Following, you will find a brief introduction and overview of Knut Höngesberg's profile. In an idiomatic overview: like a gardener having "a green thumb", for Knut it is likewise having "a digital thumb". In his opinion, this is i.a. what you need to drive forward digital transformation. Find following some background information of how Knut's "digital thumb" has been developed and has been continuously improved.

Fields of activities:

Knut Höngesberg has been active in the field of information technology (IT) for over 20 years, performing various roles and functions in IT and IT-related departments. Already in an early stage he has dealt intensively with the topics of IT management as well as project management in the IT environment.

Knut focusses on the interface between the business world and the IT world. For him it is about building a valuable bridge between business and IT, and acting as a business-oriented 'translator'. He looks at challenges and requirements from the business and customer perspective - and with a deep understanding for what is possible. He is particularly interested in picking up on strategic business objectives, for example digital business models providing additional sales potential, or efficiency enhancement packages. Thereby, his strengths are in translating such business objectives into digital processes, structuring tasks into manageable work packages, and steering the development of high-quality software and business processes successfully through all needed project phases.

As a subject matter expert (SME), he also covers the topics PIM/MDM (Product Information Management and Master Data Management) as well as AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) very intensively.

What appeals to Knut greatly: people who work hard, who are committed, contribute constructively, and of course also adhere to the 'rules of the game' of fair cooperation.

Career:

In the years before and after the turn of the millennium, Knut Höngesberg worked for the supply chain and logistics service provider Verlegerdienst München (VM), which today belongs to Bertelsmann Arvato Group (VVA). As assistant to the managing director, he had IT-related tasks in multi-project management. Working from the business processes side, he accompanied and managed both commercial and logistical software developments, i.e. including concept phases, coding, quality assurance and implementation (ERP, MDM, CRM). He had thereby led large project teams, some of them based in Latvia and Poland.

During his free time, he studied business administration part-time and extra-occupational at the distance teaching university FernUniversität in Hagen/Germany. He focussed his studies on business information technology and has accomplished the degree of a Diplom-Kaufmann (i.e. similar to a master degree). His diploma thesis deals with the topic about profitability of software in case of less pecuniary measurability.

The digital transformation in B2C, plus eCommerce, and with a focus on the brand-new topic Product Information Management (PIM) was then owned and led by Knut at the media group Weltbild in Augsburg/Bavaria for many years. His role in the media group, which was extremely successful at the time, was a senior IT consultant in corporate development.

Knut Höngesberg's career developed even more international in 2012, when he switched to the chemical and science-based industry. Filling the role of a manager PIM (Product Information Management), he led and supervised the German PIM team of the industrial group 3M, and did so with a strong focus on marketing and customer requirements. Furthermore, as an evangelist for PIM he often contributed to the company's international PIM topics. After some time in the group, he has earned the reputation of being a guru about PIM how-to on an international level, too. He was therefore appointed to the US headquarters' PIM core team, to design a new global PIM for 3M.

With the completion of the global PIM at 3M and the thereby increasing shift of his role to the USA (which, of course, he had helped and supported to centralize), he has choosen an external career jump into a European trading company for industrial products (MRO), based in Paris/France. In the role of a Group Product Database Director, he has taken on the disciplinary and professional leadership of a huge MDM/PIM team, which is geographically distributed across several European countries.

Future lab:

Knut Höngesberg also likes to try out digital topics himself and has bundled these part-time activities into two small 'hobby companies'. In this context, he also acts as a managing director and chief digital officer (CDO) for the companies XXX YYY ZZZ GmbH based in Rösrath/Germany (commercial register Cologne HRB 87416) and Der schöne blühende Apfelbaum UG (haftungsbeschränkt) based in Rösrath/Germany as well (commercial register Cologne HRB 87718).

Future:

A probably unfulfillable, but nevertheless very big IT wish from Knut would be, to be able to take a look at the development and general treatment of information technology and data in the future of e.g. 100 years. The degree of integration of computers and information technology in an everyday life of a normal citizen of the 22nd century would for him be extremely exciting to see. What has become practice, what from today's developments on the horizon has been soared and has become established ...

In the meantime, Knut is diving into exciting IT topics that are already a reality or that can already be shaped today, such as the highly dynamic areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

Nothing is more constant than change.
(Heinrich Heine)