Founder’s story AutomotiveLearners

Few industries are as exciting as the automotive industry.

Everyday life offers numerous interesting and challenging tasks and projects. It’s a lot about cutting-edge technology, billions of dollars in investments, and hundreds of thousands of customers. Every project here is complex. Many are successful, some fail.

As an automotive manager, you usually feel under pressure: Am I working hard enough? And am I working smart enough? What don’t I know? Who can teach me?

After working on many high-profile projects at the top level, I was given the task by the group’s board of directors to develop a customer data strategy for the Volkswagen Group – a project that later proved impossible. I had implemented everything according to best practices: the maximum expertise and the best consultants in the field, double-checked internally, a storyline and easy-to-understand explanations. However, in the final presentation, the entire project fell apart. Former supporters withdrew, leaving me alone.

I found myself in a dead end.

I had wasted my energy, was burnt out and completely helpless.

My family recommended that I take a break and spend a year circumnavigating the North Atlantic together on our sailing boat. We set sail on August 1, 2019. While we sailed through the Caribbean in March 2020, the world went into lockdown. One planned year turned into two.

Crossing the Atlantic with your family takes courage, of course.

There are nights when it’s dark, the waves are high and a storm is raging. And you can only survive them with good seamanship. Seamanship is the art of steering a ship that is sailing. But what very few landlubbers know is that 90% of a sailing trip is spent at anchor. Only 10 % is sailed. You constantly have to carry out repairs on a boat and learn a lot about technology. Good tools are essential for a successful repair. Repairs are successful with the right tools. You often borrow tools from other boats.

There is a rule among sailors: if you need a tool more than twice, you should make sure you have it.

And there it was, the captivating idea: good management requires excellent tools for each individual case. As a rule, the first thing a manager in a new position does is familiarize himself with the specific tools in his area of expertise. There are thousands of them. If the manager does his job well, he will one day be entrusted with a special project: developing a growth strategy, carrying out a reorganization, implementing a new system. However, this requires some very specific tools. Which you only need once.

In my time, I lacked such a collection:

The best specialized tools to achieve optimal results in the changing automotive industry.

And then I got a call from my colleague: “Steffen, can you help me develop a better understanding of the automotive industry? ” So I started to realize projects in the automotive industry at GP Strategies – one of the top companies in the field of learning. Here I discovered something I was familiar with from my time as a management consultant: specialized tools for managing complex implementation projects. However, the tools used in the learning industry were unknown to me at the time. This was the starting point.

As co-founder of Attain Learning, a startup for tools in the finance industry, I took the initiative to bring these tools to other industries. I founded 2023 AutomotiveLearners because I wanted to get back into the automotive industry and back to Germany. Today, our portfolio includes over 50 different tools that deliver measurable results quickly and cost-effectively for our customers.

Together, we share respect, curiosity and freedom.

This also inspires other experts from the automotive industry.

Today, we are a team of 8 professionals, including experts from the automotive industry and freelancers in the digital and content sectors. We work closely with technology partners to ensure that our technical skills are on a par with industry standards. Our customers: managers in the automotive industry, as well as medium-sized companies and scale-ups.