By the time has·to·be was acquired for €250 million by ChargePoint in 2021, it had become Europe’s market leader in EV charging software, holding over 30% of the market. But the technology wasn’t the only thing setting it apart. Behind the scenes, something quieter – and arguably more radical – was driving its growth: a rethinking of how strategy gets executed in real life.

The engine wasn’t a proprietary algorithm or a secret playbook. It was a methodology called the Art of Acceleration (AOA), co-developed by managing director Martin Klässner and then-Chief Marketing Officer Jerolim Filippi, after watching their original system – Google’s beloved OKRs – crack under pressure.

“OKRs gave us structure, but not clarity,” says Filippi. “We started seeing people optimize for the metric, not the outcome. And no one felt truly responsible for the bigger picture.”

So they dropped it. What came next was a complete overhaul of how alignment, autonomy, and strategic focus worked inside a company.