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2,000
20 Years After ­Resumption of
Instruction, HHL ­Welcomes
Its 2,000th Graduate
100
100 Percent of HHLers
Would Recommend Their
Alma Mater*
100,000
HHL’s Library Provides ­
Access to More Than
100,000 Electronic Sources
HHL
LEIPZIG GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT SUMMER 2016 WWW.HHL.DE
HHL Is one of the Leading Entrepreneurial Hubs and Innovation Drivers
Focus on E-Business, Digital Transformation and Biotechnology
As an entrepreneurial hub, HHL at its core
stands for new business creation and innovation. Regional and international impetus
for these activities comes from businesses
launched by the school’s own community
(students, alumni and staff) as well as from
collaboration (“co-creation”) with other
founders, e. g. Futalis or Gollmann. Moreover, HHL also works with incumbents from
other fields and industries such as E.ON,
Postbank or Porsche as part of its open innovation approach. Against the background
of their long-term entrepreneurial activities, e-business start-ups such as trivago,
Survey: HHL Once
Again Named the
Most Popular Private
Business School in
Germany
According to the 2016 trendence Graduate Barometer, HHL is Germany’s top
university. Remarkably: 100 percent of
HHL students would recommend their
alma mater. In a comparison of 113 universities in Germany, the private university HHL once again reached top
rank in eight out of ten categories, leaving behind a large number of private
and public business schools. The empirical basis of this year’s trendence
Graduate Barometer “Business Edition” is a survey which was carried out
amongst 13,660 students during the
2015/16 fall and winter term.
bit.ly/HHLtrendence2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
_ Entrepreneurship p. 01–04
_ Campus p. 05–06, 08–09
_ Alumni Relations p. 05, 07
_ Career Service p. 08
_ Programs p. 07–08
_ International Relations p. 09
_ Research, Teaching and Transfer p. 10–12
_ Upcoming Events p. 12
* Source: 2016 trendence Graduate Barometer
Studi-VZ, Delivery Hero or betreut.de particularly stand out, for which the Financial
Times listed HHL as the world’s number 1 in
its 2015 MiM ranking.
Digital transformation and
­biotechnology
HHL has already broadened its base over the
last few years and developed into one of the
leading entrepreneurship and innovation
platforms in the field of digital transformation (Factory 4.0, FinTech, Smart Energy,
etc.). This is reflected by the HHL International Investors Day, the SpinLab teams so
far (e. g. Sensape, Rhebo AG) as well as the
collaboration with the Hasso Plattner Institute. In addition to these two entrepreneurship focal points, which are covered by several start-up-related Chairs and the Center
for Entrepreneurial and Innovative Management (CEIM), HHL will open up another
field of opportunities, which will become
even more important in the future. Thanks
to SMILE.medibiz and GISBERT, a project
supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, HHL is also
becoming the leading founding platform in
Central Germany in the fields of white and
red bio-technology and e-health – areas
which will continue to make great progress
in the years to come and in which the region
of Halle/Leipzig/Dresden has just as much
to offer as Berlin, Munich or Düsseldorf.
The Entrepreneurship and Business Model
Innovation classes are an integral part of the
curriculum of the M.Sc. and MBA programs
at HHL. Thanks to its strong networks with
the best coaches, mentors, business angels, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs
from the dynamic growth fields of digital
business (e-commerce, FinTech, smart energy, smart factory as well as biotechnology and smart mobility), HHL offers its
students and alumni excellent opportunities for their own start-up or collaboration
with others, whether it is start-ups or spinoffs. Stifterverband and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy have therefore already named HHL best
entrepreneurial university of all business
schools and smaller universities with under
5,000 students in Germany in the two StartUp Radars published so far (2013 and 2014).
These circumstances are emphasized by
the fact that the leading scientific organization in Germany, Austria and Switzerland,
Förderkreis für Gründungs- und Innovationsforschung (FGF), will have its 20th annual G-Forum meeting under the motto
business model innovation at HHL from October 5 to 7, 2016.
