I am a freelance strategy consultant working on the edge of strategy x creativity x futures.
Hello, my name is Marco.
I am a freelance strategy consultant working on the edge of strategy x creativity x futures. I help ambitious organizations and people worldwide to reflect and rethink their status quo – and to reimagine and reinvent desirable futures. In turbulent times, I co-create sound, bold and future-ready strategies focusing on bright opportunities and what’s possible. So: What if ..?
Today, I oversee a 14-years long strategy and consulting experience with a track record of 100+ clients across 25+ categories. I have been collaborating with rising start-ups, hidden champions, and world-leading giants on a wide range of business challenges, including iconic brands like Bosch, BMW, L’Oréal, Porsche, Siemens, Telekom, Toyota, TUI, or Zeiss, to name a few. During the past years, I’ve been also collaborating with 30+ partners including some of the best-in-class companies from the creative industries worldwide as well as with the most forward-thinking companies that actively shape the future. Occasionally, I also do some more things with passion and purpose: sparring, training, speaking, lecturing, mentoring, and some more.
I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, a Master’s degree in Cultural Management, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Futures Studies from Stellenbosch University, Cape Town. I also attended the Miami Ad School’s Creative Strategy program in Sydney as well as several trainings from some of the most inspiring organizations worldwide, such as IDEO, Hyper Island, Zukunftsinstitut, or Institute of the Future to constantly refine my ways of thinking.
As an independent thinker, I am always on the hunt for courageous clients, exciting challenges, and enlightening collaborations with bright minds. Let’s figure out what’s next.
World-class clients
I’ve worked for rising start-ups, hidden champions and world-leading giants from a wide range of industries. Their history, their status quo and the dynamics of their environment were always quite different. But what they all have in common: the ambition, belief and power to redefine the future of their markets.
World-class partners
During the past years, I’ve had the pleasure to collaborate with some of the best-in-class companies from the creative industries worldwide (incl. the big five Publicis, WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic, and Dentsu plus the leading creative partners from Germany) as well as with some of the most forward-thinking companies. I am happy to feature an exceptional network of outstanding organizations and individuals from all areas in the intersection of strategy, creativity, and futures.
What some say
Michael Jordan once said: “Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.” I feel very grateful to have the privilege since many years of teaming up with so many great people, inspiring minds and diverse teams around the world. Here are some of them. Thanks for your kind words. For more quotes check my LinkedIn.
“The quality of his work, strength of his analysis, and unpacking of insights was first class. This enabled us to deliver a comprehensive strategy to a tier one client.”
“Working with Marco is just a pleasure. He is a genius when it comes to strategy.”
“A fast thinker and a truly creative mind, always looking for the new and unseen.”
“Marco brings a strong creative mind to the table paired with killer business acumen.”
„A visionary and progressive mind. Marco combines smart strategic thinking with a great sense for outstanding creative work.”
“Marco has done a fantastic job in capturing the complexity of the APF – that will allow us to clarify our future positioning.”
“He has a broad experience across industries and disciplines, and a passion for people, brands and unexpected business solutions.”
“One of the hungriest, most passionate and committed people I’ve met. His belief that meaningful strategies are those that create value is inspiring.”
“Not only is he a savvy strategic thinker, but also a very nice person who is fun to talk to.”
“His view on innovative business models combined with the knowledge to build and develop brands has given the right drive.”
“Someone who is able to map the unmapped – and inspires others to follow him.”
“He brings order to the chaos.”
“He manages to solve even complex strategy issues creatively and efficiently.”
“Two skills inspired me: simplifying complexity and turning an uncertain future into exciting strategic perspectives.”
“Marco has shown a deep understanding of our client’s business challenges and turned it into real opportunities through reasonable strategic advice.”
“Marco is one of these super rare pros who are hard to find: he is creative and strategic both ways. A true hybrid.”
“Marco is a quick thinker. He grasps a strategic task and at the same time his brain is already looking for solutions.”
“An absolute engaged and inspired strategist. He was always on fire, very focused and result-oriented. Our collaboration was very flexible and reliable.”
“His strategic thinking is sharp and is creative approach inspiring – a combination that is rarely found. He brings passion, curiosity and playfulness into each project.”
“Clear, smart, open-minded, a good listener, a consultant, fast, intelligent, helpful, empathic, structured, and highly creative. Always on my wishlist.”
“Marco has got a very sharp mind combined with the ability to reveal business issues and turn them into strategic solutions.”
“Marco is a brilliant strategist. His strategic vision was always incredibly clear which created an inspiring direction for the team.”
“Inspiring, humble, and fun. He makes people, teams and projects better. One of my favorite all-round pros with broad and deep knowledge.”
