Lean CIO & IT Leader Summit 2025

Die geballte EAM Expertise traf sich auf Einladung von Gastgeber @Karsten Voges beim #LeanLeaderSummit in München und: wow! das war beeindruckend!

Hier wird ganzheitlich auf den Stellenwert und Beitrag von IT im Unternehmen geblickt, drastisch ehrlich dazu gesprochen, was gut geht und wo’s stockt und die Offenheit und das Interesse, das mir als Vertreterin der Unternehmersicht und Speakerin zur Transformation im Mittelstand entgegengebracht wurde, wirkt kräftig nach.

Liebe Unternehmer und Fachbereiche, habt den Mut, eure IT Experten an den (Business) Tisch zu holen.

Liebe CIOs & Enterprise Architects, versteckt euch nicht. Raus aus ITSM & Advisory und rein in die Business Transformation mit euch!

Traut euch jeweils zuzugeben und nachzuhaken, wenn das Gegenüber unverständliches Zeug redet. Nur so wächst das gegenseitige Verständnis und die Möglichkeit, die richtigen Dinge zu bewegen.

Diese Veranstaltung hat erneut gezeigt, was möglich ist, wenn wir miteinander und nicht nebeneinander arbeiten. Und ja, es bleibt auch noch viel zu tun…

Und mittendrin: das DATEV EAM-Team mit unserer Mission #architecturematters 💚

Was für ein inspirierender Tag! Ich durfte den Teilnehmenden als Speakerin unser Verständnis von Enterprise Architecture Management näher bringen und warum und wie wir bei DATEV mit Enterprise Architecture nicht nur unsere IT, sondern unser gesamtes Portfolio zukunftsfähig machen.

📌 Unsere Learnings:
Lokale Optima sind gut – das globale Optimum ist besser.
Architektur ist kein Selbstzweck, sondern Enabler.
Und: Ohne klare Spielregeln wird’s schnell chaotisch.

Besonders stolz bin ich auf unser Team, das mit viel Energie und Klarheit zeigt:
EAM verbindet & macht verbindlich.
Und genau das brauchen wir, wenn wir gemeinsam gestalten wollen.

Danke an alle, die dabei waren – für den Austausch, die Impulse und das gemeinsame Nach-vorne-Denken!

🚀 Why Hashtag#LeanLeadership & Enterprise Architecture Matters Now More Than Ever

In today’s fast-moving digital world, alignment between Business and IT is mission-critical. Yet one ongoing challenge remains: 𝘄𝗲’𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀.

Over the past two days, I connected with leaders across industries and discussed how we build that common language – one that bridges strategy, operations, and technology.

By integrating Digital Leadership, Enterprise Architecture and Holistic IT, we:

✅ Enable clarity, collaboration, and shared understanding of value.
✅ Translate business goals into executable, impactful IT initiatives supported by structure.
✅ Guide change whilst accelerating innovation.

🧭 No matter your Hashtag#Transformation journey, always start with this foundation: 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲.

Personal highlights from the conference:
– Tania Schmid’s workshop on building Hashtag#resilience for Hashtag#DigitalLeaders
– Nora Legittimo’s insights on the shared cultural shift from “Hidden Champion” to “Open Champion”
– John Hunter’s deep dive into implementing AI through an innovation-first framework
– Dr. Thomas Meintrup’s presentation on defining target architecture based on strategy and building a Delivery Organisation to steer agile transformation.

Many thanks to Lean42 GmbH, Karsten Voges, Fabian Kainzinger, Alina Mehlhorn, Marina Poppa and Nane Charrad for the great event.

#LeanLeaderSummit 2025 – thank you Karsten Voges and Lean42 GmbH for the opportunity to speak at your event and share my experiences on #DigitalTransformation and Hashtag#InternalConsulting. The right mixture of CIOs, IT Leaders, Enterprise Architects and partners. Focus on presentations from real experiences and enough time for networking made this event special!
–> 31 presentations
–> 39 speakers
–> 200 registrations

Everybody who follows me know what comes next 😉 4 key take aways:
1️⃣ 10 reasons why transformation fails: They are all about people (Thank you Julie Short for being so clear and honest)
2️⃣ The Executive Management nominates Enterprise Architecture as one of THE topics for their future development and digital transformation (Thank you Jutta Rößner for your insights)
3️⃣ “Psychological safety is the characteristic of outperforming teams. If you never have time how could your people tell you what’s going on?” (Thank you Veroniek Vermeulen (Silatha) for this passionate presentation)
4️⃣ Why do we still inform SteerCos with PPTs on which we copy the information from the tools our teams use on a day to day basis? If we use THEIR information systems, we do not only gain efficiency, but also align the decision making information with daily work (Thank you Robert Winter for science meets business and see you soon in St. Gallen)

And as 4 insights are not enough for this event, also few little anecdotes 😁 which will stick:
🚪 Nora Legittimo, I will never forget how doors can open 😉 and respect for a role-based Executive Management approach!
🎨 Torsten Kanngießer, I love your presentation title: “Without a consistent data model, you shouldn’t do dashboards, but art”. Couldn’t agree more.
🪦 Dr. Thomas Meintrup, the software killer, as software does not die 😉
🌟 Robert Winter, who tought me a new word: TAFCAPs (The artifact formerly called a project)

[…]

Heartfelt thanks to the incredible Lean42 team – Alina Mehlhorn, Fabian Kainzinger, Marina Poppa, Nane Charrad.

