In 2005, I was given a challenge: to get the ailing and unfocused electronics R&D department back on track. This included three locations and more than 75 people, some of the highly educated (PhDs, MBAs and the like).

In the fall of 2001, Integrated HomeSolutions had been restructured. I was the only director left in the team almost of 20, charged with keeping Whirlpool in the business of Networked Homes. Go Get It Tiger!

In 2001, Integrated Home Solutions was in trouble. The European Region had demanded their own version, hired folks and started to talk to the trade. We had no idea what they would be trying to actually sell, so I was asked to go in and prevent trouble.

In the middle of the 1990s, I was asked to rethink the paper-based processes of Germany’s largest kitchen manufacturer. Some of the products of my work are still in operation 10 years later.

After a few years back in Germany, I was asked to drive the development of a new digital product. I cannot say too much about it, as the work is still ongoing. We are looking for angel funding right now. 

Laundry Time examined how effective an "intelligent" laundry solution was at simplifying and saving time on laundry tasks while also uncovering consumer attitudes about remote access and control of laundry appliances.

A rather unique concept dating back to 2004, we worked on the idea of using the fridge front real estate in a more rich fashion than with magnets. This concept was first launched on the idea of a universal charging station, which I described in late 2003.

John Knight took this idea and made it fly. Now it is available in stores as "Centralpark", precisely at the usual time of 5 years after inception:

My role in this? Making sure the right people work on it, provide and protect the funding, and make sure the right people hear about this in the right way to make the right "clicks" happen.

Unfortunately, this idea also fell to the great recession of 2008/09, out of many reasons. Nancy Snyder even dedicated the first chapter of her book "Unleashing Innovation", which was published in 2008, on how Centralpark went to market. Funny that the people mentioned are all still working for Whirlpool, while those that left fell by the wayside. Does not change the fact that I had the idea, wrote the first idea description (IDS) and kept it alife against severe pressure until my departure and beyond.

As part of my project portfolio with Connected Home and ACT, we developed a rather well-received prototype called the "Microwave TV". Laugh all you want at the concept, there are so many amazing uses to this platform that I am sure we will see more in this direction.

One of the really interesting ideas I had as Director, Connected Home, was the implementation of a low-cost online diagnostic solution. We called the program DOMINO and started it in 2004.

In May 2004, I designed and sponsored the First Digital Home Leadership Conference. This was a vehicle for us to manifest Whirlpool's leadership position in the Digital Home space. This was a "strike the iron while it is hot" move after the sucess of MEALTIME.

MEALTIME is a publicly acclaimed pilot of the Internet Home Alliance, now a part of CABA. It has generated more than $14M in PR value. It has been the highest impact PR event for Whirlpool Corporation for 8 consecutive quarters in 2003 and 2004. Here is a list of hits from Google that allow you to understand further how big the impact was. A crisp fact sheet is available online.

After the restructuring of IHS, I was asked to take the remaining team and stay engaged in the Connected Home space. Whirlpool was hedging its bets, after the huge writeoff they took with IHS. I had to get my people motivated again, find objectives that made sense and worked, and get the processes around them established so we could deliver.

In the final year of IHS, I was asked to "resue" the business unit by accelerating earnings through a different channel. So far, we had focused on the "builder channel", selling into masterplanned communities like Playa Vista. Good money, but also slow. I was asked to get an appropriate product portfolio into retail.

After the successful launch of the consulting business, and the completion of the first major development milestone on the application development side, I was asked to take over the development of the nacent business in Europe. I was the main technical executive, responsible for delivering the product together with Arturo Colantuoni Sanvenero, the European head of marking.

Between 2000 and 2001, I was head of Integrated HomeSolutions Broadband Services. This was the first department with both operational and strategic components that I had ever created.

Rivermark was the project code name for what later became one of the most profiled and exciting programs Whirlpool Corporation did in the last 10 years. In the initial 3 person team, I was responsible for scoping and developing business opportunities in an emerging space: the networked community. This happend in 2nd half 1999.

When I became a member of his staff, David Butler, CIO, asked me to create and position the Global Security and Audit Compliance department, short ISAAC. The main deliverable for this position was the formulation of a global security strategy and architecture. This was in 1st half 1999.

The first, and most important components, of the W³IN strategy was the establishment of a launch platform and a transactional system. Whirlpool Web World and W³IN.order were designed for that purpose.

Based on the success of the internet in reducing cost, I developed a strategy paper called "Whirlpool Web World Interactive Network", in short "W³IN". It took me the better part of a month to develop a vision of how the internet could enrich all communication avenues that Whirlpool had. I included consumers, customers (trade partners), supplier and employees in this concept. Based on the vision, I then developed strategies to implement the vision, both for the USA and globally.

My first assignment when brought over to join Whirlpool Corporation at its headquarter in Benton Harbor, Michigan, was to develop a business case for the use of self-service and the Internet. I literally stumbled into this assignment. Wolfgang Richter, the US-CIO that hired me, asked me where I wanted to work, the Supply Chain or the Customer Management team. That was a no-brainer to me.

The next step after the development and introduction of the cost control and analysis tool was the expansion of digitization into all aspects of the logistics department at Wellmann Kitchen. This work took most of 1996 and 1997.

For Wellmann Kitchen, the then leading kitchen cabinet manufacturer in Europe, I developed a operations cost capture and reporting application for the logistics department "Transwell". This work was done in 1995.

My doctorial thesis took a hard look at an emerging field of computational science: the neural network. I was interested in the applications of this technology in my profession: the management of production systems.

When I was taking my turn of defending the country in 1985, the German state was eager to sign recruits for the reserve officer career within the infantry. I was awared the officer's patent a few years later.

As part of my studies in Paderborn, I had to write a "Diplomarbeit", basically a scientific report. After much deliberation and advice, I chose to go for the harder (longer) route of working on a real-world problem instead of a research topic in the library. This was done in the early 90's.