In the interview with Holger Abeln, author and expert of the Regensburg Business Institute

The Regensburg Business Institute develops, implements and teaches knowledge about professional business communication. The institute advises customers from a wide range of industries and company sizes. The concepts are applied to the areas of customer/market, employees and organization. The current focus is on advising companies on adapting to the current market situation. For example, customer analyses are carried out, enabling the institute's clients to optimally adapt to their customers' needs based on the qualitative results and thus face the future with greater confidence.

Another business area is the training and further education of clients' employees, particularly to maintain a high level of customer centricity in critical situations. Two themes are always at the forefront: confidence and future orientation. In his current book “Brain it easy – Ihr Erfolg beginnt im Kopf” (Brain it easy – Your success starts in your mind), Holger Abeln addresses future orientation in German SMEs. This is reason enough for us to examine the topic in an interview.

DIGITAL FUTUREMag: Mr. Abeln, you specialize in business communication. What is the core competence of the Regensburg Business Institute?

Holger Abeln: Our driving force is the “customer-centric organization”, and we develop new impulses in the customer journey in the B2B sector. We focus on the human factor, which we believe makes all the difference. Today's customer requirements are heavily influenced by the shopping experience they encounter in their private lives, keywords: Amazon and the like. They expect similar “hassle-free” experiences in the business environment as well.

DIGITAL FUTUREMag: In your new book “Brain it easy – Ihr Erfolg beginnt im Kopf” (Brain it easy – Your success starts in your mind), you address people's future orientation. Please describe the core message of the book in a few sentences.

Holger Abeln: The book is about how people can optimize their personal attitude (i.e., their mindset) to suit their personal environment, whether professional or private. We have developed a six-step methodology for this purpose, which enables a sustainable optimization of personal attitude and thus almost automatically creates more confidence. And confident people are more fun to be around; this changes everything.

DIGITAL FUTUREMag: Your goal is to make companies sustainably successful. Digitalization is naturally at the top of the list of measures. How do you define sustainable success for yourself and your clients?

Holger Abeln: Our mission is to shape new ways of thinking. Our goal is to establish these mindsets within the company and thus create sustainable impact. The digitalization of processes and workflows helps us with this, but it is not enough on its own. As already explained earlier, our focus is on people. They should drive digitalization forward and not be controlled by it. When they start to connect digitalization and customer focus and continuously put this to the test, that is the right step towards a sustainable transformation of the company.

DIGITAL FUTUREMag: Which industries do your customers come from? Can you identify any differences between the industries?

Holger Abeln: We specialize in the B2B sector and operate across industries. Interestingly, we notice far more overlaps than differences between the various industries. Our goal is to generate added value for our customers based on experiences from different industries. Looking beyond one’s own field has never hurt anyone, and we bring that perspective.

DIGITAL FUTUREMag: Over the past few years, you have worked with many crisis-ridden companies through your institute. What are the three most important tips you would give to a company that is definitely in crisis?

Holger Abeln: 1. Talk openly with people, especially your employees and customers. Time and again, we find that the best solution approaches already exist but have simply not yet been discussed. 2. Develop a “Red Ocean Strategy.” What we mean by this is to rethink processes and workflows based on existing circumstances. It is often enough to view your own company from the customer’s perspective. 3. Simply try out ideas and surprise those around you. In recent years, we have heard many arguments about why something cannot work. Then we simply tried it with the companies and created new perspectives.

DIGITAL FUTUREMag: How did the book “Brain it easy” come about? It sounds quite simple. What was the driving force behind it?

Holger Abeln: That actually came from our customers themselves. In many workshops, we repeatedly addressed the topic of mindset, presented appropriate methods, and helped many people with this. These insights then led to the development of our six-step methodology. Today, we refer to this methodology as our DNA; we apply it ourselves time and again.