“I am responsible for the coordination of HHL’s entrepreneurship activities. The
opportunities for founders
at HHL have improved yet
again thanks to the HHL International Investors Day and Start-up Bootcamps which are organized by CEIM and its
partners on a regular basis. By conducting
so-called Corporate Innovation Seminars
with established companies such as E.ON or
Postbank, we are helping to introduce an entrepreneurial mindset within these enterprises and to develop new innovative solutions.”
Dr. Dorian Proksch, Executive Director of the
Center for Entrepreneurial and Innovative
­Management (CEIM)
“The exchange between HHL
students and our employees was a great opportunity
to develop ideas for future
commercial models in the
field of Energy Efficiency
and specifically to gather first-hand insights
from young professionals that would have
been difficult to retrieve elsewhere.”
Leif Cropp, Head of Energy Efficiency Germany at
E.ON Connecting Energies
“In 2015, HHL started the
collaboration with HassoPlatter-Institute (HPI) in the
field of entrepreneurship.
Over the last year students
from HHL supported HPI
start-ups through student consulting projects and we organized a start-up bootcamp
Dear readers,
We are looking forward to two more highcaliber events – the international entrepreneurship conference G-Forum and the
HHL Forum – which will take place in the
second half of the year marking the 20th
anniversary of the resumption of instruction at HHL. Find out about exciting developments in HHL’s programs, life on
campus and much more, all contained in
this new issue of HHL news.
Remain curious – about HHL.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart
Dean of HHL Leipzig Graduate School
of Management
together. The combination of excellent IT
systems engineering students from HPI and
excellent business students from HHL has
big potential. We appreciate the previous
work together and are looking forward to a
fruitful collaboration.”
Prof. Dr. Christoph Meinel, Institute Director and
CEO Hasso-Plattner-Institut
“At SpinLab – The HHL Accelerator, we support innovative start-ups from all
over Germany and grant
them access to HHL’s outstanding network. The HHL
Community strongly benefits as well. Several HHL spin-offs have been supported as
part of the program; HHL alumni successfully joined start-ups as co-founders or invested
as business angels and many HHL students
have been welcomed as interns or student
trainees over the years.”
Eric Weber, CEO of SpinLab – The HHL ­Accelerator
Continuing on page 02–04
02 HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016
HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016 03
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
“I promote HHL as an entrepreneurial hub through
a highly motivated style of
work in first-class infrastructure, strong networks
and individual support.
Excited founders and students interested in
starting their own businesses who feel appreciated and supported by all HHL professors and members of staff – they make
for the spirit of HHL as an entrepreneurial
university.”
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Holder of the
Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank Chair of Innovation
Management and Entrepreneurship
“The Junior Professorship
consults and supports HHL
as well as non HHL startups in the region. As a part
of the open business plan
seminar, held minimum
twice a year, HHL provides an opportunity to
the entrepreneurs to co-develop their business plans working in close collaboration
with a team of HHL students. People from
outside also see the seminar as an opportunity to recruit co-founders with a business
background. ”
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Vivek K. Velamuri, Holder of the
Schumpeter Junior Professorship in Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer
“Funding the start-up is
usually the main focus of
an entrepreneur. Irrespective of their actual field of
business, I support founders from HHL and SpinLab
with their financial planning and financing
partner search. It is very important to have a
partner who understands the business plan
and is therefore able to offer help and advice
to the founders.”
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alexander Lahmann, Holder of
the Junior Professorship of M&A of Small and
Mid-Sized Entities
“At our Chair we apply a
Strategy lens on Business
Development to help identify instruments for opportunity recognition and
opportunity realization in small and large
companies. And we regularly invite entrepreneurs to discuss how they manage and
grow their companies. On a broader scale,
our Chair organizes a Start-Up Career Fair
twice a year which is a great networking opportunity between students and entrepreneurs. For our alumni we also regularly host
HHL entrepreneur meetings and workshops
to allow for an intimate and secure knowhow and experience exchange. Finally, we
also support the various initiatives on campus through panels, sponsoring, workshops
and other means to help grow accelerate@
hhl, the Venture Capital Club and the HHL
International Investors Day.”
