Most recent Wladimir Klitschko interview
Posted: 27 Jul 2017, 16:52
I took it from finanzen.net, translated via Google translate and corrected some mistakes. But there might be some more, because text is huge and I probably didn't notice some of them.
What to do when you already heard your final bell? Wladimir Klitschko has not been concerned with this question since his defeat against Anthony Joshua. For the career after his boxing career, former heavyweight world champion took care and an empire from marketing, consulting and hotel industry was built up beyond the boxing. Since 2016, he has been working as a lecturer at the University of St. Gallen in the challenge management challenge. In his Hamburg headquarter, Klitschko reveals on Sunday how he would like to use his know-how in order to protect the German middle class, and revealed his plans to attack the German hotel market.
€uro on Sunday: Mr Klitschko, in 2016, you set up the "CAS Change and Innovation Management" course, which is the basis for self-management and challenge management. What can a professional boxer say to managers?
Wladimir Klitschko: I admit: I also saw this question in a few days, when I was on the first day as a lecturer before the participants. "What does the boxer want to tell us, what does the challenge management tell us?" They only knew me from the boxing ring. At the end of the day the question marks had disappeared. I have learned a lot of things in the sport that can make managers successful.
For example?
Whether it's a boxer, a footballer or a tennis player - nobody can focus on a goal better than a professional sportsman. To be successful, he needs endurance, agility, concentration and coordination as well as courage and discipline. How all this can be done, I have a lot of experience that I pass on in Challenge Management.
Now, with your program and with partners such as SAP, Porsche and Deutsche Telekom, you are primarily targeting the digitization of SMEs. Do we have potential for catching up in Germany?
The middle class is the foundation of the economy in Germany. If we lose the challenge management, this has an economically and socially disastrous impact. I recently had a conversation with a cutlery manufacturer, whose thinking is symptomatic of many managers of small and medium-sized enterprises. He thought his company had been 100 years without any digital distribution channels, and saw no reason to change anything.
What's wrong with it?
Digital change is here and brings many innovations at tremendous speed. Whoever does not accept them will disappear very quickly from the market. This is true not only for small and medium-sized businesses. Just look at how it happened to former world brands like Nokia or Blackberry. There the management slept important innovations and were pressed against the wall by the competition.
Where do you see the coming losers?
A similar upheaval could also soon occur in the automotive industry. Digital innovators such as Google and Apple have been researching autonomous mobility for years. The revolution goes from tech companies that have not had much to do with cars. This is the reason why the original Automarken are prepared. My Challenge Management program is precisely that, because it not only teaches how to successfully master challenges, but also recognizes them at the early stages.
Many entrepreneurs are afraid to fail in globalization and digitalization. How can one take this fear of defeat?
It will surprise you, I am afraid. Just like everyone else. I am afraid of the uncertainty. Before things I do not know. Respect, fear - however we express our fears of unknown things - should motivate a person to accept challenges rather than run away from them. Fear is good, cowardice is bad. Anxiety makes us more alert and quicker and motivated to equip themselves, their employees and their company for the future, to be innovative and thus to remain competitive. That is why every entrepreneur can be afraid of globalization and digitalization. But he can not be a coward. Cowards turn away. And then I speak again from my experience as a boxer. Because I've already lost the fight when I turn my back on my opponent. Likewise, cowardly entrepreneurs are eventually sent by their competitors on the boards.
Are your failures as boxers as important as your successes to be taken seriously as entrepreneurs and lecturers?
Absolutely. The participants would probably think me an alien, I would not have lost fights. My motto as a world champion was "Failure is not an option" - losing is not an option. The basic idea behind this is clear: I always want to win. But I have now recognized: Failure is absolutely an option. Every top entrepreneur has to insert missions in his career. Whoever claims something else is a swindler - or an alien. My successes have made me great, but I have really grown because of my defeats.
Does this also apply to your defeat against Anthony Joshua - or was it harder to deal with?
No, not at all. I do not feel like a loser just because I did not win the fight against Joshua. In none of my defeats have I won more than in this fight. It is unbelievable how much respect and recognition I've gained in this fight.
