Katrin Zimmermann is CEO and Managing Director of TLGG USA LLC, a subsidiary of TLGG, an Omnicom Group company. Katrin advises some of the world’s leading mobility, healthcare and finance companies on digital and organizational transformation, globalization and business model innovation.
Before joining TLGG, Katrin co-founded the Lufthansa Innovation Hub and led its global business innovation efforts from Berlin to Seoul, served as chief of staff to both the CHRO and CFO at Lufthansa Group and managed growth and restructuring efforts at LSG Sky Chefs Germany.
With a proven record of pushing boundaries, Katrin shares her humanistic and humorous perspective on corporate innovation, digital transformation and female empowerment alongside diversity and intercultural competence.
Katrin holds a Master of Science in Innovative Hospitality Management from the Universitat Ramon Llull in Barcelona and a Bachelor of Arts in International Business from London Open University.
More than 100 miles
I speak for the exposure for myself and my company
Virtual, hybrid, four days in the office, all these new ways of working have provided employees with the flexibility they have been craving. If not managed correctly, this flexibility and independence can lead to a lack of transparency within the company, resulting in loss of loyalty, shrinking productivity, and quiet quitting, the dreaded who cares mentality.
As transparency is a powerful force for strengthening employee relationships, encouraging innovation and increasing bottom-line results, business leaders must implement structures that successfully encourage and cultivate a culture of transparency. No matter the preferred way of working, businesses, and people, succeed in environments where information can flow freely between people and hierarchies.
Key learnings:
- How to actively promote a culture of transparency and build organizational structures in a hybrid working environment – how to really “connect” with your employees
- How to hold employees accountable and responsible
Innovation has captured our popular imagination. Ask ten people, "What is your definition of the 'i-word?' Answers will vary. The term 'innovation' returns over 4.5 billion Google searches. The significance yet lack of depth of digital innovation initiatives within many companies are still missing, as only specific projects under an 'innovation umbrella' were implemented and then 'completed.'
Unfortunately, most of these initiatives do not survive nor sustainably drive the transformation they should. We know that real (digital) innovation requires a fundamental change of structures and mindset. When business leaders and decision-makers take digital innovation seriously, only then will they have the opportunity to keep up with the competition and stay relevant both as a company and as an employer.
Key learnings:
- How ongoing and sustainable innovation can be enforced within the company
- How leaders can support a culture of innovation and build the structures that are required
- What can we learn from best practices
As a global business community, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefine the meaning of economics and accelerate progress toward a more digital and sustainable world. Today, the biggest challenges for leaders are using digital transformation to achieve zero emissions, zero waste and zero inequality.
The urgent need to comply with global and local regulations and to seek opportunities to decarbonize, reduce waste and advance social equality and equity across supply chains and industry-wide networks is only possible with the right mindset and structures as well as processes in place.
Key learnings:
- Understand how sustainability affects your industry and value chains
- How to create new business models, solutions and products that build on emerging opportunities
- The new role of technology, within the context of sustainability
- No one can solve these challenges alone: How to find and develop relationships with like-minded partners to achieve those goals