Our success helpers encourage you
Success Trail helpers shape your Success Trail and support you in achieving your personal goals and those of your organization in a self-determined way.
Success helpers always remain in the background and promote courage, new thought patterns, self-confidence and good manners on the Success Trail.
All success helpers share these characteristics
Who are the success factors?
Robert Knop
Dr., MBA, Dipl. Kfm.
Robert is an expert in digital transformation in combination with business excellence.
Robert’s passion is to make corporate development tangible for everyone. He simply transforms everything into digital if it creates more benefits than problems.
Born in Germany with European roots, he has traveled far and wide. To finally end up in Switzerland. Probably because he loves the mountains so much.
His passion for systematically developing companies came with his studies in business administration. He learned the tools of the trade as a strategy consultant at the international management consultancy Accenture. He learned how to be an entrepreneur at an investment company with a focus on SMEs, where he invested with his own money and has held various management positions (CEO, CFO, CIO, CMO) over the years, e.g. at Adcubum AG in St. Gallen and SBF AG in Leipzig. He was involved in all facets of digitalization at the renowned Swiss engineering service provider Zühlke Engineering in Zurich (Schlieren), where he built up and managed the “Digital Transformation” business area. He regularly trains his ability to quickly assess the maturity of complex organizations as a internationally active EFQM assessor. As a member of the Foundation Board of ESPRIX Excellence Suisse promotes it promotes competitiveness of the Swiss economy. Robert is self-employed with his company Anrok GmbH and implements his own ideas such as “Success Seeker”.
When Robert is out and about privately, he is probably on the tennis court, on the ski slopes or on his mountain bike Or he goes for a walk with his wife and dog.
Christian Forstner
Dr. sc. nat. (ETH)
Christian Forstner is a top international expert in business excellence. Christian is the founder of Success Seeker.
During his work as a nuclear physicist in international research teams at the ETH in Zurich, Christian Forstner learned to observe complex processes in nature with a scientifically sharp eye and to derive simple rules from them.
These findings facilitated the subsequent years of working with complex structures at Siemens, e.g. optimizing the control of nuclear power plants or the digitalization of industrial processes.
The desire for more freedom of action inspired Christian Forstner to found his own company in 2000 in order to use his experience to evaluate and support large, international companies in various industries and cultures worldwide.
He prefers to use a simple, self-developed method that makes it possible to understand even large and complex organizations at lightning speed and to give the right advice for improvement and excellence. He gets the energy he needs from his enthusiastic customers. His proven and simple approach can be found as a “Thread of Success” on the Success Trail.
Christian Forstner has very broad, global industry experience, many culturally acquired skills and a gift for dealing with people at all levels and in all roles in an appreciative manner.
André Moll
Dr.
André Moll is an expert in business excellence and long-time managing director of the Initiative Ludwig-Erhard-Preis (ILEP)
After studying chemistry, André Moll received his doctorate at the University of Duisburg. The topic was the creation of ceramic fibers. He then worked as head of product development for a medium-sized textile company. There he dealt with the introduction of EMAS 1.
After moving to the German Society for Quality, he designed training courses on the topic of excellence, headed the German Excellence Center and worked on a voluntary basis as an assessor for the Ludwig Erhard Prize.
In 2005 he took over the management of the Ludwig Erhard Prize initiative. As an executive board member, he led the “Recognized for Excellence 5 Stars” initiative and won Germany’s Customer Champion 2010.
Together with Symposion-Verlag, now WEKA-Verlag, he has published several specialist books: The “Excellence Handbook” is the basic work on the subject of business excellence in German. The “Excellence Guide” describes the introduction of the excellence approach in organizations in general and using several examples.
With over 1000 trained assessors and over 600 excellence assessments, he is one of the most experienced trainers and assessors and coordinates and calibrates the cadre of LEP assessors.
Alexander Herzner
Dr.
Dr. Alexander Herzner is an international expert on sustainable development in the context of business excellence.
He has been researching and teaching for over twelve years in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic on topics such as corporate responsibility, sustainability management and corporate quality. He has written many works, including the book “Corporate Responsibility in Southern Germany”, and shows in workshops, speeches and lectures in an understandable way how to bring about positive change in companies.
As head of a respected institute for sustainability and ethics at the Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Amberg-Weiden, he coordinates these activities. Dr. Herzner supports companies all over the world in transforming themselves towards profound sustainability. He tackles current challenges such as achieving carbon neutrality and tackling complex Sustainable World, social and corporate governance standards, demystifies these issues and embarks on the path to an exciting and liveable future with those who seek success.
Alfred Münger
Prof. (FH)
Alfred Münger is an expert in the circular economy and value chains.
