About Steffen
Two worlds. One perspective.
First world: 35 years in sales, corporate life, transformation. Second world: a place in the Fläming, built with his own hands.
35 years in corporate life: Henkel, Jacobs, Dell, Cisco. From operational sales to top management. And in parallel, always, a second world: clubs, films, music — and since 2013 two old farmsteads in the Fläming, which Ming Poon and I are converting into a place for encounters. Much of it with our own hands.
World 1 — Sales
From the call centre to top management.
I spent 35 years in sales. From the call centre to top management. Henkel, Jacobs, Hakle, Dell, Cisco. I built, led and transformed sales organisations.
My experience does not come from consulting projects but from my own operational responsibility. I have sold, led and transformed — from the field to top management. Today I bring that experience into companies as a sparring partner and advisor.
Throughout, I was always at the front line when technology reshaped sales. In 1991, the first digital order-capture tools arrived at Henkel. In 2000, I introduced CRM at Dell. In 2005, Salesforce at Cisco — before many people had even heard the word "cloud". The common thread through all these years: transformation. Structural, technological, cultural.
World 2 — The Farm & Friends
A place in the Fläming. Much of it with our own hands.
There is, however, a second world. It has always existed, alongside the first. Clubs, films, music, people.
Something tangible has grown out of that world. Since 2013, Ming Poon and I have been building up two farmsteads in Bräsen, a village in the Fläming: The Farm & Friends. A theatre hall with a stage, a club, an Irish pub, twenty guest rooms, a garden with a pool. Much of it with our own hands. A place for encounters — for people who don't simply book something, but set out to do something together. In the village itself, I am involved in the Bräsen für alle association.
The Farm & Friends
Why the two belong together
The duality is no coincidence. It is the tool.
So I live in both realities: Berlin and corporate life on one side, rural life in eastern Germany on the other. This duality is no coincidence — it is my tool. Anyone who thinks only within one system eventually stops seeing it clearly. A view from outside makes clear what is going wrong.
Perhaps that is the real message: success does not require an either/or. You can be accountable for the numbers and still build a farmstead. You can speak plainly and still listen. Change does not begin with others, but with one's own actions.
I have learned to look from the outside.
Experience within the system. A life outside the system.
The Farm & Friends
Some subjects need distance.
That is why there is a place for them.
The Farm & Friends in Bräsen, 90 minutes from Berlin. Two farmsteads with spaces for working and spaces for being together. Overnight stays, shared meals, encounter instead of a conference hotel. For selected workshops, offsites and retreats.
Discover The Farm & Friends