At the age of 70, many people feel the desire to share their life stories with future generations. I have led an especially varied life: growing up in the USA, moving to Germany at eleven, thus having two native languages. The profession I chose is one of the most interesting ever, and I recently celebrated my 50th anniversary as a journalist. I have worked at a small-town newspaper, as a police reporter, editor-in-chief, radio announcer, restaurant critic, travel journalist, TV host, podcaster, and blogger. I have written more than a dozen books and traveled all over the world.
I was the very first Internet journalist in Germany and was once called the "wandering preacher of the German Internet" by the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Friends and clients fondly refer to me as the "Internet veteran." Yes, it has been an exciting life, and Quora gives me the opportunity to find answers that I would most like to give to my grandchildren. They are still too young to ask such questions. Above all, Quora has given me the chance to answer the most important question of all: Who am I?!
Artificial Intelligence can make companies smarter and more successful. Forget the dark, dystopian visions of robots who want to take away your job and rule the world! AI can be a real blessing for companies and a powerful transformative force. In my latest book, I take readers on a guided tour of typical companies and shows them how to recognize AI’s potential in business, as well as how to correctly assess its limitations and risks. The book is chock-full of practical tips and real-life examples. A must for decision makers in the age of smart systems and intelligent processes.
„What do the Wild West of yesteryear and the Internet of today have in common? In this book, I draw a parallel between the rise of the robber barons in the so-called „Gilded Age of the 19th century and compare them to the „modern robber barons“ of the digital age, with the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Bill Gates, and the biggest robber baron of them all, Steve Jobs.GAFA – Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple – have amassed a wealth of power that has become a clear and present to our society. Never in history has so much money and influence been in the hands of so few unscrupulous businessmen who want to control our lives with their apps and who are helping themselves to our data in order to rake in obscene profits, and they need to be stopped! Above all, we need to be clear about what kind of world we want to live in before it’s too late. We need ethics for the digital age because, unlike technology, society needs ethical guidelines if it is to function.
In this book I describe the elements that, together, create the gigantic tidal wave we call Digital Transformation, namely digitization, connectivity and mobility. The impact can be felt in every areas of business. I accompany the reader on a trip through a typical enterprise and discuss how processes, business models and work habits are changing in marketing, sales, manufacturing, logistics, IT departments, controlling and even in HR.
Available in a second revised and expanded edition.
During the Enlightenment of the 18th century societies in Europe threw off oppressive regimes, freed cities from the bondage of the medieval estate-based society, and defined a set of basic human rights that helped shape their sense of self to this day. Today, we as citizens of an increasingly digitized and networked world are in a similar situation. We, too, need the muster the confidence and creativity to rethink rules, values and categories that define our society and the courage to dare to think for ourselves, as Immanuel Kant, the father of modern Enlightenment, demanded in his famous dictum “sapere aude!”
The emerging countries of Asia are the only consumer markets with sustainable growth prospects. Instead of wearing themselves out in ruinous competition at home, German SMEs should seize the opportunity to grow organically in new sales markets. You don't remain an export champion by only playing in the regional league. With this thesis in mind, my friend Dünter Denk and I embarked on an extensive journey through the countries of Southeast Asia in 2010, where we spoke with experts, consultants, managers, and politicians to answer the question: how can German SMEs successfully meet the challenges of doing business in Asia.
The company of tomorrow will look very different from today's. Under the pressure of technological innovation, increasing connectivity, and demographic changes, companies will be forced to adapt. What will businesses look like in 10 to 20 years, and what must I, as a manager, do today to set the right course for the future? This book aims to provide concrete action recommendations, organized by various business areas such as sales, marketing, production, etc., on how managers can future-proof their companies with the help of IT. Numerous company examples illustrate how particularly progressive businesses are tackling this challenge. The book focuses primarily on medium-sized enterprises.
Technology can be fascinating, but it can also intimidate or deter. This dilemma is common for many sellers of technical products, especially when they themselves are technicians, but the buyer is a manager. This practical guide aims to improve communication between technicians and non-technicians, between sellers and customers, and to bring both to a satisfactory and beneficial conclusion. Before a technical seller can successfully make a sale, they must find a way to make their message understandable and persuasive to the customer—in a language the customer can comprehend.
The internet has tilted the playing field: customers are more pwoerful than ever, and vendors ignore this fact at their peril. Customer today have unlimited choice. They are better informed, often, than the vendor. Prices are completly transparent. And for the very first time, customers have a channel through which they can coimmunicate directly with the other side. For manufacturers and vendors, this is a coimpletely new situation, and one with which they will have to lean to deal.
Can a manager, medium-sized business owner, or freelancer afford to ignore the issue of computer security today? The answer from Radio Yerevan: Yes—but only until something goes wrong. And by then, it is probably already too late. German companies incur losses amounting to millions, perhaps even billions, each year due to data loss and theft. No one knows for sure, as the dark figures are higher here than anywhere else. In the age of the internet, computer security is certainly a matter for top management, even if many executives are unwilling to accept this reality.
This was the first book in Germany to describe the Internet Revolution in terme even a magager could understand. In it, I explain that the internet is not like the common cold – it won’t go away. I also urge enterprises to consider ways of harnessing the power of this new medium for their own purposes, for instance reaching out to customers and creating new and more efficient business processes. EFI was a smash seller and appeared both in hardcover and paperback. It also launched me on my new career as a public speaker.