From Digital to Hardware to Think
Drinks: Start of the Third Class at
SpinLab – The HHL Accelerator
Prof. Dr. Stephan Stubner, Holder of the
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG Chair of Strategic
Management and Family Business
“HHL connects both realms:
Classes in retail and multichannel management provide students with the skills
for online retail. The HHL
Re-Invent Retail Think Tank
brings the spirit of digital change and managerial research insights to those incumbents
ready to use them. We see digitalization as
opportunity, not as threat – for all retailers.”
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Erik Maier, Holder of the Junior
Professorship of Retail and Multi-Channel
Management
“Moving into SpinLab and
therefore becoming part of
the HHL Community was
one of the most important
and best decisions after we
started our business. From
day one, the EU and other partners assessed
our concept and development as particularly innovative and important and supported
it. But it wasn’t until we moved into SpinLab
that we achieved a crucial level of substantiation when preparing the market entrance.
An HHL graduate has become a valuable asset to our team. We are looking forward to
our further successful collaboration. Thank
you very much for all the support.”
Martin Jähnert, Founder of binee (see right)
In March 2016, the third class of SpinLab –
The HHL Accelerator started. The accelerator has supported start-ups from all over
Germany for more than one year now. And
the success of the program, which is organized in cooperation with HHL, is remarkable. The start-ups were able to win nine
awards and prizes, secure several rounds
of funding and got accepted to many other support programs and grants. Many renowned partners and customers could be
persuaded to work with those start-ups.
By now more than 50 people work at SpinLab, which recently opened an additional
670 square meters of office space in the
typical industrial style next to SpinLab to
house alumni start-ups. Through that, a
unique community of technology founders
was established and grows further.
The following start-ups were selected
for the third class of SpinLab – The HHL
Accelerator:
ANIMUS is a digital service-solution for
the housing industry and residences that
optimizes the communication, service and
information between the residents and the
housing administration. animus.de
binee is tackling one of humanity’s biggest and most complex challenges: waste.
With its user-centered approach and
smart solutions, the first step is to collect
old electronic devices in consumer electronics stores. binee.com
Matchwerk enables companies to digitalize their existing advisory processes.
Matchwerk’s products are striving to improve customer experience on websites,
apps and voice interfaces. matchwerk.de
Neuronade is an innovative powdered
beverage for mental performance.
neuronade.com
qlipay allows Africans in Europe or America to pay for the bills, products and services
of their families in Africa quickly and safely at low cost through partnerships with
international payment service providers.
qlipay.de
resment is an innovative and webbased resource management solution for
small and medium sized companies. The
launched module contains the management of employees with a digital employee
file, time tracking, shift-planning, absence
and holiday management as well as an automated salary management.
resment.com
spinlab.co
SpinLab News
COMPETITIONS & AWARDS
_ futureSAX-Ideenwettbewerb 2016
(June 6, 2016)
2nd place: Rhebo, 3rd place: LAVIU
(Rhebo Industrial Protector monitors
the real-time operation of industrial control systems to avoid failures and reduce
downtime. LAVIU develops and produces
love toys.)
_ Leipziger Gründerpreis (June 9, 2016)
1st place: Vizzlo, 3rd place: SENSAPE
(Vizzlo allows users to prepare high quality charts, infographics and business visualizations for free in seconds. Sensape
delivers digital information and advertising systems to major clients and smaller
enterprises.)
INVESTMENTS
_ Neuer eCAPITAL Fonds IV and Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen invest EUR 2.5
million in Rhebo (June 29, 2016).
_ Successful investment round for JobUFO,
formerly PREPARO, a video application
service (June 2016).
_ Successfully completed crowdfunding
investment by ekoio, a start-up specializing in smart telematics (July 8, 2016).
ACTIVITIES
_ Matthew McDermott became new Innovation & Business Development Manager
at SpinLab – The HHL Accelerator (January 4, 2016).
_ Opening of SpinOffice (March 1, 2016).
SpinLab alumni start-ups have the opportunity to move into the SpinOffice and
use the benefits of SpinLab in a sustainable manner. Together with external companies from the region, there are currently four alumni teams at the SpinOffice
_ Organization of the Startup Safary together with Basislager Coworking Leipzig (May 12/13, 2016). 250 participants at
various events in different places all over
Leipzig.
