Building Global Teams from Scratch
At Boehringer Ingelheim, Dr. Kurr didn't just build an organization - he built a culture. Starting with a blank canvas, he recruited, developed, and retained a diverse global team that expanded tenfold in four years. The Global Service Layer Organization placed eight colleagues across global markets, each serving as the local face of a centralized capability. Building global teams requires deliberate attention to cultural context, communication patterns, and local empowerment within a global framework. Dr. Kurr's teams consistently delivered because they were built on trust and accountability, not control.
Organization Design for Transformation
Organizational design is not about drawing boxes on a chart. It is about creating structures that enable strategy execution. Dr. Kurr designs organizations using his core equation - structure follows process follows strategy - ensuring that every role, reporting line, and governance mechanism exists to enable a specific strategic outcome. This includes matrix organization design, center of excellence models, federated vs. centralized structures, and global-local balance frameworks. The design process always starts with the work that needs to be done, then creates the structure to do it.
Talent Strategy for Transformation Programs
Transformation programs fail without the right people - but 'right people' doesn't mean hiring the most experienced candidates. It means creating a talent strategy that matches the transformation's phase. Early-stage transformations need entrepreneurial builders. Scaling phases need operators and process designers. Mature organizations need optimizers and innovators. Dr. Kurr helps organizations identify which talent profiles they need at each phase and build recruiting, development, and retention strategies that match.
Change Management and Leadership Development
Change management is not a communications exercise - it is a leadership discipline. Dr. Kurr's approach to change management is rooted in his five core leadership traits: transparency (clear communication fostering trust, especially in uncertain environments), respect (conveyed through communication style and interaction quality), empowerment (avoiding micromanagement, enabling teams to make decisions with accountability), fairness (described as 'one of the most important things in life'), and vision (providing a North Star and compelling direction beyond strategy). Leadership development programs based on these principles create leaders who can sustain transformation long after the advisor has left.