends in management control: Beyond Budgeting"
In talks with conference participants at the reception evening
Arriving in Palma de Mallorca: Palma has one of Europes busiest airports. Surprisingly enough, the island has still preserved much of its charm, even after decades of massive tourist invasions.
Snapshot from the keynote presentation "Trends in management control: Beyond Budgeting"
In talks with conference participants at the reception evening