_ Mutually beneficial exchange between
Vizzlo and GreenQ (Israeli start-up making garbage trucks smarter) as part of the
SpinLab partnership with the HAC – Herzliya Accelerator Center in Israel. Vizzlo
and GreenQ swapped locations for three
months, allowing them to establish contact with local institutions and investors
(May & June 2016).
_ Demo Day for the 3rd SpinLab class with
over 70 investors at SpinLab. The event
on the eve of the HHL International Investors Day took place here as well. (June
14, 2016).
_ New premium partnerships with Doberman Ventures, Dell and TGFS
_ New innovation partnership with Porsche (advanced from premium partner)
_ New technology partnership with Lecturio (July 2016)
“The Demo Day was a great opportunity for us to present our start-up
to a large number of investors and
partners in a well-directed manner.
Thanks to these contacts, we have
entered into an advanced stage of
talks with investors and were able
to convince interested parties of our
product who are currently conducting a field test with it.”
spinlab.co
Marc Stratmann, CEO of resment, a software for
HR administration, shift and vacation planning
PARTNERSHIPS
3rd HHL International Investors Day: “Leipzig
Is Experiencing a New Industrial Revolution”
The third time in a row and increasingly
popular: On June 14 and 15, 2016, HHL hosted
its 3rd HHL International Investors Day. This
unique event brought together founders
with potential investors, established enterprises, and successful start-ups from HHL to
promote an active exchange. Burkhard Jung
(Mayor of the City of Leipzig), Prof. Dr. Martin Hill (Vice-President of SAP), Prof. Dr. Detlev Riesner (co-founder and former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Qiagen),
Prof. Dr. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff (scientist
and founder of AiCuris), Martin Schlichte
(CEO and co-founder of Lecturio) as well as
Dr. Jan Alberti (partner at bmp Beteiligungsmanagement) were among the more than
200 guests from Germany and abroad. The
event focuses on the new opportunities and
challenges of e-health, e-education, Industry 4.0 and bio-economy.
address. She had the following advice for
young entrepreneurs, “Work carefully on a
vision for your company. Be distinct in what
you want and have to do to get there. Believe
strongly in your ability to do it. Get to work.”
E-health demands the
renunciation of the old economy
Start-up Sensape wins 2016 HHL Best Founders Award: co-founder Justus Nagel (center),
Julia Derndinger (Head of Jury, right), and Prof. Dr. Stephan Stubner (Board Member of the
Association of Friends of HHL)
HHL International Investors
Day is the number one investors’
meeting in Eastern Germany
HHL Dean Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart drew
a positive conclusion of the event, commenting, “Our HHL International Investors
Day has evolved into the number one investors’ meeting in Central and Eastern Germany. Just like the Hightech Venture Days,
which take place in Dresden in the fall, it
ranks among the flagship events for start-up
and/or growth funding in Germany’s new
federal states.”
At the networking event on the eve of the International Investors Day, Frank Schmiechen, editor-in-chief of the Gründerszene
magazine, said, “Start-up Germany is more
than just Berlin. Young, dynamic, digital
enterprises are founded in other regions as
well. Every city has to make use of its advantages in the process. ”
Burkhard Jung (SPD), Mayor of the City of
Leipzig, confirmed Schmiechen’s statements. Opening the 3rd International Investors Day, he commented, “Leipzig is
constantly growing and is currently experiencing a new industrial revolution. Events
such as the HHL International Investors Day,
but also institutions such as CEIM (Center
for Entrepreneurial and Innovative Management), SMILE (Self-Management Initiative
Leipzig) and Leipzig’s various universities
create a strong environment for start-ups.”
Great changes from digitalization also arise
for the field of health care. During the respective panel discussion with Dierk Beyer,
co-founder of TransAct Adivsory Services,
and Dr. Gunter Tojandt, CEO of the Surgical
Process Insitute Germany, Prof. Dr. Gerhard
Hindricks, Head of the Center of Rhythmology at Herzzentrum Leipzig, said, “E-health
will disrupt this industry. This gives us the
chance to make things better. Patient involvement and joint decision-making are
based on knowledge and access to data. The
hospital of the future will be fundamentally
different from what we know today. .”
