Welcome, Next Normal!

Executive & Board Search driven by future insight

hartmann consultants is committed to providing lasting and impactful executive and board search consultancy services that fulfill clients’ needs of today and tomorrow.

We have provided tailored recruitment services since 2008, built on the backbone of mutual transparency and trustful relationships to our clients and candidates. Supporting them with innovative assistance through their digital transformation is one of our overarching goal.

We focus on the international fashion and lifestyle industry and cater to the growing interest in the holistic consumer goods market.

Connecting Competence 1

Connecting Competence 1

Our clients and candidates are future-competent, proactive shapers of the new world of work and they are the focus of our activities. We support their exchanges of experience and knowledge, and contribute our own understanding and vision of the future in the process––a cross-disciplinary vision built on our consulting services for companies with analog, digital, and hybrid business models.

Connecting Competence 2

Connecting Competence 2

As passionate entrepreneurs, our goals are to achieve success for our Executive & Board Search commissions and to participate proactively in shaping the transformation that is sweeping the world of work. We provide consultancy services for the international fashion and lifestyle industry, while growing our engagement in the consumer goods market as a whole.

World Briefing

Natalie Amiri
Journalist on ARD Weltspiegel, presenter, author

“Our problem is our Euro-centrism, our ignorance. Furthermore, we are no longer a shaping force in global politics. China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and India carry more weight than we do. Our biggest fault is hubris, and we need to be aware of that.”

“We can sanction Russia and Iran until the pips squeak, but then their market value will be zero and China will snap them up. In fact, it already has.”

“If we don’t manage to find our own voice and speak out in the world, we face a chilly future that will extend well beyond this winter.”

“We had the chance of driving renewable energy sources, but we didn’t do it because we were getting cheap gas from Russia at the time. That’s another thing we need to talk about––our greed.”

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“Five-day week? You’ll never get the staff!”

“Five-day week? You’ll never get the staff!”

Jochen Eckhold
SVP Global HR Hugo Boss

“There’s no denying that the costs of humans as a resource are rising. The framework conditions are becoming more costly.”

“Talent has won? Yes––but so have we. We now take a different approach to employment agreements, and that benefits us too. I think it makes us a better company.”

“What we need to do now is to teach young people about resilience. They can no longer achieve what we’ve been used to. But there are still some great people around.”

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Podcast All Over The Place – Hype? Or the new leading Media Format?

Podcast All Over The Place – Hype? Or the new leading Media Format?

Tom Junkersdorf
CEO OFF-SCRIPT, Editor-At-Large ICON & Host TOMorrow Business & Style Podcast by OMR
interviewed by Dr. Marc Schumacher

“Why? Arnold Schwarzenegger told me: You have to make your own podcast.”

“Today we have more freedoms than ever before. Anyone can create a video and connect with others. I don’t need print shops, transmission masts, or live broadcast units. All I need is my phone.”

“The world of classic media is dead. Nobody reads newspapers any more, either tabloid or broadsheet. Linear TV won’t survive. All of us are becoming broadcasters––even if we only have two followers.”

“Good content will always find a way. There might be 80 million podcasts, but if mine is the best, I’ll get the followers.”

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Future of Leadership and Corporate Education

Future of Leadership and Corporate Education

Michael Schwarz
Executive Director Baden-Baden Entrepreneur Talks (BBUG)
interviewed by Stephan Balzer – Co-Founder Boma Global

“We combed the program listings from previous decades and noticed that some topics recurred constantly––like energy supply, European integration, and so on. But the issues that have changed the most are those that address leadership behavior and leadership style.”

“We pondered for a long time about whether to introduce guided meditation, or maybe morning yoga. We’re well aware that 50 percent of our network might discount it as esoteric stuff, but there were also many executives who were genuinely grateful.”

“180 out of 3000 alumni are women––130 of them in the past seven years. So the trend is definitely increasing.
Nobody can really explain where current energy prices come from. Nobody can explain exactly how laws are created. But there are some things where a certain depth of understanding is essential. We enable people to ask questions in a secure, select space.”

“Our advice is that however good you may be as communicators, you need a mechanism to transport that communication into the company. The changing stakeholder landscape, the changing employment market, the current crisis all point to one thing: good communicators are essential.”

