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Ferdinand A Kovacic | +43-664-169-1903 | ferdinand.kovacic@kovalentics.at
Kovalentics ®  [ koh-vey-len-tiks ] | /ˈkoʊˌveɪ ˈlɛn tɪks /

KOVALENTICS | The PERSON

FERDINAND A KOVACIC | MA | MBA

COMPANY FOUNDER.  Kovalentics ® | Business Development | People + Organisational Development | Impact Investing | Shared Value Projects | Public Private Producer Partnerships (4P)

IMPACT INVESTOR ‘The Mills of Kilimanjaro’ | Tanzania | Grain Xplore | Maize Milling + Fortification | Value Chain Integration |  Co-Founder | ‘true Inclusion Investing’ | fully private & ‘not-for-loss’

EDUCATION | ACCREDITION.   MA Economics | University of Graz. MBA Finance | New York University | STERN School of Business | Fulbright Scholar. Accredited Export Consultant | Austrian Economic Chamber

ACADEMIA Assistant Professor | Institute of Economics | University of Graz. Economics | Economic Policy.   History of Economic Theory | JM Keynes

PHARMA | ANIMAL HEALTH.     Pharmaceuticals | Agriculture | Eli Lilly and Elanco | Research and Manufacturing.   Multi-National Corporation | Emerging and Developing Markets | Central and Eastern Europe | North Africa | Near and Middle East.   CFO | Business Operations | Leadership | Multiple Functional Roles | Project Management | Business Development | Post-Merger Integrations

EUROPE–AFRICA Worktank Europe-Africa | Founding Member

YOUTH WORK.    Association of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Austria | Scout Leader | Skills for Life Programme. Mentoring | Erzdioezese Wien | Hands-On | Young jobseekers

PERSONAL.    Photography. Music | Design | Arts.    Philosophy | Social Sciences | Environs.    Outdoors

UNI Graz. NYU. Stern. Lilly. Elanco. HIB Liebenau

»A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.« 

Robert A Heinlein

KOVALENTICS  | The COMPANY

Kovalentics ® is the name of my independent Business and Organisational Development Boutique. My management philosophy integrates the development of the business, the people and the organisation. I provide both advisory and operational support to domestic and international clients.

 

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT applies a 360° mindset and bridges the subject areas of

  • Strategy and exploration
  • Route-to-market, and the
  • Operating model of the business.

My international engagements focus on Emerging and Frontier market geographies, particularly East Africa, with additional specialities in

  • Impact investing
  • Fiduciary micro-projects
  • Shared value projects and
  • Public Private Producer Partnerships (4P).

I am the co-founder of Grain Xplore, a fully private integrated maize milling and fortification facility on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania (see Emerging). Doing business in Africa. Not just talking about it.

Design, Delivery + Development

Value Offer Kovalentics. The 3 D: Design, Delivery and Development.

Co-Development + Co-evolution

Studio for Productivity and Creativity. External view. Capacity & spaqce. Co-evolution. Co-creation. Sparring partenr. Results & Learning

Resource efficiency and balanced cost-benefit outcomes are made possible by using a highly methodical approach, blending business and market analysis, strategic project development and management, and rigorous business finance analysis.

 

PEOPLE and ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT build on a carefully curated depot of modular toolsets, actionable frameworks, and strategic learning pathways. In all my project work, I very intentionally integrate ‘proportionate’ capability building.

 

My own comprehensive Unified Business Management System UBMS provides powerful guidance for the tasks at hand. It adopts a deliberate whole-systems approach to business. Take a look at the sample concepts and frameworks on my website, and browse the 7-D Development Process and the illustrative modular skills portfolio in the three ‘Depots’ of the Academy:

 

1| The Depot – General Business Skills

2| The Depot – Global Business Skills

3| The Depot – Business Finance Skills

 

What you get: tailored and cost-effective solutions with rapid time-to-value through flexibility and modularity.

 

Client engagements of mine are equally responsive and tailored to their needs, ranging from classic consultancy to tailor-made workshops, longer-term initiative support and interim management. For strategic projects, a co-founding approach is also welcome.

»Building a business model is a vastly underrated skill.« 

Aswath Damodaran

APPROACH

My APPROACH is based on three short reflections (1-3) and one key principle (4):

Producing desired results requires a ‘360-DEGREE AWARENESS’ of the situation and its context, interdependencies and dynamics—whether it is a strategic project, or an educational intervention. And it must comprise effective bridging of the full life cycle, from initial diagnosis to final delivery. Many well-intentioned initiatives fail in the execution phase. A wise investment in proactive boundary spanning and the careful orchestration and alignment of resources across organisational silos is critical.

Total effectiveness requires managing things in their ENTIRETY. It is the continuous removal of the weakest links that counts, not the optimisation of individual parts. The capacity of a system is equal to the capacity of its bottlenecks, as Eliyahu Goldratt so aptly put it. Careful scaling and matching of projects and initiatives, along with the right pace and timing, avoids negative feedback loops. In fact, less is often more: try to reach the “point of sufficiency” – good enough. But GOOD.

