About

Who I am

My name is Florian Fahrenbach. I hold a doctorate in social and economic sciences, I’m a certified data engineer and a psychologist. In my consulting, I bring together what organisations often think of separately: data, structures and people.

My profile is unusual: I combine several years of hands-on experience in data governance, enterprise architecture and data-driven organisational development with a scientific background in psychology, cognitive science and organisational learning. I’m not a psychologist who talks about digitalisation. I’ve shaped it myself. And I’m not an IT consultant who sells change management as an add-on. I understand the human side of change because I’ve researched it scientifically.

Hands-on experience: data, governance and organisation

As Product Owner Data & Analytics at an international industrial company, I built the company-wide data governance programme from the ground up:

  • Operating model & roles: Definition and introduction of data owners, data stewards and governance board. Building an internal data community.
  • Data strategy & architecture: Development of the data strategy, building a data catalogue and data glossary, definition of data quality controls and standards.
  • Data warehouse & analytics: Building an Azure-based data warehouse, developing semantic models, standardising pipelines and reporting.
  • Process landscape (end-to-end): Analysed and re-mapped core processes, clarified responsibilities and KPIs, linked processes with data, applications and analytics.
  • Enterprise architecture: Modelled business processes, data objects, applications, interfaces and integrations (ArchiMate, BOC Adoit). Strategically aligned business and IT architecture to guide project portfolio and roadmap decisions.

This experience gives me a concrete understanding of what happens when organisations push data and digitalisation forward – and where people get stuck.

Previously, I worked as a Data Analytics & Insights Specialist in supply chain management (SAP Analytics Cloud, Power Automate, Python), gaining hands-on experience in pricing, controlling and process automation.

Scientific foundation: organisational learning and needs assessment

At the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna), I spent over five years researching, publishing and teaching on organisational learning, knowledge management and needs assessment in social systems.

My research focused on how organisations recognise their needs, how resistance to change emerges, and how vision development can be designed as a learning process. I apply these insights directly in my consulting – particularly where governance programmes and change projects encounter human resistance.

Selected publications:

  • Kaiser, A., Fahrenbach, F. & Martinez, H. (2021). Creating Shared Visions in Organizations. HICSS.
  • Human, S., Fahrenbach, F., Kragulj, F. & Savenkov, V. (2017). Ontology for Representing Human Needs. KESW. Best Paper Award.
  • Kaiser, A., Fahrenbach, F., Kragulj, F. & Grisold, T. (2018). Towards a Prioritization of Needs to Support Decision Making in Organizational Change Processes. HICSS.
  • Fahrenbach, F. & Kragulj, F. (2019). The Ever-Changing Personality: Revisiting Triple-Loop Learning. The Learning Organization.

16 peer-reviewed publications in total. Full list: Google Scholar · ResearchGate

Qualifications

  • Dr. rer. soc. oec. (with distinction) – WU Vienna. Research on organisational learning and competence assessment.
  • CAS Data Engineering – ZHAW Zurich.
  • Master of Science in Cognitive Science – University of Vienna / University of Ljubljana. Interdisciplinary: psychology, neuroscience, AI.
  • Master of Science in Psychology – University of Vienna. Focus: neuroscience & cognitive psychology.
  • Bachelor of Science in Psychology – University of Vienna.
  • Psychologist FSP – Member of the Federation of Swiss Psychologists.

How I work

Hands-on experience – I know the reality of data and digitalisation projects first-hand. I know how a data governance board works, what a stewardship model needs and where process workshops fail.

Scientifically grounded – I draw on insights from work and organisational psychology and research on organisational learning. What I use has an empirical basis.

At the intersection – I speak both the language of IT and the language of the business. This enables me to work at the point where most change projects get stuck.

Clear and structured – I work with transparent processes, plain language and traceable methods.