“A fresh mind and exceptional attentiveness to detail combined with great expertise.”
“A solid strategist with a strong creative lead, a driving force in proactive thinking with a wide range of skills. Someone who brings energy and passion to the table.”
World-class education
To my mind, one of the best ever-written statements is: „Stay hungry, stay foolish.“ by Steve Jobs. As corny this quote might sound like for some, as pinpoint and true it is for me. Because it reminds one not to remain in the comfort zone of your status quo. But instead, it challenges you to aspire for more and to keep on learning ad infinitum.
BA
Bachelor of Arts
Marketing
2011
MA
Master of Arts
Cultural Management
2013
PGD
Postgraduate Diploma
Futures Studies
2021
+
Various
Trainings
on-going
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
Albert Einstein
As a curious and critical mind, I aspire to reflect and rethink the status quo. Because “We’ve always done things this way” might be neither the smartest possible answer nor the most thriving mindset. Together with forward-thinking partners and ambitious clients, I help to reimagine and reshape the world of tomorrow: how humans behave, how markets work, how environments change, how organizations tick. Always in the right balance of profit, people, and planet. I am happy to partner up with all those organizations and people that are sharing this ambition and want to jointly figure out what’s next.
As a consultant, I work on the edge of strategic, creative, and futures thinking. I combine the intelligence and acumen of business and brand strategy, with the intuition and unruly power of creativity, and ultimately with the unlimited spirit of imagination, inspired by bold futures thinking and backed by sound foresight. I am confident that this mighty blend enables us to solve almost any strategic challenge of the modern age – and leads the way to a brighter and more inspiring future. I call this blend Hybrid Thinking.
Hybrid Thinking makes the difference: The sweet spot of strategy x creativity x futures brings intelligence x intuition x imagination together. This is what I call ‘Hybrid Thinking’ – the combination of different schools of thought and different ways of thinking, cross-fertilizing each other. Ultimately, this combination creates true momentum and leads to real business impact. It’s about making business and brands the best they can be. Incremental changes can keep you in the game, but it requires bold and even iconic moves to redefine the game. Look out: someone else is already rethinking your category, trying to redefine the game. So: invent the future before someone else does. Because strategy is always a bet on the future.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo da Vinci
Today, we live in a world which some characterize as being VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. In this world, business models are changing dramatically. Organizations from all industries, sizes, regions and cultures are increasingly faced with massive ‚wicked problems‘: problems that are too complex to be solved. Instead, these kind of problems can be tackled, tamed, and ideally managed. Translating those wicked problems into manageable challenges, and ultimately into smart strategic solutions, which not only address current issues but rather focus on future opportunities, is the ultimate sign of intelligence – it is the ultimate sophistication. Strategy deals with uncertainty and with the tensions between today and tomorrow. It’s all about moving from problems to possibilities.
Strategy
Strategy
Creativity
Creativity
Strategy alone can’t win. It can’t inspire people, it can’t move people. What it needs to make a big move: game-changing creative thinking. Strategy is great in defining the right playground and the right direction, but only creativity adds the punch. To frame it with the words of Lee Clow from TBWA: “Don’t do the right thing. Because the right thing is good enough. But good enough is not enough. Don’t do it. Don’t do the right thing.” Instead: “Do the brave thing. The thing that troubles your sleep. The thing with the million unknowns. Do the brave thing.” Creativity is bravery. It’s not the safe bet. Creativity aspires to challenge the status quo and to invent the new. It means to discover new and oftentimes unknown territories: “Do the thing that disrupts. Do the thing that does not just defy the status quo but reshapes it, forever.” That’s why I absolutely believe in the creative impetus of strategy. The mantra for each strategy should be: no idea is off limits, no vision too bold. Because in these rapidly shifting times, iconic moves are needed.
Good strategy is creative: it moves people. But great strategy is anticipative and imaginative, great strategy follows a ‘future-first’ approach: it not just moves people but it moves people forward. It thinks about strategic opportunities that don’t yet exist – and it gives the right direction for reaching them. Let’s be clear: The future is an unknown space that doesn’t exist yet. From a today’s perspective, the future is not the future but multiple ones. This means: anything is possible, anything can happen. It is on us to shape it. Reshaping the future requires two things: First: exploring and understanding what’s currently and perspectively going on in the world. Sense making of major shifts. Sound foresight with comprehensive trend monitoring helps us to gain a critical knowledge base of what might happen and what’s possible. It’s all about opportunities. Secondly, shaping the future requires a visionary and inventive mentality that defines what’s desirable. And ultimately: make it happen. Or to quote the unmatched Walt Disney: “If you can dream it, you can do it.” I truly believe: futures thinking makes strategy bold. It has the power to leverage momentum and shape the zeitgeist of tomorrow. It even puts progressive businesses at the forefront of tomorrow’s zeitgeist. Great strategy opens the space for new ideas and solutions.