Big data as a challenge
From the right: Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart (Dean of HHL), Prof. Dr. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff
(scientist and founder of AiCuris), Burghard Jung (Mayor of the City of Leipzig),
Julia Derndinger (CEO Die Gründertrainerin), Prof. Dr. Detlev Riesner (co-founder and former
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Qiagen), Antje Strom (Partner KPMG)
The KARL KOLLE Prize for the best technical idea includes EUR 1,500 in prize money
and went to HHL alumnus Konrad Sell with
his company Sonovum. The Leipzig-based
company has developed a new, non-invasive
technology to measure intracranial pressure and to diagnose strokes, craniocerebral
injuries and other neurological conditions
faster and more accurately. The Dresdenbased start-up Green City Solutions received the Best Bio-Based Business Award,
which was given out for the first time and
comes with EUR 500 in prize money.
“The HHL Investors Day shows
that there is a lot of potential to be
found in Central Germany.”
Frank Schmiechen, Editor-in-Chief of Gründerszene
Start-up Sensape wins HHL Best
Founders Award
Investments in the bio-economy
start-ups can pay off
Alongside the other events of the International Investors Day, a multi-tier international start-up competition was also held.
The HHL Best Founders Award, which includes EUR 2,000 in prize money, went to
the Sensape team, a start-up which is developing a new technology for interactive infotainment systems in city centers. Justus
Nagel, co-founder of Sensape, was thrilled
about the award, stating, “Our competitors
all presented convincing ideas so that there
was great suspense until the end.” The HHL
graduate continued, “We benefited from the
HHL International Investors Day not only
because of the award itself but also because
of numerous conversations, particularly
with banks.” The second prize, which was
sponsored by the Association of Friends of
HHL as well and endowed with EUR 500,
was awarded to the team of Flynex, which
offers a market place for drone services.
During the discussion round on the bioeconomy with Dominik Siemon from SunCoal Industries, Dr. Joachim Geisler, CEO of
mining company JTSD – Braunkohlebergbau GmbH, Sören Schuster, Head of Early
Stage Fund at Technologiegründerfonds
Sachsen (TGFS), described the situation
from an investor’s point of view, explaining,
“Start-ups in the field of bio-economy take a
lot of time to develop. Investing in a ten-year
fund certainly comes with risks. But due to
the current low-interest situation, investments in the bio-economy sector can really
pay off though.”
Lack of business models for
Industry 4.0
Stefan Bihler critically assessed the concept of Industry 4.0 during another discussion round of HHL’s investors’ conference.
“There certainly are many practical applications in the field of Industry 4.0 today but
what is missing are the business models
to support them,” says the Director of Siemens Digital Enterprises. Klaus Mochalsky,
founder and CEO of the start-up Rhebo AG,
which ensures the correct and continuous
operation of real-time industrial control
systems, reported, “As recently as last year,
we had the impression that none of the industrial enterprises felt responsible for the
topic of Industry 4.0. We had to keep explaining ourselves over and over again. Today, the situation has changed. When we
say that we work in the field of Industry 4.0,
there is immediate interest.”
Digitalization opens up new
opportunities to respond to
learners’ needs
Martin Schlichte, HHL alumnus, CEO and
co-founder of Lecturio, as well as Cirrelda
Jo Aylor, Division Manager Strategic Management, Cornelsen Schulverlage GmbH,
and Dr. Jan Alberti, Partner at bmp Beteiligungsmanagement AG, discussed the influence of digitalization on education. Cirrelda Jo Aylor said, “New technologies and
the accompanying ongoing digitalization
of education are opening up never before
seen opportunities to respond to learners’
needs and promote their learning success.
The great challenge is to implement these
opportunities. For this purpose, we have to
create the right framework conditions, for
instance, by providing appropriate teacher
training and infrastructure in the schools,
and we must collectively drive the necessary cultural change in education.”
Challenges for medical start-ups
Prof. Dr. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff spoke
about the field of medicine in her keynote
Prof. Dr. Detlev Riesner highlighted the challenges of big data in connection to personalized medicine during his speech. “The focus
is certainly on data protection. Particular
attention must be paid to keeping personalized medicine personal and to making this
volume of data available for scientific investigation and not for control.”
