Transformation and change expert.
Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2024.
Featured as one of the “Leading Heads of HR in Germany” (40 Führende Kopf), in 2019, 2017, and 2015.
Was interviewed by Thinkers50 co-founder Stuart Crainer. Watch here.
Kai’s work focuses on people management. His areas of expertise span transformation, the future of work, and sustainability topics. For transformation to succeed, he argues, humans must be put at the centre of work, which requires organisations to engage in some key paradigm shifts that challenge the status quo. In his contributory chapter for The Human-Centric Enterprise, Kai defines four key cultural components of human-centred transformation: 1) North Star driven – aligning on the future state; 2) Co-created, not top-down directed; 3) Capability-focused and enablement driven; and 4) Practised, not just preached.
Kai is head of transformation at Mercer. Previously, he was a partner at Promerit AG, a people management company he founded in 1999, which joined the Mercer group in 2018. After studying industrial engineering and founding a software company, he was involved as vice president in setting up a spinoff of the University of St. Gallen. Today, Kai heads Mercer’s Executive Advisory in Europe. Collaborating with forward-thinking clients and colleagues, he continues to shape emerging trends in the people management sector. Throughout his career, Kai has received multiple accolades as one of Germany’s ‘Leading Heads of HR.’
Kai is the author of the books Das agile Unternehmen (Campus Verlag, 2015) and Digital Human: Der Mensch im Mittelpunkt der Digitalisierung (Campus Verlag, 2017). He is also a contributor to Work Different: 10 Truths for Winning in the People Age (Wiley, 2023) and The Human-Centric Enterprise, a Thinkers50/Mercer partnership ebook (2023), with his chapter “Transforming for a human-centric culture.’ Kai has co-written several articles for Brink News including ‘How people-sustainability is key to business success’ (with Daniel Imbeault, Christopher Labreque, 2021) and ‘The clean energy transition starts with company culture’ (with Milan Taylor, 2021).
“People and culture are integral to transformation. Kai shows how businesses and organisations must keep humans at their center.”
Stuart Crainer & Des Dearlove, Thinkers50
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