AYCON - Wege zum Erfolg - Paths to Success

White Elephant Projects: Hunt Them. Win Them. Don’t Build Your Budget Around Them.‍Every sales organization loves the big prize. The exceptional project. The international flagship contract that takes years to develop and can transform an entire year’s order intake.Depending on the industry, we may be talking about €20 million, $50 million, or considerably more.For this article, I call them “White Elephant Projects.” Conventionally, a white elephant describes something expensive with limited practical value. Here, I deliberately use the term for projects of exceptional scale, complexity, international reach, and uncertain timing.Winning one can be an outstanding achievement. Depending on one to make your business plan work is a different matter.‍1. Keep the hunting instinct alive.Across more than two decades in interim management, I have seen how much energy a major opportunity can generate.I welcome that ambition. I want sales teams that pursue exceptional opportunities with determination, intelligence, and stamina.When we win one, I celebrate with the team. These contracts can open doors, strengthen our reputation, establish important references, and demonstrate what our organization can deliver.Go after them. Take them seriously. Earn the win.2. Recognize how little you control.These projects can remain in the pipeline for years. Financing changes. Investment decisions move. Specifications evolve. Political conditions shift. Customers postpone commitments.Meanwhile, every serious competitor is pursuing the same opportunity, often with substantial resources and considerable determination.A strong relationship does not guarantee an order. Years of effort do not guarantee a decision. A large pipeline value does not guarantee revenue.An opportunity is still an opportunity until the customer commits.3. Build a business plan that works without them.Your underlying business must support a credible three-year and five-year plan through a sufficiently broad, repeatable flow of orders.Revenue, gross margin, and EBITDA targets need a foundation you can explain and defend.My test is straightforward:If removing one exceptional, uncommitted project breaks your plan, your plan is too dependent on that project.Show these opportunities separately, with explicit assumptions about probability, timing, and financial contribution. Once a contract is secured, incorporate its delivery, revenue, costs, and risks into the relevant forecasts.Until then, treat it as potential upside above a sound operating baseline.4. Look beyond the headline contract value.A flagship project may deliver considerable prestige while producing a relatively modest margin.Competitive pricing, extensive engineering, demanding contract terms, guarantees, and execution complexity can consume much of the apparent upside. Large projects can also tie up capacity and working capital that the regular business needs.Reputation has value. It does not automatically translate into profitability.A spectacular order intake figure deserves a rigorous margin and cash assessment.5. Win it. Deliver it. Keep building the core business.When you secure an exceptional project, execute it exceptionally well. Protect the margin. Manage the risks. Turn the result into a reference that helps win future business.At the same time, maintain the discipline that sustains the company: customer development, a broad pipeline, regular orders, and consistent commercial execution.The big prize should strengthen that foundation.Hunt the extraordinary. Budget with discipline. Deliver relentlessly.‍‍

MYME MOVE: Zwei starke Partner. Ein klares Ziel. Dein nächstes Mandat.Wenn sich zwei starke Institutionen, zwei profilierte Köpfe und zwei erfahrene Profis zusammentun, darf man auf das Ergebnis gespannt sein. Besonders dann, wenn sie ein gemeinsames Ziel verfolgen: erfahrene Menschen dabei zu unterstützen, ihre Kompetenz in eine klare Positionierung und neue Mandatschancen zu übersetzen.Genau dafür stehen AYCON und die Steinbeis Augsburg Business School mit MYME MOVE.MYME basiert auf einem Konzept von Ulvi Aydin und auf mehr als 21 Jahren Erfahrung im Interim Management. Als profilierter Interim Manager, Autor zahlreicher Publikationen, Keynote Speaker, Beirat und Aufsichtsrat kennt er die Anforderungen des Marktes aus eigener Verantwortung. Er weiß, wie wichtig es ist, das eigene Können auf den Punkt zu bringen und dessen Nutzen für Auftraggeber überzeugend zu vermitteln.Andreas Renner, Leiter der Steinbeis Augsburg Business School, bringt die Perspektive der praxisorientierten, wissenschaftlich fundierten Weiterbildung ein. Die SABS verbindet Qualifizierung mit unternehmerischer Anwendung – ein entscheidender Baustein für Menschen, die ihre Erfahrung weiterentwickeln und wirksam einsetzen wollen.Gemeinsam haben beide ein Angebot für Interim Manager, Coaches, Berater, Aufsichtsräte und Beiräte entwickelt. Für Profis, die ihr Profil schärfen, ihre Positionierung präzisieren und gezielt auf passende Mandate hinarbeiten wollen.Denn ein beeindruckender Lebenslauf beantwortet noch lange nicht die entscheidende Frage: Warum soll ein Unternehmen genau dich beauftragen?MYME MOVE verbindet fünf Bereiche: Positionierung, Qualifizierung, PR und Sichtbarkeit, Netzwerk sowie KI und Umsetzung. Über drei Monate entstehen konkrete Ergebnisse – vom geschärften Mandatsprofil über einen überzeugenden Executive Pitch bis zur gezielten Ansprache relevanter Kontakte. Ein Weiterbildungsseminar und eine Mastermind-Gruppe im Zweiwochenrhythmus begleiten die Umsetzung.Der Ablauf ist klar: TEST. MOVE. CHECK. Standort bestimmen. Maßnahmen umsetzen. Wirkung überprüfen.Damit richtet sich MYME MOVE an Menschen, die bereit sind, auch an ihrem eigenen Marktauftritt konsequent zu arbeiten.Deine Erfahrung ist dein Kapital. Mach für den Markt unübersehbar, welchen Wert sie schafft.Mehr erfahren: MYME MOVE‍

TWO MINUTES ARE ENOUGH.You have a strategy? A concept? A roadmap?Then you must be able to convince an audience of its core direction in 2 minutes.YES!2 minutes!Where do we stand? Where do we want to go? How will we get there?:devider:Three questions. Three or four priorities. A clear message.For years, I have coached and mentored CEOs to do exactly this.No projector. No laptop. No slides on the wall. Just you, your conviction, and your ability to make people understand—and care.A strong concept needs fire. You must burn for it so intensely that your audience feels the heat and wants to move with you.:devider:Technical substance matters. Clear goals matter. The passion with which you communicate them matters just as much. Your team needs to understand the direction and feel compelled to act.That is leadership: making the priorities unmistakable and igniting the ambition to deliver.Take four minutes if you must.But leaders who communicate exceptionally well can do it in 2.

Another Legend!Another Hero!Another Role Model!‍VINCE LOMBARDI: THE TRAILBLAZING FOOTBALL COACH WHO PERSONIFIED GREATNESS.Coach Lombardi is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers (1959-1967). Under his leadership, the Packers won five NFL Championships in seven years, including the first two Super Bowls. The trophy awarded to the Super Bowl champions is named the Vince Lombardi Trophy in his honor.Lombardi was known for his discipline, attention to detail, and focus on fundamentals. He emphasized teamwork, perseverance, and work ethic. His coaching style and philosophy had a profound impact on professional football.His achievements extend beyond football. Lombardi’s speeches and leadership principles left a lasting impact well beyond the realm of sports. WHAT IT TAKES TO BE NUMBER ONESPEECH BY COACH VINCE LOMBARDI“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that’s first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don’t ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win…