The successful delivery of project or initiative outcomes is a necessary condition. It is not sufficient. To become embedded, they require the parallel DEVELOPMENT of skills and capacities at the level of the individual, the team, the organisation and, increasingly, the ecosystem. This can be achieved through a proactive, strategic and modular development curriculum (see Academy), as well as in parallel with project work, in the form of “proportionate investment” along the lines of Eric Ries’ Lean Startup.

In the face of our immense long-term sustainability and, increasingly, security challenges, we need to make a conscious commitment to finding solutions that are viable for the many stakeholders involved. To this end, a philosophy based on Constructive MUTUALISM seeks to resolve polarities through the exercise of reciprocity in a meaningful and measured way. So that we achieve at least minimal unity for a secure, sustainable and equitable future.

»Sorgt doch, dass ihr, die Welt verlassend, nicht nur gut wart, sondern verlasst eine gute Welt.«

»When you leave this word, make sure you have not only acted for good, but leave behind a good world.« 

Bertolt Brecht

EXPERIENCES

Economics | Teaching | Research

Emerging | Developing Markets

Business Stewardship

Go-To-Market

Sales & Operations Planning

Acquisition | Post-Merger Integration

Quality Assurance | Warehousing

HR | People

Pharma | Animal Health Industry

Strategy Design & Execution

Business Finance

Distributor Management

Risk | Credit Management

Legal Entity Establishment & Dissolution

Ethics & Compliance | Internal Controls

T&D | Leadership Development

Youth Work | Scout Leader

Product Launch | Portfolio Optimisation

Business Planning & Reporting

Commercial Services & Export Business

Commercial Contracting

Business Development

IT Systems Development

Project & Programme Management

»Effective executive leadership comprises three equal components:

producing desired results, ensuring long-term sustainability, and enhancing the well-being of the workforce.« 

Pete Hammett

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

I publish my concepts, frameworks, Unified Business Management System and all other communications under the registered trademark Kovalentics ®. The name is inspired by the ‘covalent bond’: a chemical bond between atoms whose stability is achieved by both atoms sharing pairs of electrons, thereby balancing the attractive and repelling forces at play. And the English word covalent’ translates to ‘kovalent’ in German.

 

By analogy, this chemical phenomenon fits well with the principle of mutualism. Given our many economic, societal and environmental polarities, it is only through the act of meaningful reciprocity that we can balance these polarities and achieve a minimum degree of unity.

‘Everything is a remix’. To develop my concepts, frameworks and programmes, I copy, vary and combine inputs from a variety of quality sources. They are meticulously researched and carefully curated. I visualise them―a process I call ‘cartography’. In doing so, I stand, as we all do, on the shoulders of others and build on their work.

Homage. Much of my inspiration comes from ‘collectivised knowledge’, where it is no longer possible to identify the originator(s) without undue effort. Where sources and originators are known or can be identified with reasonable effort, credit is given.

References. References are stated to important sources, contributions, authors, articles, books, websites and other materials are given for each drawing, graphic, or written contribution. I will not use a work that says ‘all rights reserved’. If I do use an external work that allows use with ‘some rights reserved’, that right applies in turn. References must not be removed.

Kovalentics ® is a registered trademark. This trademark must be displayed whenever my work is quoted or used in any way. You may not remove it from the material I share.

Creative Commons. The content of this site is made available under a Creative Commons [CC] licence with Porting 4.0 (intl) and 3.0 (AT, DE, CH). Materials may be copied, distributed, or translated under the terms of Attribution [BY], NonCommercial [NC] and NoDerivatives [ND].

Attribution [BY]. Information quoted from this website must be attributed as Ferdinand A Kovacic | Kovalentics ® | www.kovalentics.at.

NonCommercial [NC]. By default, none of the materials or concepts from this website may be used for commercial purposes without my explicit consent. Education: The content of this site may be used freely for personal development or educational purposes, such as presentations or workshops, where there is no charge. However, educational institutions that charge for coursework in any form must request permission to use it. Publishing: Permission to use any of the graphics contained herein in any form of publication, such as an article, book, or conference presentation, on any medium must be obtained prior to use. Commercial entities: Commercial companies in general, and individual consultants or consultancy firms wishing to use materials must also contact me. Fees depend on the intended scope of use and are generally reasonable. Non-profit organisations: The blanket copying, adoption and organisation-wide roll-out of the business and management system presented here (see especially the Academy section) is considered commercial use. Permission may be granted, but only on application and after consultation.

ShareAlike [SA]. Most contributions allow you to adapt the work for your own purposes. However, for redistribution (copy, publish, display, communicate), you must attribute my original work and use the same CC licence. See the licence attached to the individual contribution.

NoDerivatives [ND]. The integrity of some of the images, drawings or maps must be preserved. See the licence attached to the individual contribution.