Olaf Boettger

VP, Continuous Improvement @ Johnson Controls | Building improvement cultures where people grow and results follow | 27 years of transformation leadership | Join my newsletter

Ruhr Region

About

๐—œ ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—น๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—น๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—น๐˜๐˜€. After 27 years at Procter & Gamble, Danaher, and Johnson Controls, I keep seeing the same pattern: Most leaders want the results of continuous improvement. Few are willing to build the discipline it takes to deliver them. There is a German saying. "Wash my fur, but don't make me wet." That mindset is the single biggest reason continuous improvement programmes fail. Tools are common. Discipline is rare. I write about what actually works. Not the textbook version. The version you see at Gemba, the real place where value is created for the customer. ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚'๐—น๐—น ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ: โ–ถ Why most executives think their teams are at maturity level 3 when they are at level 1 โ–ถ How to read a new process in 5 minutes โ–ถ What "Watermelon KPIs" look like and what to do about them โ–ถ Why advice given too early kills ownership โ–ถ How to coach instead of fix โ–ถ The difference between a culture that improves and one that performs improvement ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€: โ–ถ Gemba over conference room โ–ถ Coaching over commanding โ–ถ Stabilise before you improve โ–ถ Grow people AND deliver results ๐—ช๐—ต๐˜† ๐—บ๐—ฒ: โ–ถ 27 years building improvement cultures at P&G, Danaher, and Johnson Controls โ–ถ Led businesses up to $0.5B using the Danaher Business System and P&G's Brand Building Handbook โ–ถ Still going to Gemba. Still learning. Still being challenged by my own coaches ๐—ฃ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—น๐—น๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น, ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐˜๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜‚๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ฝ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐˜.

Experience

  • VP, Johnson Controls Business System - Innovation at Johnson Controls
    Mar 2026 - Present ยท 5 mos

    Johnson Controls is a world leader in smart buildings creating safe, healthy, and sustainable spaces. For more than 140 years, we have made buildings better and now weโ€™re transforming them again with our award-winning digital technologies and services. Weโ€™re using artificial intelligence and data driven solutions to give you deeper insight into your buildingโ€™s health, sustainability and performance. Itโ€™s changing the way we design, operate and maintain indoor environments and driving to a new era of autonomous buildings. We are building Johnson Control's new Business System to help us win with our customers. The Business System focuses on three areas: a) what to work on (simplify), b) how we work - process (accelerate), and c) how we augment (amplify). If you like to work for us, please check our open positions https://on.jci.com/4mixAjI

  • Danaher Corporation (Full-time ยท 17 yrs 11 mos)
    • Group VP, Danaher Business System (DBS) - Biotechnology Group
      May 2021 - Feb 2026 ยท 4 yrs 10 mos

      Cytiva has been Danaher's biggest ever acquisition (previously known as GE Biopharma). How do you integrate such a large acquisition into Danaher and the Danaher Business System (DBS)? How do you improve business performance and people development for continuous improvement in parallel? Interesting to learn how two seemingly similar continuous improvement approaches (Lean Six Sigma in GE and Danaher Business System) are very different indeed ...

    • VP, Innovation Strategy - Danaher Business System Office (DBSO)
      Jun 2017 - May 2021 ยท 4 yrs

      How do you improve growth from innovation across a portfolio of 20+ operating companies in Danaher? This has been my team's task during this assignment. We measurably increased growth from innovation for Danaher through continuous improvement driven by the Danaher Business System (DBS), including new innovation tools such as Launch Excellence. Contact me if you want to learn more about how Danaher value propositions stack up vs P&G value propositions ... ;-)

    • VP, Global Marketing & Growth - Leica Microsystems
      Sep 2015 - May 2017 ยท 1 yr 9 mos

      How do you develop a marketing organisation so that the orders initiated by Marketing tripled in just 2 years? My team and I employed transformative marketing (i.e. one of the tools from the Danaher Business System). Contact me for stories about working for a second great German brand (Leica) and the relationship between Leica Microscopes and Cameras. I can also explain where Wetzlar is (in case you don't find it on the map :).

  • Procter & Gamble (9 yrs 6 mos)
    • Global Brand Manager - BRAUN
      Sep 2006 - Mar 2008 ยท 1 yr 7 mos

      How do you turn around a suffering portfolio (BRAUN Irons & Watches/Clocks) so that it delivers a positive operating profit? Contact me to learn more about a) conducting consumer in-home visits in Saudi Arabia, and b) working for one of the best known German design brands (BRAUN).

    • Brand Manager Tide & Bonux CES (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia)
      Sep 2004 - Sep 2006 ยท 2 yrs 1 mo

      How do you accelerate growth for 2 detergent brands in 5 Eastern European countries so they growth double digits for the first time since 2000? Contact me for stories of visiting low-income consumers in all 5 countries - one family just a 5-minute walk from P&G's Budapest office - it teaches you humility.

    • Management Systems Department, Online Marketing & Brand Management
      Oct 1998 - Aug 2004 ยท 5 yrs 11 mos