My story at LEONI
My name is Max and I have been employed as an expert in innovation management at LEONI in Kitzingen since June 2022. As part of our Advanced Development, I work on making sure that LEONI focuses on the right future topics. Prior to joining LEONI, I studied industrial engineering and management in Ansbach and Erlangen, Germany.
My job
In my role as innovation manager, I am responsible for ensuring that LEONI focuses on the right topics of the future and is (jointly with our customers) geared up for a successful future.
My remit involves identifying potential future topics for LEONI. To do so, my colleagues and I run, for example, LEONI’s trend management and make sure that we continually exchange and share information with our in-house customer interfaces, technical experts as well as partners in our innovation network.
For promising subjects, I will subsequently create advance development studies, so-called as ideations. In collaboration with various interfaces an evaluation is carried out with regard to technical, commercial and patent aspects. The outcome is a well-founded assessment of the future topic and its potential for LEONI and its customers.
In our Advanced Development unit, innovation ideas with promising potential or specific customer pre-development commissions are realized in agile and international innovation projects. In my role as Scrum Master, I support these projects methodically and, as part of the Agile Coaches Community, I also contribute to LEONI's agile transformation.
I am inspired by dealing with future issues every day. In my job, I can actively contribute shaping LEONI’s future as well as the wiring system of tomorrow. Among my wide-ranging remits, I encounter different characters all the time, which makes day-to-day work refreshingly varied.
My daily routine
Start of the day
My day starts either directly in my office at home or with a one-hour drive to Kitzingen along with music or a podcast and a coffee. Having arrived at the office, I first check which meetings and to-dos are on the agenda for the day and whether all the preparations have been made.
Morning
In the morning, I may work on an ongoing ideation. This could comprises preparing my own research as well as organizing and running interviews and workshops with experts. Furthermore, my to-dos could involve supporting marketing activities for technology and innovation.
Lunch break
If I am spending my working day in Kitzingen, I’ll go to the canteen together with my colleagues. I always very much look forward to a short walk with my colleagues after lunch.
Afternoon
In the afternoon, the focus might be on agile innovation projects in which I am involved as Scrum Master. If a team is at the end of a sprint, preparing for or running sprint reviews, sprint retrospectives or sprint planning might be on the cards. Should a team be in the middle of a sprint, on the other hand, there might be a Project Daily in which the team regularly meets and briefly shares information on the latest status, possible blockers, and the next steps.
Evening
When I’ve spent the working day in Kitzingen, my evening begins by first driving home. As in the morning, this is accompanied by music or podcast. Having arrived at home, the motto is: laptop away, get running shoes on or my racing bike ready and off into the fresh air.
My highlights
Especially good moments are always when ideas conceived on paper become tangible as a prototype in innovation projects.
A situation of very thin information on new and innovative subjects is frequently a major challenge in innovation management. This applies to both ideations and innovation projects. I find that tenacity, teamwork and above all an agile approach have proven to be the best way to handle this and to gradually gain clarity.
My view of LEONI as an employer
LEONI supplies wiring systems, the car’s nervous system, and is thus a tremendously important player in one of the world’s most exciting industrial sectors. What I appreciate about working at LEONI is being part of a collegial, creative, and innovative setting.
My personal experience has shown that advanced development is characterized by openness, creativeness, and a lot of skill. In the case of ideations and innovation projects, we follow an agile approach that I regard as a major advantage. I can also confirm that the popular but often empty phrase of “eye-level communication” is actually put into practice in my work environment – even across hierarchy levels.
LEONI briefly and succinctly in three words? Open, creative, and skilled.
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