Prof. Dr. Martin Hill also commented on the
challenges of big data, stating, “90 percent
of the data available worldwide was generated over the last two years. Big data is a
problem. We do not need big data; we need
smart data.”
The 3rd HHL International Investors
Day on June 14 and 15, 2016, was organized by the Center for Entrepreneurial
and Innovative Management (CEIM)
and the Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank
Chair of Innovation Management and
Entrepreneurship (Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart) in cooperation with the
Schumpeter Junior Professorship in
Entrepreneurship and Technology
Transfer (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Vivek Velamuri)
as well as the Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche
AG Chair for Strategic Management
and Family Business (Prof. Dr. Stephan Stubner). Numerous well-known
sponsors such as CMS Hasche Sigle,
Deutsche Bank AG, Dell, DOBERMAN
VENTURES GmbH, DZ Bank, ergo, Grazia Equity, Heinz Dürr Invest GmbH,
High-Tech Gründerfonds, KPMG, Leipziger Stiftung für Innovation und
Technologietransfer, Leipziger Verlags- und Druckereigesellschaft mbH
& Co. KG (Madsack), Mittelständische
Beteiligungsgesellschaft Sachsen mbH
(MBG), Porsche Leipzig GmbH, Quarton International AG, SpinLab – The
HHL Accelerator, the City of Leipzig
as well as taskforce management on
demand AG provided additional support for the event. Other sponsors include Berlin Valley, BioEconomy Cluster, The Association of Friends of HHL,
Gründerszene, Junge Gründer, KARLKOLLE-Stiftung, the Leipzig founders’
network SMILE as well as The Hundert.
hhl.de/investorsday
04 HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016
HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016 05
CAMPUS
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Sonovum Wins at HHL’s International
Entrepreneurship Conference
cloud computing, big data and intelligent
cars.”
HHL student and conference head Benjamin Kühl drew a positive conclusion after
the event, “Our concept, to discuss entrepreneurship ideas and specialized topics and
to make contact with companies and potential investors in a casual setting, worked out
fine.”
“The 2016 Accelerate@HHL is the
hoodie conference among the suit
conferences.”
Winner of the elevator pitch contest at HHL’s
2016 Accelerate@HHL Entrepreneurship
Conference: HHL alumnus Konrad Sell
HHL alumnus Konrad Sell, 32, won the elevator pitch at HHL’s 2016 Accelerate@HHL
Entrepreneurship Conference on April 23,
2016 with his business concept “Sonovum”,
and secured the prize money of EUR 1,000
by finishing ahead of ten competitors. The
audience prize went to Max Venhofen with
the business idea “Cleverciti”, a sensor technology for on-street parking spaces and
open-air parking lots.
Sonovum works on the development and
testing of a new technology to diagnose
strokes, traumatic brain injuries and other
neurological indications faster and more
accurately. The technology promises quicker initiation of the relevant therapeutic
measures.
The interactive vote during the Elevator
Pitch competition was carried out by the
audience and a high-caliber judging panel, consisting of investors and experts such
as Fabian Westerheide (Asgard), Carl-Luis Rieger (CP Ventures) and Robin Brohl
(EOG & Spacelab). The competition was
generously supported by the HHL Alumni
Association.
Juror Joe Wang, CEO of the Chinese entrepreneurship platform CY Zone, was excited
about the applicants for the Elevator Pitch
and said, “At the Accelerate@HHL Conference I experienced a serious exploration of
topics that concern all of us: industry 4.0,
In addition to lively discussions by different panels and the 6th Leipzig Entrepreneurship Lecture held by Prof. Dr. Katharina Hölzle, who teaches Entrepreneurship at the
University of Potsdam, the conference participants could get in contact with companies such as Bertelsmann, zeb, ProGlove,
Spacelab, KPMG, Rheingau Founders and
Carat during a Career Fair and a so-called
speed dating session.