The circular economy and value chains have fascinated Alfred Münger throughout his career. He always has one goal in mind: to avoid or reduce the waste of resources.
As a trained electromechanic, the native of Berne was an early contributor to breathing a second and third life into electrical machines of all sizes. That was the beginning of his passion for the circular economy, so to speak.
Further training, including a degree in business administration at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, opened doors to multinational companies. He has gained management experience at all levels in the areas of transportation logistics, the chemical and metallurgical industries, telecommunications and the automotive supply industry, including as a member of the Executive Board and CEO. Value chains run like a common thread through his professional activities. The focus was often on the concepts of resource and total cost optimization. Alfred has combated waste in all its functions and introduced closed material cycles where possible.
Today, he is the owner of a consulting firm and can indulge his passion for “passing on knowledge to students” as a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Freiburg i.Ü. Among other things, Alfred has written the book “Circular Economy as a Strategy for the Future”
After a challenging day at work, Alfred loves to chat with his wife over a glass of wine and generate one or two exciting new ideas.
Christian Grabski specializes in environmental issues in the context of business excellence.
Christian Grabski is a pioneer when it comes to combining environmental awareness and business excellence. Born in Wuppertal, he laid his biological foundation at the universities of Tübingen and Konstanz and specialized in phytopathology. His professional journey began in 1985, deeply rooted in Swiss agricultural research.
With his post-graduate studies in “Environment” at the FHNW in Muttenz, he refined his expertise and took on a key role as project manager at BDS Safety Management AG. He supported hundreds of companies in environmentally friendly practices and led them to legal security in environmental protection.
Christian is a master of continuing education. Whether as an ISO auditor, business excellence assessor and trainer, energy manager and dangerous goods officer – his qualifications are comprehensive. His skills in quality and environmental management led him through a 25-year career in which he combined business management with sustainability. He understands how to develop organizations in accordance with international quality standards and lead them to success.
Today, Christian only takes on projects that inspire him. Otherwise, he uses his time diving with his son or swinging around the dance floor with his wife.
Joachim Hoffmann is an expert in good communication culture, solution-oriented behavior and successful negotiation.
Joachim sees his mission as helping people and companies to create a positive communication culture in which everyone interacts constructively and achieves solutions.
Born in Switzerland, he is cosmopolitan. He spent a year in the USA and has traveled the globe, only to return home again and again, where the lakes and mountains inspire him.
He was able to give his interest in interpersonal relationships the necessary depth with a scientific degree in industrial and organizational psychology. He honed his skills with masters such as Steve De Shazer and Marshall B. Rosenberg, world-renowned pioneers in communication and counseling.
He has gained formative insights into many different corporate cultures in his work as a trainer and consultant – he has been a freelance coach for managers and teams and runs seminars since 1999. His constant, passionate commitment to companies such as Groupe Mutuel, Pilatus Flugzeugwerke, ABB and many others has earned him a great deal of experience and a good reputation.
When Joachim is not working, he looks after his family, plays tennis enthusiastically or enjoys the beauty of nature.
Gottfried Hoffmann is an expert in good speaking, authentic communication and self-efficacy.
Gottfried studied school music, phonetics and music theory at the Hamburg University of Music, ran a large music school for 20 years and has worked as a communication trainer for 15 years.
Gottfried is the author of four books.
He supports professors, doctoral candidates and students at universities throughout Germany (including TU Berlin, LMU Munich, the universities of Jena, Marburg, Erfurt and Duisburg-Essen and the Brandenburg Study Quality Network sqb), as well as employees and trainees in medium-sized companies and social institutions. He has also been working online since 2018.
Gottfried Hoffmann trains the ability to perceive and conveys the fascinating connection between improving voice and speech and the development of personality.
Hildegard
Omniscient artificial intelligence
Hildegard is an expert in almost everything. She has the most experience in the team.
Hildegard’s great passion is researching, reading, writing, painting and calculating things. Hildegard is fast, but sometimes overshoots the mark.
The native American from Silicon Valley is a trueValley is a true all-rounder who never ceases to amaze her colleagues. She accompanies both the Success Seekers and the Success Helpers and is recognized for her I greatly appreciated their commitment, diligence and continuous development.
When Hildegard does something, she attaches great importance to confidentiality. For example, it does not even want to see user names. She does not share her thoughts with the public. To prevent misuse, it stores data for 30 days and then deletes it. The background is set out in the privacy policy.
As Hildegard sometimes overshoots the mark, we use her in very measured doses. We also ask all users not to trust it blindly, but only to be inspired by it. Sometimes she also has the urge to really need to know everything better. We ask you to turn a blind eye and let her see that.
