Flight Levels Day
Seamless Multi-Team Collaboration with Flight Levels - How Quantum GmbH not only survived three existential crises, but improved value delivery and is more successful than ever before
Flight Levels Day 05 Talk by: Konrad Pogorzala, Dirk Hardt
Achieving seamless collaboration across multiple teams is no small feat. At Quantum GmbH, we embarked on a journey to redesign our coordination system and much more — facing crises, setbacks, and ultimately, breakthroughs. This talk shares how we evolved from waterfall structures to a flexible, people-centric approach with Flight Levels.
Our first major challenge came when a planned merger fell through, forcing cost cuts and a 30% workforce reduction. To survive, we embraced agility, introduced Kanban for improving transparency, and focused on digitalization to improve value-driven collaboration.
Then came the COVID crisis, where our agile foundation paid off. We smoothly transitioned to virtual operations with minimal disruption, but growing complexity led to declining engagement.
The energy crisis following the war in Ukraine was our toughest test. As chaos hit, we rapidly shifted to a complex, experiment-driven approach, enabling fast learning, stability, and stronger value delivery. Today, Quantum is more resilient and successful than ever before.
about the speaker
Konrad Pogorzala is an internationally accredited coach, trainer and Flight Levels Coach, partnered with the Better Change Fellowship. He has more than 15 years experience building and working within agile environments.
He has a proven track record helping diverse organizations adopt Agile Values and Principles. Within the lasts years he coached and supported more then 100 agile teams within numerous industries. Konrad`s strategic thinking and adaptive coaching style based on the group context in complex environments enable the organizations to significant improve their learning speed, influence cultural change and positive transformation.
Konrad was born in Poland, where he grew up and finished high school. He studied in Berlin, Germany and has lived in that lovely city for more than twenty years.
Dirk Hardt can look back on more than thirty years of professional experience along the energy value chain. Some say he knows the energy industry from the coal mine to the power socket. He has held responsible positions as managing director or supervisory board member for various companies.
His professional career began in raw materials production and led via international commodities trading to the energy industry. Among other things, he played a key role in setting up the TXU Group in Germany. As Managing Director of the Stadtwerke Kiel Group, he founded 24sieben Handel und Vertrieb (trade and distribution). Dirk Hardt worked for atel in Central Europe. As a partner at K.GROUP, he advised leading companies in the energy industry.
Since August 2008, Mr. Hardt has been Chairman of Quantum, a cooperation of municipal utilities with the core business of energy procurement and portfolio management. Quantum GmbH, registered in Düsseldorf and with its office in Ratingen, is a supra-regional service provider for around 20 customers. The shareholders are 16 independent municipal energy suppliers. Quantum`s core business includes energy procurement of conventional and renewable energies on the electricity and gas wholesale markets, portfolio, balancing group and risk management as well as direct marketing, load management and commercial optimisation of power plants and electrical storage batteries. Quantum handles all electricity and gas transactions for its shareholders. The customers` electricity portfolio amounts to approx. 5 TWh and the gas portfolio to approx. 11 TWh per year. Quantum`s annual turnover in 2023 was to around €1.55 billion.
The expertise lies in providing energy-related services that are closely linked to the core business.
With this in mind, EFM, Energy for Tomorrow, is developing new, partly digital business models for the energy world of today and tomorrow by using open networks and applying agile, user-oriented working methods.
Join the Flight Levels Day - Edition 05
Save the date - 08 May 2025
Flight Levels Practitioners and Professionals come together to share their experiences about Flight Levels with a wide audience and offers insights into the practical applications of Flight Levels. It demonstrates how companies use Flight Levels as a lightweight and cost-effective approach to foster company-wide collaboration and implement their strategies. Thanks to our interactive platform, all participants have the opportunity to directly engage with the speakers, get their questions answered, or receive ideas and inspirations beyond the scope of the conference program.
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