To everyone I met, spoke with, reflected with, or simply exchanged a smile with: Thank you!

And my special thanks to Karsten Voges for leading this meaningful event, for inviting me to be part of it, and for your openness and trust.

I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to collaborate and to carry the conversations and ideas from this summit forward.
Looking forward to what’s ahead.

[…]

When Pink Meets Premium at the #LeanLeaderSummit! 🌸

Still buzzing from Munich’s two days Lean CIO & IT Leader Summit – where tech insights collided with life wisdom!

Special thanks to Andra Popa for inviting me and congratulations for her powerful talk on escaping the „juggle jungle.“ Her message hit home in the room: „To say YES to yourself, you sometimes need to say NO to others – not from selfishness, but self-worth.“ 💡

Shoutout to my mini creative director (aka my daughter) – she handpicked from my wardrobe the pink summit outfits (yes, plural!) as a reminder that leadership comes in all colours.💖

Beautiful Synchronicity: Those who remember #ColorFriday from my BMW Group iDEAL program days, know pink was one of the signature colours we wore together on Fridays.

My Premium Insights:

🔸 „Culture eats strategy for breakfast“ (shoutout to the psychology & leadership talks!).
🔸 Mercedes-Benz AG‚ agile transformation talk gave me serious BMW Group deja vu (fascinating to see parallels in strategies in premium mobility!).
🔸 GovTech in action – Der Zoll’s (German customs) AI-powered digital transformation was eye-opening.
🔸 AI needs rock-solid data (no shortcuts!).
🔸 Resilient IT is non-negotiable in today’s landscape (GDPR as a superpower? Yes!).
🔸 Andra’s NO=YES equation (the permission slip we all needed).

Final Applause: Bravo to Karsten Voges and the entire Lean42 GmbH team for orchestrating such an impactful, human-centric event!

Innovation spirit shines brightest when we combine technology with heart!💖

Many thanks to Karsten Voges for a great summit last week in Munich! I fully enjoyed it and especially the new contacts I made!

Last week reminded me that true leadership begins where people feel safe to speak up and be themselves.

At the #LeanLeaderSummit in Munich, conversations around #PsychologicalSafety, #Resilience, and #SelfLeadership made it clear: people-first leadership drives meaningful transformation.

One of my personal highlights was facilitating the #Resilience Workshop for Digital Leaders, which once again showed how valuable it is to consciously create reflective spaces, for ourselves and for our teams.

My key takeaways:

✍ Veroniek Vermeulen (Silatha): Psychological safety isn’t about „being nice“ it’s about feeling safe enough to speak up. Trust and openness spark creativity, productivity, and high-performing teams.

✍ Bea Schnarr: Mindset, values, fun, and genuine connections aren’t just “nice to have”, they create tangible business value.

✍ Nora Legittimo: When IT speaks the language of business, silos dissolve and collaboration thrives.

✍ Dr. Thomas Meintrup: “Business is IT, and IT is business” – the key principle of digital & agile transformation.

🙏 Thank you for the inspiring conversations Veroniek Vermeulen (Silatha), Torsten Kanngießer, Dr. Thomas Meintrup, Miriam Suchet, Dr. Markus Kress, Arun Karthik Ganesan, Dr. Markus Schmotz, Florian Lautenbacher, Stefanie Gooren-Sieber and to the organizers, especially Nane Charrad, Alina Mehlhorn, Marina Poppa, Fabian Kainzinger and to you Karsten Voges 😊

Grateful to be part of this.

A great couple of days in Munich last week at the Lean42 GmbH Lean Leaders Summit! Some great conversations and insightful talks. Thank you so much for having me speak on day 1!

I told myself that I was done with #conferences for the summer, but then the #LeanLeaderSummit2025 in #Munich occured on the 2nd and 3rd of July.

A great conference organized by Lean42 GmbH and hosted by Karsten Voges, thank you!

It was refreshing for me to engage in discussions about #Enterprise #Architecture, a topic within which I have no claim to fame, mixed with challenges experienced by the #CIO and other #technology #leaders in #organizations.