Speakers at the Entrepreneurship Conference included the keynote speakers Alexander Ruhland (IBM), Conrad Riedesel
(Deutsche Telekom) and Thomas EichstädtEngelen (OpenHAB/neusta Next) as well as
other renowned representatives from the
economy and research such as Dr. Markus
Weinberger (Director of Bosch IoT Labs of
the University St. Gallen), Michael Busch
(Managing Director at Carat Deutschland),
Björn Peters (Head of Segment M2M/IoT of
exceet Secure Solutions AG), as well as Stefan Kimmel (Venture Capital, Private Equity, M&A and Joint Ventures at KPMG Law).
The start-up scene was represented by
such notables as Thomas Kirchner (CEO of
Workaround GmbH, ProGlove), Steffen von
Bünau (Head of Growth EMEA Kontakt.io),
Klaus Mochalski (CEO of Rhebo AG) and
many more.
Supporters of this year’s conference include
gold sponsors zeb and Bertelsmann as well
as silver and bronze sponsors Carat, KPMG,
Spacelab, Rheingau Founders, the Association of Friends of HHL (GdF), Porsche as
well as the HHL Alumni Association.
hhl.de/accelerateconference
GISBERT Picks up the Pace!
Active: HHL’s project fostering new ventures in the field of bio-economy
Starting in February 2016 with a matchmaking event for cluster members, researchers
and potential founders in Halle, the team
behind GISBERT organized a substantial
number of events. Highlights include “Business Model Development for the Bio-Economy” in cooperation with Conoscope from
Leipzig, “Start Your Own Business in the
Bio-Economy” in cooperation with Neu
e.V. Leipzig or “Bio-Economy Meets Circular Economy”, organized by Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum (DBFZ). In addition, the GISBERT team attended renowned
conferences and meetings, such as the Biotechnologietage in Leipzig, the Bio-Based
Start Up day in Cologne and the 5th International BioEconomy Conference in Halle, in
order to scout future business ideas.
HHL MBA students of M16 also took an active part in GISBERT through a Specialized
Innovation Management course in cooperation with Suncoal, where they developed
ideas and business models for bio-based
carbon. The students concluded that, “The
course ‘Innovation Management’ with the
Suncoal Project proved to be innovative in
the real sense of the word; great ideas always come with inspiring people, interaction and creative thought.”
GISBERT also took the stage at the HHL International Investors Day by presenting the
Best Bio-Based Business Award for the bioeconomy start-ups. Mr. Mosler, CEO of BCM
BioEconomy Cluster Management GmbH,
says “I see the greatest potential for young
start-ups in the fields which we also represent with our leading-edge cluster: woodbased bio-economy with innovative solutions regarding services and bio-based
finished products. This is where bio-based
production techniques are paired with high
design standards. On a European basis, Central Germany represents a well-positioned
region.”
Plans for upcoming events are already in
preparation and will include further matchmaking events as well as an active participation in the Designers Open in October. Please
find our latest news and event announcements at bioeconomy.de/innovationen.
Two First Prizes in the Start-up
Competition of HHL and HTWK Leipzig
Management knowledge meets technical expertise
On Friday, June 10, 2016, two winners were
crowned at the end of the first ever Startup Bootcamp organized by HHL and Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK
Leipzig). They beat out two other teams in
the final round of the Elevator Pitch competition and now share first place, with the
prize money of EUR 1,000 being split between them as well.
The team called “Voronoi* Chair” – consisting of Mariia Neschetna, 26, left, HTWK
Leipzig graduate and current enrollee in
HHL’s M.Sc. Program, and Felix SchmidtKleespies, 24, right, currently completing a
Master’s program in architecture at HTWK
Leipzig – won the award for its customized
chair. It combines the idea of upcycling with
individual newly-manufactured, one of a
SAVE THE DATE
October 6–7, 2016
20th Annual Interdisciplinary
Conference on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and SMEs
This year, the 20th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Entrepreneurship,
Innovation and SMEs (G-Forum) will be
held in Leipzig. The G-Forum is the largest and oldest conference on these topics
in the German-speaking world. The regional partner of the 2016 conference is
HHL. The conference program includes
many well-respected keynote speakers such as Iris Gleicke, Federal Government Commissioner for the New Federal
States, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Tourism; Prof. Dr. Friederike
Welter, President of IfM Bonn; as well as
Prof. Dr. Frank Piller, Chaired Professor of
Management at the Technology & Innovation Management Group (TIM) at RWTH
Aachen University.
fgf-ev.de
kind components. Modern digital (design)
processes using special algorithms are applied for this purpose.
