You need a clear path. Then you won’t be consumed by the distance of the horizon.

I hike. I bike. I run. All three teach me that you need a plan and milestones to get to your destination.

My name is Philipp Rosenthal.

I was trained as a communicator.
I work as a business coach & consultant.
I am an outdoor person and pretty “informal”.

I gathered my 20+ years of experience all over the place: in large corporations, on the agency side, in consultancies and since 2017 as a freelance business coach. I’ve worked in Europe and the US and have delivered mandates in Asia, the Middle East and South Africa.

I’ve worked as…

  • copywriter (yes, really),

  • business consultant,

  • start-up & people manager,

  • business & thought leader and,

  • team & project coach (of course).

What I can bring to the table comes from success as much as it comes from failure. To learn not to try certain things again is an essential step in personal development. I can only recommend it.

Working with large companies is something I feel comfortable with. I am very aware of corporate and regional culture aspects, politics and power dynamics.

If there is one thing I am particularly good at:

I ask the right and often uncomfortable questions…

I get my energy from spending time in the mountains and away from anything digital. On my feet (hiking), on my bike, on the SUP or while bouldering I learn about pacing myself, planning the right route and making sure that I am prepared to handle surprises.

The Digital Sherpa is my metaphor for how I see myself. Whenever possible, I relieve my clients (or colleagues) from the unnecessary weight, make sure we find the right way and pace for the journey and create a common understanding of what’s lying ahead.

I sincerely enjoy guiding people through complex situations with an outside view and the ability to take a step back and look at things from a different angle. Sometimes that’s all it takes to discover the right next move. To do that I, apply engaging and challenging but also fun workshop concepts – sometimes entire sequences of different workshops.

These, often custom-tailored workshops allow people to access and structure the required information or insight and at the same time become an active (and a lot of the time even committed) part of a change and transformation process.

Through my time in the IT industry, I have learned to understand the meaning, magnitude and influencing factors of complex technology. That’s why I am able to help business and IT people to get on the same page and understand that they only use a different language to describe the same idea, objective or solution.

 

Why the Sherpa?

Because I cannot climb the “digital mountain” for the people I work with. But I can make their journey to the summit a lot more pleasant.

I learn & teach.

In 2018 I’ve started my training in mimic resonance and am now a certified Mimic Resonance ® Consultant … but that was only the first step of a long journey.

I frequently listen to podcasts & read about sociology, psychology, organisational development and pretty much anything that grabs my attention at TED.com. I strongly recommend…

  • The Knowledge Project; Hosted by Shane Parrish

  • Work Life with Adam Grant (a TED podcast)

  • NPR’s “Hidden Brain”; Hosted by Shankar Vedantam

  • Zeit Online “Alles gesagt” (German)

Since 2020 I am a visiting lecturer at the EPFL, Lausanne. As part of the Executive MBA (EMBA) program, I run a course on Change Management in the context of Digital Transformation. The course is a mix of change theory (systemic thinking, theory frameworks, motivation) and practice insight (pitfalls & success factors).