And certainly also good money. What is often forgotten: You market and organize your battles with your company K2 Promotion and Klitschko Management Group for years. According to the Sky Box Office, the total revenues from pay TV, ticket sales and TV marketing as well as sponsorship and merchandising have exceeded 50 million Euro. From the point of view of the promoter and the marketer, your defeat is an absolutely fantastic condition for a return. It would be one of the most lucrative bouts in the history of boxing.
True, the Joshua fight was organized by K2 Promotions and Klitschko Management Group together with Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn and his company Matchroom. I do not comment the numbers. It is a business, no more and no less. Money has never been my motivation. I want to deliver and win. This is my motivation. Money is only the confirmation of my success. If I once again fight against Anthony Joshua, I'll definitely won't be driven by the money.
Are you often underestimated as an entrepreneur?
I think there are some people who think that I can only box, nothing else. You know what? I like to be underestimated. I see it as a great advantage. Anyone who is underestimated by his opponent as a boxer has almost won. I think it's the same for an entrepreneur.
You have already founded K2 Promotion together with your brother Vitali in 2003 and are constantly developing further areas. Have you always been businesslike?
That began as early as childhood. It was still the time of the former Soviet Union. Our role models were Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone as "Rambo". Only there weren't their movies in our cinema or television to see and also no magazines with pictures of our heroes to buy. I then came to such a magazine by other means. I photographed the pictures, the photos developed, copied and sold in the schoolyard - for 20 kopecks. When I told Arnold Schwarzenegger the story, he said: Wladimir, where is my share?
When did you earn money in boxing for the first time?
I remember it very well, because it was such a special experience for me. I was 16 and had won an amateur fight in Donetsk. For that I got 100 dollars. For that time it was a lot of money. I thought I was the richest man in the world (laughs). You need to know that my parents earned $10 a month at the time. Not in money, but in food coupons.
How did you use those money?
I've bought Vitali seat covers for his new car Lada (laughs).
Although your battle name is Dr. Steelhammer, you aren't aggressor in the ring but rather a strategist. Less risk, more brains. How do you act in business life?
I think with my gut feeling.
Pardon?
I make my entrepreneurial decisions out of my guts. If you think too much, there are tens of reasons for not doing something. I like the calculable risk, nobody can live without risk. However, the risk must have its limits. That is, preparation is everything. Observe, understand, collect ideas, develop a strategy, test. This approach is called Design Thinking and was developed by our partner SAP. In boxing, I am using this method, in business as well. For all I pass on experience and expertise, I have gathered in over a quarter-century in the sports and transferred it to the economic environment.
And also as a c classic investor. In Kiev, the Boutique Hotel 11 Mirrors is one of the best hotels in Ukraine. Are there plans to expand 11 Mirrors to the other countries?
Yes, such plans exist. The expansion plans for the 11 Mirrors are highly advanced. We are currently conducting initial conversations and looking at possible objects. We are ready for the expansion, because the hotel in Kiev has recently celebrated its five-year anniversary. In the course of time, we have gained a lot of experience, and the numerous awards show us that we are on the right track.
For this, Hamburg, headquarter of the Klitschko Group would be predestined, right? When can we expect the opening?
Yes of course. I am a passionate golfer and I have invested a lot of money in a company for golf equipment. Instead of using design thinking and challenge management, I have guided the investment of my emotions and the love of golfing. This was a mistake, as it turned out.
The list of former top athletes, who, after their active time, have caused spectacular failures in the business world is long. What do they advise those who are thinking about a career after the career?
Sportsman careers are usually very short. I've been working on my post-boxing career for many years since I never thought I'd be in the ring for so long. I can only advise every professional sportsman to build the career after the career in any case during their active time, to use their connections and their popularity while they are still active sportsmen. Getting ready for the bad times is the key.
Can you imagine yourself just being a family father and a private individual?
That would be too little for me. I want to pass on something and leave it for the future. I want to share my experiences, my knowledge and make others better. The impetus for this was the death of Emanuel Steward.
Your longtime coach, who died in October 2012.
He was a genius in the boxing ring and had so much knowledge about the boxing he shared in countless conversations with me. Unfortunately, he never wrote a book about it or found another way to leave this knowledge. He took it to the grave. I want to pass on my knowledge, my experience. I want to make others better and make them a moving force.
Where do you see Klitschko's company in ten years from now?
If the people will recognize 'Klitschko' as a globally operating company in ten years, which stands for a healthy lifestyle with mental strength and physical strength as well as for the teaching of the challenge management, and only then as founder and name-giver, I would be very much satisfied. Then I did everything right.
