Willms Buhse

Willms Buhse (born 3 November 1970 in Langenhagen, Germany) is a German entrepreneur, author, speaker and consultant based in Hamburg. His work focuses on digital leadership and digital transformation, covering also the people-centric aspects of change management and organizational transformation using multiple agile methods like objectives and key results (OKRs). In 2006 and 2007 Buhse was named one of the "Top 50 Most influential People in Mobile Entertainment".

Willms Buhse has developed the VOPA management model for dealing with VUCA forces. VOPA is an acronym made up of the German terms for networking, openness, participation, agility. This leadership approach describes the extent to which corporate and management culture must change in the sense of increased openness, networking of channels, resources and responsibilities.

In 2009 Buhse founded digital transformation consulting company and currently works there as CEO. Customers include Allianz, Axel Springer, Bosch, DAK, Daimler, Deutsche Telekom, DHL, Evonik, IBM, Microsoft, Nestlé, Otto, Lufthansa and R+V.

Prior to that he was executive director at CoreMedia since 2003. From 2002 to 2006, he also served as vice-chair for the Open Mobile Alliance working on open standards for mobile.

Prior he held several positions at Bertelsmann AG in Gütersloh, Hamburg and New York City. There he co-founded Digital World Services. He worked on projects with AOL, AT&T, Napster and Universal. Before, he was a consultant in technology and strategy projects at the German top-management consultancy group Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and advised companies like Volkswagen and Deutsche Bahn.

Willms Buhse holds a patent for a system and method for the distribution of digital goods.

Buhse holds degrees in industrial engineering (Dipl.-Ing.) and in management sciences (Dipl.-Oec.) from the Leibniz University Hannover (Germany) and Madrid (Spain) and a PhD in economics from the Technical University of Munich.

Buhse is author, co-author and editor of seven books and has been speaking at over 100 conferences and panels on the effect of digital Transformation on different industries.

He lives in Hamburg with his wife and children.