Do you know that experience? You are reading the latest “Harvard Business Review” (HBR), and sooner or later you are reached by a melancholic mood. Because you simply realize that – regarding recent management methods – there seems to be such a huge gap between aspiration and everyday reality. On the one hand you are reading in HBR how things should be, or at least could be … and in real-life you have to stand the complete opposite. This can really get you down. So, a warning notice on HBR saying something like “Reading this journal may cause depression” could really be no bad idea. OK, of course even in HBR all that glitters is not gold. There are also articles containing complete rubbish. Ultimately, HBR is no bible but a kind of discussion platform on new ideas and approaches. Some of it even being quite theoretical. And not everything reported for having worked in one branch of business or a particular company can be generalized. But … I need to honestly admit that a lot of stories I read in HBR really convince me, because they obviously make sense. My particular interest is with articles on leadership. And there I regularly find a lot of extremely good and inspiring stuff written – at least to my opinion. Out of the practice and for the practice. Solutions which are often already proven to be successful, and always put into showcases. However, something is obviously going wrong. Either not really all people who preen themselves on being regular HBR consumers actually read the HBR articles. Or the read is somewhere getting lost on the way to the brain. Or it is in a spontaneous amnesia instantly forgotten again. I really have no other explanation for the observation why so many managers behave such contrary to the state-of-the-art methods published in HBR. By the way, I experienced something similar with management training. The complete antagonism between leadership methods learned in a training … and real-life behavior. Does this not sound unfamiliar to you? Do not expect me to be able to provide an explanation, please. I am still searching for myself. As mentioned before, spontaneous retrograde amnesia is my hottest favorite so far. But what can I do? Well, I can start with myself, that I don’t follow – intended or not – the same behavior. Reading HBR and not making anything out of it anyhow is inefficient and unproductive. This would be beneath a smart and successful manager. Beyond that many approaches you can read there just work. So, I am having a true benefit by not being just a HBR reader but a HBR implementer. Yes, it is a good cause to permanently work on yourself. To again and again self-critically challenge your own leadership practice. To learn from others. To change your own habits if being needful. Not just to read and to vaunt that, but to “digest” and implement. To actively develop yourself further. Therefore, I would like to propose a new warning notice for “consuming” HBR: “Warning: Reading this journals may cause changed managing habits and personal development!” And subsequently result in more success. Your…

For more than 25 years I had been an active boy scout. A very active boy scout. Scouting tremendously contribute to my personal growth and development in my early years. I spend time together with other kids having totally different backgrounds, which definitely broadened my perspectives. And I had amazing leaders, mentors and friends who always put a lot of trust and acknowledgement on me. Seriously, there is nothing better that can happen to an adolescent. I took my own very first leadership role in the tender age of 14, and have been a leader of various youth groups in different age cohorts over time. I have also been an instructor/coach to younger leader talents and have been in various organizational leadership positions up to federal-level (country) over time. I discontinued my commitment after nearly 3 decades when moving to a job inside the pharmaceutical industry and to a different region. But – as people say – “once a scout, always a scout”, yes, in my heart and mind I still…

Back in 2002, I decided to contribute to and play a more active part with local affairs & politics in my home town. Over time my involvement grew by being … I continued my local political commitment until we moved close to Basel in late 2008 to start a position at Novartis. Today, I am “just” a politically interested citizen. But I still look back to the exciting times in local politics, where I learned so much and met so many dedicated people across political…

In the early 2000’s, I designed and realized one of the first German online magazines on Life Science business on behalf of GIT Publishing Ltd.. Concept and implementation included a multi-channel publishing approach. That was publishing the same content on a website (eZine), via an email-newsletter, and as WAP edition for PDAs and mobile phones (at those pre-smartphone, pre-Android and pre-iOS times the so-called Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) was the established technology for providing digital content on mobile devices). Furthermore, I set-up and managed the editorial team, workflow processes and technical infrastructure, and held editor in chief position with responsibility for sub-editors and external content providers. CLIENT:GIT Publishing Ltd.PROJECT TIME FRAME: 2000 – 2003 READ ON…

Obviously, one of my most exciting projects had been establishing my own business, SCITARI – Dr. Christian Velten Informationsdienste, in 1999. Together with my team I supported life science industries with information research & analysis, digital media and market/competitor intelligence. Starting from scratch, I successively developed business with major life science market players (Roche, Aventis/Sanofi, BASF, Bayer), reputable patent law firms (e.g. Vossius), mid-sized biotechs, a German specialist publisher, and single clients form other branches of industry (e.g. Honda R&D). In parallel, I built an operative team  of internals and externals (<10) and was responsible for up to 6 associates, caring for all aspects of people management. I designed and implemented a complete set of processes for internal operations, workflows, knowledge sharing by the team and customized services. As managing director, I held full responsibility for all aspects of business administration and management. This particularly included corporate development, team development and management, financial management and budget maintenance, project management, vendor management, and customer relationship management. I quit the business end of 2008 after about 10 successful years to join Novartis. CLIENT:myselfPROJECT TIME FRAME: September 1998 – March 1999 (start-up phase)< October 2008 active…