What to do when you already heard your final bell? Wladimir Klitschko has not been concerned with this question since his defeat against Anthony Joshua. For the career after his boxing career, former heavyweight world champion took care and an empire from marketing, consulting and hotel industry was built up beyond the boxing. Since 2016, he has been working as a lecturer at the University of St. Gallen in the challenge management challenge. In his Hamburg headquarter, Klitschko reveals on Sunday how he would like to use his know-how in order to protect the German middle class, and revealed his plans to attack the German hotel market.
€uro on Sunday: Mr Klitschko, in 2016, you set up the "CAS Change and Innovation Management" course, which is the basis for self-management and challenge management. What can a professional boxer say to managers?
Wladimir Klitschko: I admit: I also saw this question in a few days, when I was on the first day as a lecturer before the participants. "What does the boxer want to tell us, what does the challenge management tell us?" They only knew me from the boxing ring. At the end of the day the question marks had disappeared. I have learned a lot of things in the sport that can make managers successful.
For example?
Whether it's a boxer, a footballer or a tennis player - nobody can focus on a goal better than a professional sportsman. To be successful, he needs endurance, agility, concentration and coordination as well as courage and discipline. How all this can be done, I have a lot of experience that I pass on in Challenge Management.
Now, with your program and with partners such as SAP, Porsche and Deutsche Telekom, you are primarily targeting the digitization of SMEs. Do we have potential for catching up in Germany?
The middle class is the foundation of the economy in Germany. If we lose the challenge management, this has an economically and socially disastrous impact. I recently had a conversation with a cutlery manufacturer, whose thinking is symptomatic of many managers of small and medium-sized enterprises. He thought his company had been 100 years without any digital distribution channels, and saw no reason to change anything.
What's wrong with it?
Digital change is here and brings many innovations at tremendous speed. Whoever does not accept them will disappear very quickly from the market. This is true not only for small and medium-sized businesses. Just look at how it happened to former world brands like Nokia or Blackberry. There the management slept important innovations and were pressed against the wall by the competition.
Where do you see the coming losers?
A similar upheaval could also soon occur in the automotive industry. Digital innovators such as Google and Apple have been researching autonomous mobility for years. The revolution goes from tech companies that have not had much to do with cars. This is the reason why the original Automarken are prepared. My Challenge Management program is precisely that, because it not only teaches how to successfully master challenges, but also recognizes them at the early stages.
Many entrepreneurs are afraid to fail in globalization and digitalization. How can one take this fear of defeat?
It will surprise you, I am afraid. Just like everyone else. I am afraid of the uncertainty. Before things I do not know. Respect, fear - however we express our fears of unknown things - should motivate a person to accept challenges rather than run away from them. Fear is good, cowardice is bad. Anxiety makes us more alert and quicker and motivated to equip themselves, their employees and their company for the future, to be innovative and thus to remain competitive. That is why every entrepreneur can be afraid of globalization and digitalization. But he can not be a coward. Cowards turn away. And then I speak again from my experience as a boxer. Because I've already lost the fight when I turn my back on my opponent. Likewise, cowardly entrepreneurs are eventually sent by their competitors on the boards.
Are your failures as boxers as important as your successes to be taken seriously as entrepreneurs and lecturers?
Absolutely. The participants would probably think me an alien, I would not have lost fights. My motto as a world champion was "Failure is not an option" - losing is not an option. The basic idea behind this is clear: I always want to win. But I have now recognized: Failure is absolutely an option. Every top entrepreneur has to insert missions in his career. Whoever claims something else is a swindler - or an alien. My successes have made me great, but I have really grown because of my defeats.
Does this also apply to your defeat against Anthony Joshua - or was it harder to deal with?
No, not at all. I do not feel like a loser just because I did not win the fight against Joshua. In none of my defeats have I won more than in this fight. It is unbelievable how much respect and recognition I've gained in this fight.
And certainly also good money. What is often forgotten: You market and organize your battles with your company K2 Promotion and Klitschko Management Group for years. According to the Sky Box Office, the total revenues from pay TV, ticket sales and TV marketing as well as sponsorship and merchandising have exceeded 50 million Euro. From the point of view of the promoter and the marketer, your defeat is an absolutely fantastic condition for a return. It would be one of the most lucrative bouts in the history of boxing.
