About | Rico Kerstan

What this is actually about

This is not primarily about crisis management in the conventional sense.

The real question is: how do organizations remain capable of acting and deciding when information is incomplete, responsibilities are unclear, and decisions cannot wait?

In practice, this is usually concrete: organizations rarely fail because they lack knowledge. They fail because of disorder in their thinking and decision-making: unclear structures that do not hold under pressure.

That is the point where I work.

My approach

My approach is pragmatic: not in the sense of improvised, but in the sense of: structurally sound and reliable at the core, adaptable in the specifics.

I think strongly in terms of structures. Not because I value bureaucracy, but because I know that under pressure, only what was clearly set up beforehand actually works. At the same time, I distrust any structure that produces only formality: that replaces thinking instead of supporting it.

Security that produces reassurance rather than actual resilience is not a goal. Organizations that are well-protected but no longer agile have a different problem.

Background

I have been managing partner of KR Krisensicher Risikoberatung GmbH since 2019. Before that, I worked for just over six years at the Bundesdruckerei: first as Risk and Security Manager, then as Consultant: focusing on risk and security management for critical infrastructure and high-security processes.

I hold lecturing positions at NBS Northern Business School Hamburg (resilience and civil protection, corporate security) and previously at HWR Berlin. I am the national chair of BVKR e.V.: the German association for crisis resilience.

Since 2024, I am working on my PhD at the Technical University of Ostrava, researching the effectiveness of crisis management approaches in the German business context.

Education: B.Eng. in Hazard Control (HAW Hamburg), MBA in International Management (HWR Berlin).

Certifications (selection): Lead Auditor ISO 27001, Business Continuity Manager ISO 22301, KRITIS auditor pursuant to §8a BSIG, Lead Auditor ISO 14298.

Languages: German (native), English (business fluent).

How I work

I combine practical experience from security and crisis contexts with academic research. Research interests me not as an end in itself, but as a means of understanding practice more clearly.

Where I need specialist depth I do not hold myself, I work with people I have collaborated with on concrete projects. Not network referrals: known quality.

Every engagement is confidential.

→ [Thinking frameworks (P-DRIVEN, C]ORE, M]ORE)](/en/approach/) → How I work with organizations → Published analysis