// about usWe have been on your side of the table.
cena impact was built from leading transformation from the inside — not observing it from the outside.
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 organization: leaders expected to transform tomorrow while delivering today.
// THE STORYThe question behind cena impact.
Across those years, one pattern kept returning. The strategy could be sound. The program could be professionally managed. The numbers could look on track. And still, the organization would begin to fall back into old patterns.
What makes transformation hold — not in the plan, but in the organization?
// From experience to methodWhat keeps killing transformation?
The answer became 77 recurring failure patterns — across industries, companies and situations.
Some are relatively easy to fix: a process, a decision structure, a communication gap. Others run deeper. They sit in culture, leadership and the way organizations actually behave under pressure.
Those deeper patterns are why transformation cannot be worked on in isolation. Strategy, culture and leadership shape whether change can move, land and hold.
The 77 patterns are documented in 77 Ways to Kill a Transformation — and How to Prevent Each (2026). Together with established organizational research, they form the foundation of Calm → Clarity → Momentum.
It is not a book about how transformation should work in theory. It is a record of how transformation actually fails — and what leaders can do about it.
get the book
// Experience behind the workThe thinking on these pages was not developed in a research department. It comes from leading transformation from the inside.
Group-wide transformation of a €30 billion industrial company with around 100,000 employees. Multi-billion-euro performance programs. The transformation of a 50,000-employee business from product to service. CEO responsibility across international markets.
All of it from inside the organization — with responsibility for the outcome, not just the recommendation.
Today, that experience informs our work with executive teams across industry and professional services.
// THE PERSON BEHIND CENA IMPACTDr. Cetin Nazikkol
Founder & Managing Director
Cetin began his career as a chemist in industrial research before moving into operations, regional leadership and executive roles.
Over nearly three decades at thyssenkrupp, his roles spanned operations, strategy, international leadership and group-wide transformation. He served as regional CEO across the Middle East, Africa, India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and later as 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 understands not only how organizations are structured, but how the people inside them actually think, decide and act.
Alongside his operating roles, he taught executive MBA programs for more than a decade, covering innovation, strategy, change and business problem solving. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Münster and an MBA, and completed executive education at Harvard Business School.
// HOW HE WORKSWhat Cetin 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, follow the evidence rather than the narrative. That is also why the 77 transformation patterns were documented systematically rather than left as anecdotes.
// Strategy and people, held together. Business models, strategy and technology on one side; psychology, organizational behavior and culture on the other. Transformation happens where the two meet. That is the space he works in.
// A teacher’s belief in capability. Ten years of teaching executives reinforced one conviction: people do not need better answers handed to them. They need to be put in a position to find and carry the answers themselves. Capability transfer is not a feature of the work. It is the work.
// Calm as a practice, not a concept. Transformation creates pressure, ambiguity and emotional noise. Cetin’s practice is to create enough calm to see clearly, decide well and keep momentum. Calm → Clarity → Momentum is not just a client framework; it reflects how he works.
// Directness with purpose. Candor is not confrontation. Its purpose is clarity. The role is not to reinforce the prevailing narrative, but to help leaders see what is actually happening — and decide accordingly.
// WHAT REMAINSA culture that can carry change — and an organization that can do it again.
// Strategy that becomes reality.
// An organization that embraces change to improve and grow.
// The capability to carry the next transformation.