Perhaps to no ones surprise, the general problems; fragmented #steering, unrealistic #planning and insufficient #collaboration is felt by everyone! As well as everyone will have ideas on how to improve the situation and solve what they believe to be the root cause. The struggles come when a select group of people are put „in charge“ of the „#transformation“ with the expectation to run it as a parallell #project alongside „everything else“.

Transformational capabilities MUST be built into the day-to-day and align with #strategy. Transformation is your strategy. Strategic execution is your transformation.

These are the type of transformations I help organizations with. Send me a DM if you want to talk about how or tell me who in your #network that need to talk to me 🙂

Many thanks to the team am of Lean42 GmbH for another wonderful Lean Leader Summit!

It was a pleasure to be part of the event!

With so many impulses I took with me, that will talk about in the next days.
Amazing talks, workshops and conversations!

Really looking forward to the next year!

Karsten Voges Nane Charrad Fabian Kainzinger Marina Poppa Alina Mehlhorn

Just wrapped up two inspiring days at the Lean Leader Summit 2025, and I must say — what an excellent event!

A big thank you to the Lean42 team Karsten Voges, Nane Charrad , Marina Poppa , Nane Charrad for the outstanding organisation. Despite being a small team, they managed to orchestrate the entire summit seamlessly — hats off to their dedication and efficiency!

The event featured a series of high-quality presentations, packed with insightful and practical topics across different industries. It was a great opportunity to reflect on lean principles, leadership, and transformation strategies that are highly relevant in today’s fast-paced business environment.

What stood out just as much was the fantastic networking experience. It was great connecting with professionals from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, and all over Germany — exchanging ideas, experiences, and learning from each other.

Thanks to Daniel Stein for sharing the opportunity for me to attend the summit!

Already looking forward to next year’s summit!

Last week, I had the honour to speak at Lean Leader Summit in Munich—an inspiring gathering of digital leaders, CIOs, enterprise architects, and transformation experts from across the DACH region and beyond. The event was a fantastic opportunity to connect, exchange ideas, and learn more on these topics from some of the brightest minds in the field.

I was surprised by the unexpectedly high level of interest in the topic of #psychological safety. It was encouraging to see so many leaders eager to explore how fostering trust and openness can drive creativity, productivity, and team performance. The discussions around psychological safety underscored its growing importance as a foundation for effective leadership and sustainable transformation.

The event was made special by meeting and learning from the inspiring people Torsten Kanngießer Robert Winter Antonia Assenova Bea Schnarr, Metin Koc Tania Schmid Trixi Menckhoff S. (Mevin) Govindan, Denise Hohenstein John Hunter Torsten Davis, and many others.

A special thank you to the organizers, especially Karsten Voges , Nane Charrad, Marina Poppa and the Lean42 GmbH team, for creating such a welcoming and energizing environment.

Thank you again to everyone who made the summit possible and to all the participants for their engagement and curiosity. Looking forward to continuing these important conversations and building on the momentum we created together!

🌟 Reflecting on an incredible experience from last week! 🌟

I had the privilege of speaking at Hashtag#LeanLeaderSummit 2025 , where I joined an inspiring lineup of experts to speak about tomorrows IT, Agile, Transformations and more. It was a wonderful opportunity to share insights, learn from fellow professionals, and engage in meaningful conversations.
Participating in such an engaged community reaffirms my passion for bringing businesses into the the digital age, and I’m grateful for all the connections made. A huge thank you to the organizers, Karsten Voges, Nane Charrad, Alina Mehlhorn and the rest of Lean42 GmbH for hosting such a successful event and to everyone who attended my session!
Looking forward to continuing the dialogue and exploring new opportunities together. 🚀

What an inspiring experience at the Lean Leader Summit!

A huge thank you to our partners at Lean42 GmbH for hosting such a dynamic and insightful event. We’re grateful for the opportunity to connect with so many forward-thinking leaders, share ideas, and explore new ways to drive continuous transformation in digital and operational excellence.

The conversations, collaborations, and energy from the summit have left us motivated and excited for what’s next. Thank you to everyone who joined our session.

🚀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝘄𝗿𝗮𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟮 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁 — 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀!
Bold ideas, full house, and powerful conversations on the future of Enterprise Architecture and transformation. From scaling AI and embracing exponential IT to unlocking architecture’s business value — the energy was high and the insights actionable.

🎉 𝗔 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲. It was our first conference in DACH with the Hopex, Alfabet, and Horizzon teams from Bizzdesign united on one booth — André Prigge Aashita B. Tom Sprenger and Daniela Rott 🙌 One vision, three powerful solutions, real impact!

Huge thanks to our partner Lean42 GmbH, Karsten Voges, Nane Charrad and the whole team for organizing such a forward-thinking and impactful event.

