Hello, my name is Marco.
Nice to meet you.
Clients
I’ve worked for rising start-ups, hidden champions and world-leading giants from a wide range of industries. Their status quo, the dynamics of their business and the challenges ahead are quite different. But what they all have in common: the ambition and power to redefine the future of their markets.
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 (Publicis, WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic, and Dentsu plus the leading agencies from Germany) as well as with some of the most forward-thinking organizations.
What some say
Michael Jordan once said: “Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.” I feel very grateful of teaming up with so many inspiring minds and diverse teams around the world. Here are some of them. Thanks for your kind words.
“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.”
“A fast thinker and a truly creative mind, always looking for the new and unseen.”
“Working with Marco is just a pleasure. He is a genius when it comes to strategy.”
“Marco brings a strong creative mind to the table, paired with killer business acumen.”
„A visionary and progressive mind. He 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.”
“Inspiring, humble, and fun. He makes people, teams and projects better. One of my favorite all-round pros with broad and deep knowledge.”
“Someone who is able to map the unmapped – and inspires others to follow.”
“He brings order to the chaos.”
“Two skills inspired me: simplifying complexity and turning an uncertain future into exciting strategic perspectives.”
“Marco is one of these super rare pros who are hard to find: he is creative and strategic both ways. A true hybrid.”
“He manages to solve even complex strategic issues creatively and efficiently.”
“Marco has shown a deep understanding of our client’s business challenges and turned it into real opportunities through reasonable strategic advice.”
“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. 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.”
“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.”
Education
To my mind, one of the best ever-written statements is: „Stay hungry, stay foolish.“ It reminds me not to remain in the comfort zone of the status quo. Instead, it challenges me to stay curious, to aspire for more and to keep on growing.
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 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 the world of tomorrow: how human behavior might shift, how markets might evolve, and how environments might change. I do this always in the right balance of profit, people, and planet. I am happy to partner up with organizations and people who want to figure out what’s next and what’s possible.
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.
Hybrid Thinking
Strategy x Creativity x Futures
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. This combination intends to create true momentum for brands and real business impact for organizations. It’s about making businesses and brands the best they can be – whatever ‘best’ means. I believe that incremental changes can keep you in the game for a time, but it requires bold thinking and iconic moves to stay in or even ahead of the game in the long run. So, heads up: someone else is already rethinking your category and attempts to redefine it. It might be a good idea to invent the future before someone else does.
If you want to learn more about my understanding of strategy, creativity, and futures, keep on reading. Otherwise feel free to jump forward to my Services or to my Work.
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 ‚wicked problems‘: problems that are simply 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 valuable strategic solutions, which not only address current issues but rather focus on future opportunities, is the ultimate sign of intelligence. Strategy always deals with the uncertainty and the tensions between today and tomorrow. Strategy means: moving from today’s problems to tomorrow’s 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 an iconic move: game-changing creative thinking. Strategy is good in defining the right playground and the right direction, but only creativity adds the punch to it. To frame it with the words of Lee Clow from The Disruption Company 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.” Obviously: creativity is rarely the safe bet. But it aspires to challenge the status quo and to invent something novel. 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.” That’s why I absolutely believe in the creative impetus of strategy. The mantra for each strategy should be: no vision is too bold. Because in these rapidly shifting times, iconic moves are the most reasonable ones.
Better strategy is creative: it moves people. But is this really enough? I don’t think so. Great strategy is anticipative, it’s 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. Anything is possible, anything might happen. It is on us to shape it. Reshaping the future requires two skills: First: understanding what’s currently going on in the world: sense making of major shifts. Sound foresight with comprehensive trend monitoring helps us to gain a critical knowledge of what might happen in the near future 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: how to 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 truly progressive businesses at the forefront of tomorrow’s zeitgeist.
Futures
Futures
Strategy Services
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, what to do, and where to strive for: let‘s have a chat and book a Strategy Sparring Session.
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.
Strategy Retreat Volume V
Taking some days off in the middle of nowhere to recharge, reflect and rethink is golden. Together with two close friends of mine, we do exactly that once a year at random but always inspiring places. This year, we made it happen for the fifth time: our Strategy Retreat. The mode: deep talk, silence, consideration, discussion, fun. As always: a great experience. I can wholeheartedly recommend anyone to do this regularly: a personal strategy offsite to rethink your current (career) state and to envision where to go next.
Category: Offsite
Activity: Workation
Destination: Hessen
Campaigning for The Green Party
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
Marco Ruckenbrod
Strategy Consulting for Tomorrow
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