Katja M. Gaiser
I lead market intelligence, the assessment of new product fields and the validation of problem and solution. From this I own product definition, user guidance, the business model, market launch and the decision on which products are scaled further.
My task is not to bring as many ideas as possible into production. My task is to distinguish early:
- Is the problem real and widespread enough?
- What do the people affected actually need?
- Which solution would they choose and trust?
- Is the product deep enough to make a difference in everyday life?
- Does its real-world performance support further scaling?
I grew up on a farm in southern Germany. There I learned early to take responsibility, act pragmatically and handle resources with care. What mattered was never how good a plan sounded, but whether it worked in reality.
This attitude shaped more than 20 years in industry, operations and transformation. I led turnarounds, post-merger integrations, global supply-chain transformations and the build-up of new operating models — often in situations where results, delivery capability and trust were at stake at the same time.
Today that experience is built into GenAutopia: in choosing the right problems, in clear decisions, in robust quality gates and in products that do not end at a concept.
Expertise
- Market intelligence and product strategy
- Product definition and user guidance
- Business model and P&L responsibility
- Problem and solution validation
- Turnaround and operational excellence
- Post-merger integration and operating models
- Supply chain and international scaling
Education
An internationally positioned machinery business unit had been loss-making for years. Its economic situation was existence-threatening.
I took charge of operations and led the turnaround across customer quality, organisation, decision-making, product portfolio, supply chain, S&OP, production system and engineering.
The business unit returned to sustained profitability. The EBIT margin stabilised long-term at 8–10 percent.
A regulatory intervention jeopardised a significant part of the product portfolio of an international chemicals group. A substantial share of revenue was immediately at stake.
I built the crisis organisation and led the redesign of the end-to-end supply chains for regulatory-compliant replacement products — from concept to international market launch.
The affected portfolio was replaced within months and shipped internationally. The revenue at risk was secured and the market position extended.
After a major acquisition, two technical organisations worked across numerous production sites without a shared operating model.
I developed the target operating model for the combined organisation: shared core processes, consistent steering metrics, a forward-looking competency model and a new organisational structure.
A shared operating model emerged across all sites. The transformation enabled recurring improvements in earnings and capital efficiency and was scaled group-wide as the reference model.
The spare-parts and service business of an industrial company operated with cost-based pricing, fragmented inventory and delivery times of several weeks.
I introduced a market-based pricing logic, regionalised distribution and redesigned the value chain and customer interface end to end.
Delivery time for stocked items fell from several weeks to a few days. The service business became more profitable and closer to the customer.