Axel Menneking
About Axel Menneking
"If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near." - Jack Welch I love solving customer problems with modern technology, and designing, building and scaling products that matter. As a passionate advocate of open innovation, I believe in combining the agility and creativity of the external startup and developer ecosystem with the financial backing, technology assets and market access of enterprises. I have held various entrepreneurial leadership roles in corporate venture capital, innovation, product management and strategy. My current areas of expertise are gigabit connectivity (5G, fiber), applications for consumer IoT (smart home) and industrial IoT (industry 4.0), and smart data economy (data, AI, web 3.0). The various lessons I've learnt from my personal and professional experiences have become essential principles for my career: Attitude trumps talent & expertise - Build diverse teams with a strong why - Tell authentic stories that motivate and foster a growth mindset - Lead with honesty, care and compassion to bring out the best in others Outcome over output - Be obsessed with customer satisfaction - Do less with more, put the best people in the best opportunities - Excel at executing big ideas, measure & manage Stay curious & never stop - Keep learning, there is no innovation & personal growth without failure - Take an outside-in view, be brave to take risks and disrupt the status quo - Make feedback normal, not a performance review. I enjoy meeting new people, hearing new perspectives and learning from them. Get in touch if you want to talk to me about emerging technologies, building startups, open innovation or agile organisations. And of course I also like to talk about my hobbies of sailing, tennis, skiing and good & healthy food. Professional Skills Open Innovation | Corporate Venture Capital | Design Thinking | Startup Incubation & Acceleration | Venture Client | Developer Ecosystem Relations | Agile Product Development | Portfolio Strategy | Business Development | Strategic Partnering | Change Management | Team Development | Servant Leadership Domain Knowledge Emerging Tech | Startup Ecosystem | CVC | Agile Organisation | API Economy | Innovation Strategy & Governance | Telecommunications | Gigabit & Low Latency Connectivity | Consumer IoT & Smart Home | Industrial IoT | Data & AI | GenAI | Web 3.0