Driving innovations and making a lasting impact - Christoph Raue on his career as Principal Business Consultant

Christoph Raue has had a diverse career path.

He studied economics and business administration, served as a sergeant in the German Federal Armed Forces, freelanced as an IT management consultant, and managed a startup consulting company, before starting work as an IT project manager at a medium sized Bank in Stuttgart.

After three years, he took over the digital marketing team and was responsible for the bank's online channels, before going on to run the entire marketing function, leading a team of 18 people. All while staying involved in many digitisation initiatives of the bank and the parent company.

At Zühlke, that breadth of experience is seen as a source of advantage. “It’s empowering to work somewhere that sees the value of multi-disciplinary perspectives and skillsets” says Christoph.

In this blog, we explore how Christoph’s non-linear path to Principal Business Consultant and People Lead at Zühlke helps him bring fresh perspectives to innovation and maximise impact for customers.

Finding the right fit at Zühlke

Christoph admits that he did not recognise Zühlke’s name when a recruiter first mentioned it

“But when I did my own research, I discovered that the company was behind some really cleverly designed innovations. Like the milk frother for the Nespresso or the world’s lightest avalanche airbag. They were the most prolific innovator I’d never heard of.” 

After meeting the team in Germany, he was convinced that joining Zühlke was the right next step. “I was already working with start-ups to develop and implement new business models and digital products and services. But I felt there was a potential to do it here at a much larger scale, and in an environment focused on constant innovation. It felt like the perfect fit.”

So, three years ago Christoph accepted the role and got started on his very first project: developing a business model for a potential new product and overseeing organisational transformation for a supplier to the recreational vehicle industry.

Innovating across industries

Since then, Christoph’s broad experience has made an impact on projects across a number of different industries.

Some of those projects have included building a new investment product around tokenised assets based on blockchain technology, assessing a business model for a start-up in interactive advertising, and supporting the implementation of the electronic prescriptions process for a billing service provider. “We work on every project in relatively short and intense cycles and everybody within the Digital Consulting team has a chance to express his/her personal interest. Then we’re on to the next one. It’s very fulfilling.”

But, how does Christoph navigate cross industry innovations with ease? By tapping into Zühlke’s in-house knowledge, he says.

“In one sense, Zühlke’s workforce is very diverse. But in another, it’s full of people like me – people with experience and expertise across multiple different industries and geographies. We create solutions by interrogating problems from so many different angles and viewpoints – it’s really refreshing.” Christoph says building his network within the company has allowed him to become more intimately connected with technical concepts that may have otherwise been hard to grasp.

Continuing to evolve

Christoph says thinking outside the box and embracing new technologies have been the key to his success at Zühlke. And to keep those skills sharp, he uses the Academy – the company’s inhouse education institution – in addition to colleague-led internal training sessions to master the latest technologies. “It’s so important – especially for digital consultants – to be curious, interested, flexible. You have to learn fast and you have to learn a lot.”

The Academy helps employees build their expertise through immersive, hands-on courses. “In addition to tech know-how, we’re able to learn a lot more at Zühlke. Like first-class communication training or new methods of business analysis. And we do internal training from experienced colleagues. Whatever it takes to tackle the problem at hand and deliver value to our clients.”

Christoph’s enthusiasm and passion for consulting and making a difference for his customers has earned him the title of People Lead last November. He says that his clients, the thrilling projects he leads, and the growing Digital Consultant team motivate him anew every day.

“With the team at Zühlke, it is possible to make a lasting impact."