Dr. Kramer remembers:
I was totally focused on training when I started the company in 1988. I began training in the areas of leadership and sales and presentations. This work began on my own and later with several coworkers. We had several thousands of leaders participating in our programs. They liked to be challenged and benefitted from the many practical applications of our programs.
It did not take me too long to realize that training was not the answer to all the challenges within my clients’ organizations. Sometimes the boss himself was the problem; other times it were key people in key positions. This led us into coaching so that our support was really focused.
Later, we realized that organizational patterns and reward systems had a crucial influence on the organizations and its people. Change needed more than training and coaching. We educated ourselves in the area of business process engineering. This allowed us in combination with our people skills to develop very effective change management.
We did learn from our clients and they learned from us. We always focused on fast and workable solutions: with the management and for the management, with the employees and through the employees.
The number and size of our clients grew as did our projects. Our clients became more international as did our projects. These international and cross cultural projects required new skills from us. I really enjoyed this juggling between cultures. How does a Chinesee Manager think? Why do Americans and Germans misunderstand each other? How do you help to develop the potential of East European leaders?
Consulting and Coaching was and is a continuous learning process for me and all of us.
