Torben Rick

Current

• Independent Executive Interim Manager at Meliorate Solution

Past

• Interim Business Development & Financial Improvement Executive at Comlog A/S - Denmark & Germany
• Business & Financial Improvement Director - Vice President at TDC Solution A/S - Denmark
• Chief Operating Officer (COO) - Managing Director at Talkline GmbH & Co. KG - Germany

• Project Director at Talkline GmbH & Co. KG - Germany
• Commercial Project Director at Sunrise Communications AG - Switzerland
• Sales Support Director at Tele Danmark Erhverv A/S - Denmark
• Head of Strategic Business unit at Tele Danmark Erhverv A/S - Denmark
• Head of Logistics & procurement at DanaData A/S - Denmark
• Managing Director at PC Distribution A/S - Denmark
• Head of Marketing at DanaData A/S - Denmark
• Project Manager at Nykredit - Denmark
• Project Manager at Kreditforeningen Danmark - Denmark
• Marketing Coordinator at Kreditforeningen Danmark - Denmark

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Education

• INSEAD
• INSEAD
• Handelshøjskolen i Århus

• Syddansk Universitet

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1 more...

Recommended

52 people have recommended Torben

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Management Consulting

Websites

• VisualCV
• XING
• Plaxo

Torben Rick’s Summary

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A-Meliorate your business - Let’s create new and better results by
challenging the way we do things - Re-think, re-do
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During the years Torben have obtained extensive international experience from top level management positions in Denmark, Switzerland and Germany in the highly competitive trade- and service industry.

Torben have managed different functions such as Business & Financial Improvement Director, Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Project Director, Sales Support Director, Head of Logistics & Procurement and Head of Marketing. These different functions were covering areas such as business development, customer service, logistics, marketing, procurement, organizational development, sales and strategy.

The pivotal point in the different functions has been operational change- and development management - with significant financial impact and increasing customer satisfaction - based on developing and implementing change management, operational innovation, process reengineering, lean management and balanced scorecard.

Torben speaks native Danish, fluent German and English.

Torben Rick’s Specialties:

General management, Operations management, Business Development, Turn around & restructuring, Business improvement, Performance improvement, Change management, Organisational development, Project & programme management, Service management, Customer service, Commercial management, Logistics & procurement, Cover for Executive Absence

Torben Rick’s Experience

• Independent Executive Interim Manager

  Meliorate Solution

  (Management Consulting industry)

  2008 — Present (less than a year)

  Experienced senior interim manager.
  
  Primarily active within operational business improvement, business development, performance management, change management, turnaround, organizational development and process reengineering.

• Interim Business Development & Financial Improvement Executive

  Comlog A/S - Denmark & Germany

  (Information Technology and Services industry)

  2008 — 2008 (less than a year)

  January 2008 - July 2008
  ► Interim Business Development & Financial Improvement Executive at Comlog A/S - Denmark & Germany (Information Technology and Software industry)
  
  Comlog provides fleet management systems - hardware/software and services all as a hosted system.
  
  Hired by the board and charged with turning around the company which was highly under-performing as to its financial performance and product quality.
  
  Achievements:
  ► Due to heavy focus on business drivers increased EBITDA margin from – 18% in 2007 to + 10% in 2008

• Business & Financial Improvement Director - Vice President

  TDC Solution A/S - Denmark

  (Privately Held; 10,001 or more employees; TDC; Telecommunications industry)

  2006 — 2007 (1 year)

  ”Business & Financial Improvement” - 34 employees - with reference to the CEO of TDC Solution A/S:
  ► Lean Management, Business Process Management and Culture change
  ► Challenging the way we do things, process optimization, and reduction of production and capacity needs
  
  Achievements:
  ► Business improvement with a total "cash-in" effect of € 85m corresponding to 9% of the total cost base

• Chief Operating Officer (COO) - Managing Director

  Talkline GmbH & Co. KG - Germany

  (Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Telecommunications industry)

  2001 — 2006 (5 years)

  Responsible for the operational business with 480 employees covering the following areas:
  ► Sales
  ► Retention/Prevention
  ► Marketing
  ► eBusiness
  ► Product management and product development
  ► Procurement of mobile handset
  ► Customer Service
  
  and a yearly revenue of 1.000 m€.
  
  Achievements:
  ► EBITDA increased by 138% - from € 29.7m in 2001 to € 70.6m in 2005 - due to heavy focus on customer profitability and efficiency.
  ► Despite getting closer to market saturation the customer base has more than doubled from 1,7 m to 3,4m customers
  ► Customer satisfaction increased from index 100 to 124
  ► Employee satisfaction pushed from index 72 to 83 points

• Project Director

  Talkline GmbH & Co. KG - Germany

  (Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Telecommunications industry)

  1999 — 2000 (1 year)

  Project Director reporting to the CEO. A member of Erweiterte Geschäftsführung (EGF). Responsible for business development:
  
  Responsible:
  ► Development and implementation of refocus program (Turn-around/Corporate Transformation), which included: Cost Improvement Program and Revenue Improvement Program
  ► Culture Change Program: »Wir machen es einfach« (We just do it - We make it simple)
  
  Achievements:
  ► Reduced call volume by introducing a wide range of self-services
  ► Reduced churn by 45% with retention/prevention programs

• Commercial Project Director

  Sunrise Communications AG - Switzerland

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Telecommunications industry)

  1998 — 1999 (1 year)

  Commercial Project Director reporting to the CEO. Responsible for business development.
  
