About Michael Katz
As an entrepreneur, I am my own first client.
Strategic communications advisor, serial founder, active pilot. After 25 years building communications organizations across three languages and multiple markets, I now run my own advisory firm in Munich, applying the same principles I bring to client work.
Twenty-five years working across reputation management, market entries, repositionings, and leadership communications have shown me the same pattern throughout. Organisations that communicate substandard rarely lack talent or resources. They lack clarity: about what they stand for, who they are speaking to, and what they are trying to achieve. That gap — between substance and its expression — is where reputations form and where they erode.
The work I do starts way upstream of the deliverable. Before crafting the brand narrative, the press statement, or the keynote, there is a harder question: what does this organisation actually need to say, and why does it matter? Answering that question well is what makes everything downstream possible.
An organisation’s external presence is only ever as clear as its internal thinking.
Manifest
First solo at fourteen. Ever since then, I’ve known that freedom is built on structure.
I learned to fly gliders as a teenager. At the age of fourteen, I found myself alone in the cockpit for the first time. What felt like freedom was, in reality, anything but random: checklists, procedures, training. Above all, I learned early on to take responsibility – for myself and for others. Later came powered flight, and with it new systems that reduce the workload for me as a pilot.
This logic has shaped me: don’t think like an operator, but like a designer. Build systems that run even without me. Automate, delegate, control the essentials, letting go of the rest.
Back then, I didn’t just learn to fly. For the first time, I designed a marketing campaign, developed an air sports event from scratch and communicated it professionally. Ever since, I’ve maintained the impulse of translating things into scalable structures.
Working as a paramedic taught me a lot about separating noise from substance.
My community service wasn’t just a compulsory programme. At the age of nineteen, I was sent out on missions where people were in a life-or-death situation. That gives you a certain sense of grounding. Clarity about what really matters and what just sounds important.
Since then, I’ve been able to quickly recognise the difference between what’s urgent and what really counts. In my profession, that’s far more than just a soft skill. It’s the foundation of any good advice
The best crisis communication prevents a crisis from arising in the first place.
At Deutsche Post DHL, I was the EU spokesperson when the European air hub was relocated from Brussels to Leipzig overnight. Hundreds of employees were affected, the media were breathing down our necks, trade unions were at the negotiating table, and 26 European markets needed to be informed. In moments like these, you learn to separate noise from substance. What is really important right now? What can wait? Who do I tell what, and in what order? How do I best prepare for a looming operational emergency?
This ability to set the right priorities under pressure originated in crisis prevention. It is just as useful when a self-employed person is so overwhelmed by tasks that they don’t know where to start.
Five years in Argentina have taught me to live the moment.
At the age of 31, I gave up a steady job at a major listed company to head to Buenos Aires. Officially, the goal was getting an Executive MBA. What I actually gained were life lessons: five years in a country where the currency might crash anytime, where the rules change overnight, where nobody seriously believes tomorrow will be like today. Argentina forces you to act now and live in the moment.
I worked there as a freelancer, co-founded a management consultancy, advised international clients and strengthened democratic forces. Not because that had been my plan, but because opportunities arose and I seized them. Quick thinking, genuine relationships, no procrastination. I haven’t let go of that mindset since.
Communication isn’t scaled by effort, but by systems.
At Trinasolar, I helped build up the European marketing and communications organisation. From a start-up feel to a sophisticated corporate operation. Seven languages, dozens of markets, a seven-figure budget. Media relations, C-level ghostwriting, digital marketing, events, campaigns, crisis management, restructuring. There were times when I single-handedly ran the entire MarCom department for the whole region. At other times, I was trusted to lead a team.
What I learned from this: if you don’t have effective processes in place, your work never ends. If you do, you work smarter, not harder. I’ve experienced both. And I’ve come to fully understand the difference.
I live by the model I offer. That’s what makes me credible.
When I first started out, I faced exactly the same questions as my target clients. How do I position myself? Where do my clients come from? What exactly is my offering? I had 25 years of experience in communications, yet I didn’t have a LinkedIn profile that worked for me. No systematic content. No plan for passive income. I was the typical expert who is good at everything except marketing myself.
That’s why I am my first customer myself. Everything I recommend to my clients, I test on myself first. Anything that works, I will pass on. Any failures, I will also share.
If you want to talk.
A 30-minute confidential call. No pitch, no commitment. You describe what is on the table; I listen and tell you whether and in what format I can help.