Something I picked up in the SAP Concept Phase with Whirlpool Corporation is the ability to analyze a new business financially.

This learning-by-doing approach to business modelling was the main means of advancing the skill. I expanded on it when I develop the project portfolio of the Virtual Commerce Group. It was really grown during the Rivermark business assessment phase and the IHS Retail project.

This ability was trained formally through a class I took in the executive education program of Michigan University, Ross School of Business Executive Education. They offer a fantastic course called “Finance for the Non-Financial Manager”. Here I learned “the ropes”, so to say. Funnily enough, my primary education as in "Production Economics" at University of Paderborn did not really delve into the topic. This was Germany in the 80s and early 90s, and formal product development had not really been taken seriously.

Business Modelling examples I am proud of are:

• The DOMINO business case
• The disruptive software business case and plan
• The IHS Retail business case
• The SAP Self-Service business case

and as a "negative", the European Business Case that was none.