  Large-scale strategic projects included acquisition of an ISP (Internet Service Provider): commercial and legal negotiations, due diligence, business plan and integration
  
  Responsible for development and implementation of balanced scorecard and Culture program “Let’s follow the sunrise...on a balloon trip around the world”

• Sales Support Director

  Tele Danmark Erhverv A/S - Denmark

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Telecommunications industry)

  1997 — 1997 (less than a year)

  Sales Support Director reporting to the Division Director (Data Division).
  
  Head of domestic and international sales support with 72 employees, including 7 function managers. Functions included: Domestic and international pre-sales support, project management, Total Service Management, contract administration
  
  Achievements:
  
  ► Reengineered the total sales supporting process in TDC
  ► Raised the professionel level of competence in the organization and made complete management tools to monitor and train the level of competence for the complete support staff

• Head of Strategic Business unit

  Tele Danmark Erhverv A/S - Denmark

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Telecommunications industry)

  1995 — 1996 (1 year)

  Head of Strategic Business Unit reporting to the Division Director (Data Division)
  
  Total Service Management with 13 employees. In charge of business and market foundation in the newly established Strategic Business Unit starting from scratch.
  
  Responsibilities included development and implementation of services within the IT Facility Management area.

• Head of Logistics & procurement

  DanaData A/S - Denmark

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  1992 — 1995 (3 years)

  Head of Logistics and Procurement reporting to the CFO
  
  Responsible for procurement, warehouse, configuration and test center and dealer team. A total of 37 employees.
  
  Responsibilities included a volume of procurement of € 100m distributed on 4,500-5,000 article numbers with an average inventory turnover ratio of 11-12. Further, handling and execution of 200,000-220,000 packages annually

• Managing Director

  PC Distribution A/S - Denmark

  (Public Company; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  1992 — 1995 (3 years)

  Responsible for the distribution company PC Distribution A/S of which 50 percent was owned by BFC Data A/S and 50 percent was owned by DanaData A/S.
  
  On the procurement side, the job entailed a number of international contract negotiations in USA, UK, France and Germany while the sales side primarily included building up of and contact to dealer networks in Denmark
  
  On the marketing side, focus was primarily on TV spots, PR activities, advertising, direct marketing, news information, etc

• Head of Marketing

  DanaData A/S - Denmark

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  1990 — 1991 (1 year)

  Head of Marketing reporting to the CEO
  
  Head of the central marketing department with 4 employees.
  
  Overall responsibility for DanaData’s marketing, including, among other things, an image-creating customer magazine, news information, conferences, seminars, fair activities, direct marketing, database, advertising, etc.
  
  Responsible, in addition, for international marketing activities in connection with International Computer Group (ICG) in Paris

• Project Manager

  Nykredit - Denmark

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Banking industry)

  1989 — 1990 (1 year)

  Responsible for products and marketing - Nykredit’s central planning and marketing secretariat – in relation to the business-to-business market.
  
  Responsible for market plans, market analyses, marketing strategies, concept development - including concepts and tools for decentralized use: sales support tools, campaigns, database, direct marketing, etc.
  
  In addition, responsible for the central sponsoring of sports and culture.

• Project Manager

  Kreditforeningen Danmark - Denmark

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Banking industry)

  1988 — 1989 (1 year)

  Responsible for the project group: “Sale and marketing” whose purpose was to draw up strategic proposals for the executive committee and the board of directors at Kreditforeningen Danmark as part of the planning project “A plan for KD”

• Marketing Coordinator

  Kreditforeningen Danmark - Denmark

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Banking industry)

  1987 — 1988 (1 year)

  Responsible for the decentralized marketing function in the Funen area with 2 employees.
  
  The job primarily included coordination, implementation and follow-up on sales and marketing activities in cooperation with the executing sales department.

Torben Rick’s Education

• INSEAD

  Customer Orientation - Executive Program 2004 — 2004

• INSEAD

  High Performance Organisations - Executive Program 2001 — 2001

• Handelshøjskolen i Århus

  M.Sc. (Econ), 1984 — 1987

• Syddansk Universitet

  B.Sc. (Business Economics), 1981 — 1984

Additional Information

Torben Rick’s Websites:

• VisualCV
• XING
• Plaxo

Torben Rick’s Interests:

Interim Management, Interimsmanagement, Interim Managers, Interim Executives, Interim Executive Management, Interim Executive Placement, Interim, Interim manager, Interim executive, Interim executive manager, Interim executive manage, Interim Professionals, Management on Demand, ad Interim, iCEO, Mangement auf Zeit, Zeitmanager, Vakanzüberbrückung, Expert Placement, Temporary Positions, Change management, Cultural Management, Business development, Business improvement, Operational improvement, Performance Management, Performance Improvement, Business process reengineering, Organizational development, Business performance management, Turn around & restructuring, Turn-Around Management, Troubleshooting, Corporate recovery, Temporary Positions, Veränderungsmanagement, Veränderungs- und Entwicklungsmanagement, Unternehmensverbesserungen, Optimierung von Strukturen, Prozessen und Effizienzen, Prozessmanagement, Restrukturierung, Reorganisation, Organisationsentwicklung, Sanierung

Torben Rick’s Groups:

•    Sunrise Alumni
•    Talkline Alumni
•    DanaData Alumni
•    European Executive Interim Network
•    European Business Improvement Network
•    European Change & Turnaround Management

Torben Rick’s Honors:

► Connect Call Center Test: Best in class 2001 and 2003
► CCF Quality Award 2006 - call centre Forum Germany
► Best Workplaces in Germany 2006 - Deutschlands beste Arbeitgeber 2006