Christian Barte spent the first part of his career inside large companies: AT&T, Detecon, Orange, then as CFO at Wiha.
Early on, he assumed that companies failed for structural reasons: bad markets, bad products, bad timing. What he didn't expect was how often the real cause sat higher up, in the room where decisions were supposed to be made. He watched capable, intelligent people at C-level reach a point where they could no longer agree, and the company drifted into the wall while everyone watched.
"I would never have imagined that people are capable of that," he says. "And that's exactly what I've seen."
That observation is why Centida exists. Not to sell software, and not to write another report. To build the steering structures that let a leadership team reach a decision even when the people in the room don't naturally align.
He also talks about what that costs him personally, and why neutrality matters more to him than winning the next project.
Christian Barte, CEO and Managing Director of Centida, shares his own path - from Böblingen back to Oberkirch - and the realization that led him to found the company: that the human element, more than any tool or technology, is what makes or breaks a business. He speaks candidly about the personal risk he's taken as a founder, why neutrality and independence matter to how Centida works with clients, and where he wants to take the company in the years ahead.