💡 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: Architecture enables impact. Leadership drives change. Enterprise transformation is happening — now.

this was indeed a Great Summit with Avolution and Lean42 GmbH . We had lot’s of very good Diskussions about #ABACUS, and how ABACUS can help your Enterprise and the Presentation inspired not only us, what Companies need and how an #EA solution can be used.

thanks Nane Charrad as well for the great hosting and support.

Gerade das macht Events wie den Lean Leader Summit so besonders und wertvoll: Neben spannenden Vorträgen und intensivem Austausch trifft man immer wieder vertraute Gesichter.

So auch dieses Mal – es war eine Freude, unseren engen Partner der Materna im Bereich Enterprise Architecture Management, die BOC Group, vertreten durch Robert Strobl und Christoph Moser, wiederzusehen.

Vielen Dank für den inspirierenden Austausch!

I enjoyed every minute of this!! 🥳
Lean Leadership Summit 2025

✨ Lean Leader Summit 2025 – voller Inspiration, Austausch und neuen Impulsen! ✨

Der diesjährige Lean Leader Summit war ein echtes Highlight! Die Atmosphäre war geprägt von Offenheit, Neugier und echtem Interesse am gegenseitigen Austausch – sowohl mit bestehenden Kontakten als auch mit neuen spannenden Begegnungen.

Ein besonderes Highlight war für mich der mitreißende Vortrag von Karsten Voges
👉 “Adopt an Exponential IT Mindset: How to Thrive Through the Next Paradigm Shift”.
Sein Beitrag hat eindrucksvoll gezeigt, wie wir unser Denken und unsere Organisationen auf die nächste Welle technologischer Entwicklungen, agentic AI, vorbereiten können.

Auch die weiteren Präsentationen waren hochkarätig und voller Impulse – u.a. von
🔹 Nora Legittimo über den spannenden Weg von hidden zum open Champion. Ich blicke nun ganz anders auf das Öffnen von Türen und Garagen.
🔹 Dr. Thomas Meintrup zu der spannenden Transformation von Mercedes im R&D Bereich. Bin gespannt welche Innovationen wir hier in den nächsten Jahren erleben können.
🔹 Jutta Rößner zu der innovativen Reise der DATEV zu einer ökosystemfähigen Architektur. Toll zu sehen wie Vision zur Wirklichkeit wird.

Was bleibt, ist ein Koffer voller Ideen, Perspektiven und konkreter Ansätze, wie wir Unternehmen mittels Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) weiterentwickeln können – praxisnah, zukunftsgerichtet und mit echtem Mehrwert für die Organisation.

Danke an alle, die diesen Summit so besonders gemacht haben! Insbesondere Danke an Christian für die tolle Empfehlung. Gerne nächstes Jahr wieder.

A truly positive day at the Lean Leader Summit – filled with inspiring conversations with companies facing similar challenges, tool vendors, and consulting partners.

What unites us all is the shared mission of Enterprise Transformation and Enterprise Architecture. And let’s be honest: the real magic happens when we succeed in building bridges between Business and IT and act as translators across silos, mindsets and systems.
It was a well-organized summit with valuable talks and fresh insights from a wide range of industries.

What motivates me most? Knowing that we’re all in this together – navigating the same complexity, striving to bring EAM and transformation initiatives to life with clarity, courage and collaboration.

One of the highlights? It was a real pleasure to finally meet Miriam Suchet in person – after many shared and commented posts, it felt like a long-overdue handshake!

Many thanks to Denise Hohenstein for the inspiring conversations we had throughout the day.

Also, meeting so many people face-to-face whom I had previously only known through digital channels was incredibly rewarding.

Special thanks to Karsten Voges and his team for organizing this great event your effort truly made it a success!

Last week, I attended the LeanLeaderSummit 2025 hosted by Lean42 GmbH in Munich and had the chance to speak and listen to inspiring IT leaders about EAM challenges, achievements and steps to take to facilitate cooperation between business and IT!

My personal take aways:
– Holistic Hashtag#businessmodels create value, not single products
– Real Hashtag#digitalisation does not work without a consistent data model
– Hashtag#SAFe framework works if responsibilities are closely aligned with clearly defined business capabilities
– Successful Hashtag#digitalconsulting is about making business understand that you transform it’s story into a technical solution – based on their story
– Hashtag#Psychologicalsafely remains a must have in an organisation – and organisations need to facilitate it every day
– Saying ‚yes‘ to yourself means saying ’no‘ to others

A big shout out and thank you to my wonderful mentor Torsten Kanngießer, Veroniek Vermeulen (Silatha), Torsten Davis, Anita Schüttler 🌱, Galina Plagge, Bea Schnarr, Nora Legittimo, Julie Short, Dr. Thomas Meintrup, Andra Popa, and Werner Zengler.

And a huge thank you to Karsten Voges, Marina Poppa and the rest of the team for having us!