— ABOUT US
We have been on your side of the table.
cena impact was built from leading transformation — not observing it.
Our founder, Dr. Cetin Nazikkol, spent nearly three decades inside thyssenkrupp, moving from industrial research and operations through regional leadership and ultimately to the executive board. He served as Group Chief Transformation Officer of thyssenkrupp AG and Executive Board Member of the Decarbon Technologies business segment.
He knows the boardroom — and what a decision looks like when it reaches the organisation: the manager expected to transform tomorrow while delivering today.
— THE STORY
The question behind cena impact.
Across those years, one pattern kept returning. The strategy could be sound. The programme could be professionally managed. The numbers could look on track. And still, the organisation would begin to return to what it knew.
What makes transformation hold — not in the plan, but in the organisation?
— FROM EXPERIENCE TO METHOD
From experience to method.
The question became practical: what keeps killing transformation? The answer became 77 documented failure patterns — different industries, different companies, the same patterns in different forms.
Some of them are quick to fix: a process, a decision structure, a communication gap. The hardest ones are not. They reach into culture and leadership — which is why transformation cannot be worked on in isolation, and why our work spans all three.
The patterns are documented in 77 Ways to Kill a Transformation and How to Prevent Each (2026) — and, together with established organisational research, they are the foundation of Calm → Clarity → Momentum
It is not a book about how transformation should work in theory
It is a record of how it actually dies — and what leaders can do about it
— EXPERIENCE BEHIND THE WORK
Experience behind the work.
The thinking on these pages was not developed in a research department. It comes from:
Leading the group-wide transformation of a global industrial company — €30 billion in revenue, 100,000 employees — from the executive board. Performance programmes with multi-billion-euro ambition. Transforming a 50,000-employee business from product to service. CEO leadership in international markets.
Today: transformation, culture and leadership work with executive teams in industry, energy and professional services.
CD-Hinweis: Proof-Numbers hier als Events setzen — groß in Roboto Serif Medium, Caption in Roboto Medium darunter, Gold-Dot-Akzente auf Navy
— HOW HE WORKS
What he brings to the table.
— A scientist's way of thinking. Cetin is a chemist by training — and it shows: understand the system before intervening, test before scaling, believe the evidence over the narrative. It is why the 77 patterns exist as a documented collection, not as anecdotes.
— Strategy and people, held together. Business models, strategy and technology on one side — psychology, organisational behaviour and neuroscience on the other. Transformation happens exactly where the two meet. Most advisers are at home on one side of that line. He works the line itself.
— A teacher's patience for capability. Ten years of teaching executives shaped a core belief: people do not need better answers handed to them — they need to be put in a position to find them. Capability transfer is not a feature of his work. It is the work.
— Calm as a practice, not a concept. His day starts early — with yoga and meditation, for three decades now. Calm → Clarity → Momentum is not a framework invented for clients: it is how he works, tested on himself first.
— And directness. Candour is not confrontation; its purpose is clarity. His role is not to reinforce the prevailing narrative, but to help leaders see what is actually happening — and decide accordingly.
— OUR FOUNDER
Dr. Cetin Nazikkol
FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR
Cetin began his career as a chemist in industrial research and later worked in the steel plant before moving into regional and executive leadership.
Over nearly three decades at thyssenkrupp, his roles took him from operations and strategy into international leadership and group-wide transformation. He served as regional CEO across the Middle East, Africa, India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and ultimately became Group Chief Transformation Officer of thyssenkrupp AG and Executive Board Member of thyssenkrupp Decarbon Technologies.
Throughout his career, he has worked with people at every level — from the shop floor to the supervisory board, across roles, industries and cultures. That breadth matters in his work today: he knows not only how organisations are structured, but how the people inside them actually think, decide and act.
Alongside his operating roles, he taught executive MBA programmes in innovation, change, strategy and business problem solving for more than a decade. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Münster and an MBA, and completed an executive leadership programme at Harvard Business School — including change management taught by John Kotter.
— WHAT REMAINS
What remains.
A strategy that becomes reality. A transformation that holds in daily work. An organisation with the capability to carry the next one.