Futures
Futures
How we can work together, where I can help you with
I offer a wide spectrum of strategy services, from discovery to doing, from where to play to how to win. All services can be booked separately as individual modules or as a comprehensive strategy package. If you are not decided yet where to start and what to do, let‘s figure out what‘s the right starting point and the appropriate approach: book a Strategy Sparring Session.
& DECODE
and its brands to identify future opportunities.
And what's the impact on your business and brand(s) in the future?
: Portfolio Analysis
: Customer Analysis
: Competitive Analysis
: Category Analysis
: Stakeholder Analysis
: Benchmark Analysis
: Trend Analysis
& DEFINE
: Brand Strategy Development
: Portfolio/Brand Architecture Building
: Target Groups & Stakeholder Mapping
: Persona Development
: Customer Journey Development
: Corporate Design Advisory
: Ecosystem & Touchpoint Development
: Comms & Messaging Development
: Go-To-Market Approaches
How can you stay ahead of the game in rapidly shifting times?
to co-create a future reason for being.
What makes a brand standing out in highly competitive markets?
to inspire and move people, internally and externally.
& DESIRE
: Story & Narrative Development
: Campaign Idea Development
: Ideation Processing
: Brand-led Innovation Advisory
in designing ways to get a new strategy implemented.
& DESIGN
And how can we prepare its implementation effectively?
: Definition of Actionpoints
: Process Design & Planning
: Backcasting
: Framework Development
How can we make it ultimately happen?
& DO
: Advisory on Brand Activation & Trainings
: Advisory on Change Management
: Advisory on Employee Engagement
: Advisory on Brand Management
: Advisory on Measuring & Monitoring
: Advisory on Agency Set-Up & Steering
: Advisory on Agency Briefings
: Advisory on Brand Communications
What else I do with passion and purpose
Besides co-creating strategies, I do some more things with passion and purpose. Over the years, I’ve done lots of different things: I facilitated workshops, ranging from go-to-market strategies for Japanese B2B corporates to brand narratives and for rising start-ups. I gave keynotes about creativity near the northern polar circle at the Arctic Design Week and about the power of momentum at the global gathering of futurists at PRIMER. I mentored top talents from German Universities in collaboration with the GWA as well as upcoming Sri Lankan strategists at the Miami Ad School. I launched blogs about the creative industries in the Baltics and about my sabbatical in Down Under some years ago. I trained the strategy department from Jung von Matt in futures thinking and I contributed a chapter to a book named Beyond Storytelling, published by Springer Science. I represented the state Baden-Württemberg aka THE LÄND at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in 2021 and 2022. And I did some more stuff. If you are interested in collaborating in one of the following areas, please let me know.
Things happening
Stories that are worth to share.
Campaigning for The Green Party: play to win
We won. And we play to win. Together with my friends from TBWA\ Germany, I took part in a pitch to win the mandate for The Green Party in Hessen. We convinced and we won. Now, the actual game starts: the campaign development for the elections in October. Our ambition is clearly defined: we play to win. Today, The Green Party looks back at a true success story: they are part of the federal state government for many years. With this confidence, they look ahead: to win the elections and to present the first Green chief minister in Hessen. Let’s go!
Category: Strategy Project
Partner: TBWA
Client: Die Grünen Hessen
Inventing a new category: Smart Food
In Germany, yfood is the market leader in the emerging smart food category – and one of the fastest growing food start ups in Europe. In the upcoming years, the food tech company aspires to act as a pioneer and as a driving force for the smart food category globally. Together with the brand management team, we worked closely together in order to streamline and refine the existing brand strategy and to tell their ambitious story with more clarity and more punch, internally and externally. Because: The future is an untold story to tell.
Category: Strategy Project
Partner: none
Client: yfood
Eurobest Creativity Report 2022
Celebrating its 34th edition, „Eurobest exists to champion and celebrate creative excellence across the region, recognising work that is ground-breaking, bold and driving the future of the industry.“ I feel happy and honored to work with the best from the creative industries. From this year’s top 10 agency networks, I have been collaborating with eight already: Publicis (#1), DDB (#2), Ogilvy (#3), Leo Burnett (#5), McCann (#6), Jung von Matt (#7), Serviceplan (#8), and VMLY&R (#9). Congrats & thanks! So, what’s up BETC (#4) and FCB (#10)? ;)
Category: Strategy Project
Partner: various
Client: various