Manfred Leonard Strauch

My competencies in more details...

A business-oriented and pragmatic manner was always key element of those organizational solutions. 

At a big Swiss insurance company, I made a significant contribution to optimize the IT organization as one of the main challenges of the transition. The IT transformation started with a very high number of IT employees. When I left the insurance company around one third of the original number of IT employees were providing a better IT service as before. The efficiency and effectiveness of IT increased. 

At a big professional service firm the mission was to align the internal IT fully with the business and to develop the capabilities to stand the ground in fast pace digital environments. I established our extended workbench approach with external providers to follow our objective to optimize the local value creation. Reworked procedures and policies help to speed up the organization to support our demanding clients.

The roles I have experienced in project management are subproject management, project management, program manager, "turnaround" specialist, project controller, organizational developer and auditor.

In my role as "Solution Leader Program Advisory Services" at a big consulting firm, I was the Swiss competency leader with respect to program and project management related services.

I have extensive experience in various sectors (audit/ consulting, financial services, manufacturing, logistics, retail/ wholesale, media).

This range of experiences enables me to deal creatively and competently with changes and new challenges.

Through the different steps in my professional career, I was able to gain a very good understanding of a variety of different business processes.

My core competence is to optimizing technology to support business needs and objectives. I have extensive experience in IT support for customer-oriented, financial and logistical business processes.

I am familiar with the challenges of new business models and the associated business processes and organizational forms. In my understanding, IT has to stimulate innovation and uncover potential capacities for the business (digitization).

Since I worked for small, medium and large companies, I also know the specific conditions for the different company sizes. Extensive international experience is also given.

For a big Swiss insurance company, I was responsible for working with selected start-ups in the context of the “kickstarter accelerator”. The main tasks were to transfer the mostly technology-oriented topics of the start-ups into business relevance and to develop opportunities together with business. In addition, I was involved in various special assignments on the topic of digitization on the direct behalf of the C-Level, e.g. supporting the Group CFO change agenda with respect to SAP S/4 Hana implementation along a comprehensive shift in the accounting standards (IFRS 17) and related processes.

At a big professional service company I’m managing the requirements of a high number of different business models from a highly regulated audit market to a fast and high flexible advisory service. I also support our client related teams to team up with our clients to find the best IT solutions for very specific challenges.

My core IT competencies are in-depth knowledge and practical experience on IT functions such as IT Governance, IT Controlling, IT Architecture, Software Development, IT Quality Management, Operation Management, Service Management and IT Procurement. Security challenges including compliance and technology issues have always been part of my work.

In addition, I have both, knowledge in the implementation and operation of complex standard software (e.g. SAP) as well as in individual development, recently with focus on the transformation of the company's IT into mobile and flexible operating models (mobility / real hybrid cloud/ full cloud usage). I'm certified in Agile Scrum Leadership (Executive), as DevOps Executive and as Kanban Expert.

The IT infrastructure is also familiar to me. I am ITIL certified. My technical understanding of standards and technologies is sound.

At a big Swiss insurance company, I had succeeded in completely replacing the legacy systems with new technologies. In addition, I was able to successfully reduce the quantitative and technological complexity of IT by reducing applications and harmonizing technologies. One objective was to restructure and improve the insurance company related SAP environments using new technologies and services approaches. As a result, the costs have been reduced and the performance of the IT has been sustainably improved. Successfully we finalized the transfer of the entire enterprise IT into a hybrid cloud environment.

Under my lead at a big professional service company, the Swiss subsidiary took over a leadership role supporting the Global firm in different activities regarding the global cloud journey. Main topics are innovative encryption solutions and going forward with cloud based collaboration solutions.

Through my consulting background and my service-oriented approach, I have a clear and purposeful communication style.

Over many years I have gained experience in dealing with different cultures. I speak fluent English and German and am capable to work well in an international environment.

Even in difficult situations (for example restructuring), I was able to (re-)establish a positive working environment over time through authenticity and respect.

Leadership for me is to take responsibility for the entrusted organization, the related employees and the embedded service provider personnel. My leadership style is open, respectful and team-oriented.

My communication with the employees is purpose oriented. Conflict situations are solved constructively.

At a big Swiss insurance company I was able to successfully build up a newly defined IT organization as Head IT. Despite the dismantling of a high percentage of the employees, the continuous operation for 28 business areas as well as a sustainable technology transfer was ensured. The time I left the insurance company the employees fully support the changes and contribute positively and highly motivated.

With a big professional service company I was also able to establish a very positive working environment, despite the fact, that we did extensive changes to people, structures and procedures. The organization moves from a static to an agile working environment, that helps to unleash the people.  

Risk management, auditing of regulatory compliance, information security, business continuity, efficiency and effectiveness of IT organizations / processes and the assessment of the design and effectiveness of automated application controls are tasks of my daily work.

In addition to various medium-sized IT revisions and special audits (e.g. project revision), I managed the worldwide IT audit (SOX environment) for one of the largest clients of the big consulting firm in Switzerland.

In this activity, I was fully responsible for planning, implementation, quality assurance and reporting. I directly coordinated 16 IT auditors worldwide and was contact for all other involved IT auditors. In addition, I was in charge to communicate the IT audit results to the client and to financial and special auditors.