True, the Joshua fight was organized by K2 Promotions and Klitschko Management Group together with Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn and his company Matchroom. I do not comment the numbers. It is a business, no more and no less. Money has never been my motivation. I want to deliver and win. This is my motivation. Money is only the confirmation of my success. If I once again fight against Anthony Joshua, I'll definitely won't be driven by the money.
Are you often underestimated as an entrepreneur?
I think there are some people who think that I can only box, nothing else. You know what? I like to be underestimated. I see it as a great advantage. Anyone who is underestimated by his opponent as a boxer has almost won. I think it's the same for an entrepreneur.
You have already founded K2 Promotion together with your brother Vitali in 2003 and are constantly developing further areas. Have you always been businesslike?
That began as early as childhood. It was still the time of the former Soviet Union. Our role models were Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone as "Rambo". Only there weren't their movies in our cinema or television to see and also no magazines with pictures of our heroes to buy. I then came to such a magazine by other means. I photographed the pictures, the photos developed, copied and sold in the schoolyard - for 20 kopecks. When I told Arnold Schwarzenegger the story, he said: Wladimir, where is my share?
When did you earn money in boxing for the first time?
I remember it very well, because it was such a special experience for me. I was 16 and had won an amateur fight in Donetsk. For that I got 100 dollars. For that time it was a lot of money. I thought I was the richest man in the world (laughs). You need to know that my parents earned $10 a month at the time. Not in money, but in food coupons.
How did you use those money?
I've bought Vitali seat covers for his new car Lada (laughs).
Although your battle name is Dr. Steelhammer, you aren't aggressor in the ring but rather a strategist. Less risk, more brains. How do you act in business life?
I think with my gut feeling.
Pardon?
I make my entrepreneurial decisions out of my guts. If you think too much, there are tens of reasons for not doing something. I like the calculable risk, nobody can live without risk. However, the risk must have its limits. That is, preparation is everything. Observe, understand, collect ideas, develop a strategy, test. This approach is called Design Thinking and was developed by our partner SAP. In boxing, I am using this method, in business as well. For all I pass on experience and expertise, I have gathered in over a quarter-century in the sports and transferred it to the economic environment.
And also as a c classic investor. In Kiev, the Boutique Hotel 11 Mirrors is one of the best hotels in Ukraine. Are there plans to expand 11 Mirrors to the other countries?
Yes, such plans exist. The expansion plans for the 11 Mirrors are highly advanced. We are currently conducting initial conversations and looking at possible objects. We are ready for the expansion, because the hotel in Kiev has recently celebrated its five-year anniversary. In the course of time, we have gained a lot of experience, and the numerous awards show us that we are on the right track.
For this, Hamburg, headquarter of the Klitschko Group would be predestined, right? When can we expect the opening?
Yes of course. I am a passionate golfer and I have invested a lot of money in a company for golf equipment. Instead of using design thinking and challenge management, I have guided the investment of my emotions and the love of golfing. This was a mistake, as it turned out.
The list of former top athletes, who, after their active time, have caused spectacular failures in the business world is long. What do they advise those who are thinking about a career after the career?
Sportsman careers are usually very short. I've been working on my post-boxing career for many years since I never thought I'd be in the ring for so long. I can only advise every professional sportsman to build the career after the career in any case during their active time, to use their connections and their popularity while they are still active sportsmen. Getting ready for the bad times is the key.
Can you imagine yourself just being a family father and a private individual?
That would be too little for me. I want to pass on something and leave it for the future. I want to share my experiences, my knowledge and make others better. The impetus for this was the death of Emanuel Steward.
Your longtime coach, who died in October 2012.
He was a genius in the boxing ring and had so much knowledge about the boxing he shared in countless conversations with me. Unfortunately, he never wrote a book about it or found another way to leave this knowledge. He took it to the grave. I want to pass on my knowledge, my experience. I want to make others better and make them a moving force.
Where do you see Klitschko's company in ten years from now?
If the people will recognize 'Klitschko' as a globally operating company in ten years, which stands for a healthy lifestyle with mental strength and physical strength as well as for the teaching of the challenge management, and only then as founder and name-giver, I would be very much satisfied. Then I did everything right.