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The Juvia Phenomenon

Judith Dommermuth
Founder & CEO JUVIA
interviewed by Nick Hartmann

“My husband told me: You’ve been talking about loungewear for ages. What are you waiting for? There’s no shame in trying and failing––only in not trying. That was the most important thing I heard. People like to stay in their comfort zone.”

“I ditched the entire first collection before it even hit the runway. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

“The first generation at Juvia are all still with us. They’re not clock watchers that head home on the stroke of 6. They’re people you can rely on, that live and breathe what they do. The first questions from all of the new recruits is always about work/life balance.”

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Beautiful exchange of presents

Beautiful exchange of presents

Beautiful exchange of presents

Matt Marcotte
Global Head of Retail and Consumer Industry Advisors Salesforce

“Loyal customers reward brands – this has always been a powerful statistic. In a world of inflation, in a world of acquisition cost, in a world of proliferation of multiple brands, how to actually create loyal customers really becomes the holy grail.”

“It is not enough to believe customers will stay with us. It is more about how to actively win them back and keep the costumers you have.”

“Customers are expecting to have a human relationship in a digital world. So how do we actually create emotional connections?”

“We know customers have been switching brands throughout the pandemic for reasons of availability and convenience. Today, they are switching brands mainly based on price and value. So what we are seeing is that customer loyalty is really up for grabs!”

“Generation Z has very different shopping behaviors. On a customer journey, the purchase part is the one part they spend the least amount of time. They expect it to be frictionless and easy.”

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The city center is dead, long live the city center!

André Maeder
CEO THE KADEWE GROUP

“Seven-day opening! Nobody understands why stores aren’t open on Sunday mornings. Give customers the freedom to make their own decisions!”

“People want to go out and meet their friends! After two years, they’re sick of sitting around at home. There’s a deep need to catch up, to not be alone, to meet people, and this will definitely continue into the future.”

Nina Müller
CEO Jelmoli

“A few years ago, all we heard was ‘Are you crazy?’ Now we find that ideas like ‘rent your runway’ or ‘rent your evening wardrobe’ are helping to carve out our image as a meeting-place where people come together––and, fortunately, to shop.”

“Jelmoli’s unique feature is the way in which we curate our retail areas. Our aim is to reinvent the department store. Sustainability plays a major role in how we curate our retail areas.”

Benjamin Fuest
Member of the Executive Board, E. Breuninger

“We have a mission to contribute to urban development. Participating in the design of modern urban districts is a future-facing task.”

“The whole store is a stage. You need to create worlds where goods are not the only talking-point.”

“As a general trend, we are seeing a huge shift towards evenings and Saturdays.”

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Hold out a little longer––soon we’ll be living to 120!

Dr. Marc Schumacher
CEO Avantgarde Group

“1000 people leave the employment market. Every single day. Generation Z is represented by a historically low number of people.”

“There is a huge amount of status anxiety around at the moment; there’s no other explanation for the relief packages.”

Lukas-Pierre Bessis
Digital Evangelist, Bestselling Author, Celebrated Speaker & Awarded Creative

“Cancer and Alzheimer’s will be defeated in the coming ten years.”

“What I find exciting about the idea of brain chips is: if we can boost the computing power of our minds, what will we be able to think?”

“All we’ll need to do is to see the doctor once a week for a quick jab, and come out ten years younger. Not just Botox––actually younger!”

“The virtual reality industry has now developed headsets that really work. Sales are set to rise from 10 to 75 million euros by 2025.”

Karl Sponholz
Founder XPAI

“What we basically do at XPAI is not only to see how many people are currently in a store, but also how they feel when they’re there. I can now collect feedback every second from every customer.”

“We have developed a metric, a way of breaking down data into figures. The more positive experiences you give your customers, the more likely they are to make purchases.”

“XPAI’s secret is hardware-enforced security. Under this patent-pending technology the chance of a data leak is ultra-low, which has led lawmakers to conclude that in this case, data collection is possible.”

“The necessary AI is here! Voice and image analysis work incredibly well, better than humans can do it.”

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