The “Hotris” team (“We tetris your booking”)
was also recognized for its software solution
for automated and efficient hotel bookings.
The customized selection of a room upon
booking represents a problem which has not
been solved yet in a satisfactory and, first
and foremost, automated manner. The team
saw cost-saving potential while ensuring
better capacity utilization in hotels. Volker
Dahm, 46, Alex Canariov, 38, two HHL alumni, and Paul Klemm, 26, a M.Sc. student at
HHL, are particularly proud of having identified this problem in the first place.
Prof. Dr. Markus Krabbes (Vice President for
Research and Innovation at HTWK Leipzig),
Dr. Dorian Proksch (Executive Director of
the Center for Entrepreneurial and Innovative Management (CEIM) at HHL) as well as
Eric Weber (CEO of SpinLab – The HHL Accelerator) served as judges for the Elevator
Pitch competition.
Dr. Dorian Proksch (HHL) was very excited
about the start-up program, commenting,
“Valuable business ideas can emerge from
the cooperation of engineers and managers.
We would like to thank the KARL-KOLLEStiftung, the foundation which sponsored
the prize money for the competition. Due to
the great success of the HTWK/HHL Startup Bootcamp, we are already planning a
new round for spring 2017.”
Successful Innovation Project With
Deutsche Postbank AG
In the first half of 2016, the Stiftungsfonds
Deutsche Bank Chair of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship and the
Center for Entrepreneurial and Innovative
Management (CEIM) organized an innovation project together with Deutsche Postbank AG and the MiM students of MSc14.
In a kick-off event, the students visited
Deutsche Posbank AG in Bonn and were
greeted by the CEO Frank Strauß himself.
After that, the students received six current innovation challenges of Deutsche
Postbank AG and worked on them in six
teams together with one or two representatives from the bank. In between, the chair
and CEIM organized an innovation workshop to find further creative solutions.
The final results were presented in front
of a jury from Deutsche Postbank AG. Says
Dr. Jan Wiedei, Department Head Digital
For the second time, HHL students are organizing an event based on the internationally known and popular event format TEDx.
Following the motto “Beyond the Ordinary”,
speakers will talk about their field of expertise and share the newest and trail-blazing
ideas out there. For all of you who just cannot wait to be part of this event: it will again
take place at WERK 2 – Kulturfabrik Leipzig. And for everyone else: this is an open
invitation to join us for this unique experience! This year, speakers such as Dr. Andy
Ouderkirk from 3M, Andreas Schneider
SAVE THE DATE
December 6–7, 2016
HHL Forum 2016 – The New
Leipzig Leadership Model
HHL wants to help to make better use of
future opportunities while rebuilding the
trust in economics which was lost during
the financial crisis. Therefore, the school
has pursued a path of intensive dialog between science, the economy and interested members of the public for several
years now, aiming to challenge leadership theory and practice in light of the
latest development and to lay the corner
stones of a new Leipzig model for sustainable entrepreneurial leadership. The
New Leipzig Leadership Model will be
presented during the HHL Forum on December 6–7. hhl.de/hhl-forum
from IBM, neuroscientist Dr. Henning Beck,
and Dr. Marc Schumacher from LIGANOVA
will inspire us. Let’s go beyond the ordinary!
tedxhhl.de
Sales, “It was the second time HHL and
Postbank worked together, to deal with
complex strategic and operative issues.
Thanks to the high level of commitment
and close contacts between students and
Postbank. The projects produced excellent
results, which contain great potential to
provide high added value.”
Burkhard Jung, Chairman of the Foundation
and Mayor of Leipzig, highlighted the expertise and the commitment of the project team.
“The conscientious activities for the start-up
scene in Leipzig were especially recognized
by the board,” he says. hhl.de/ceim
Happy faces at the 2016 German Foundation
Congress in Leipzig, which concluded on
May 13, 2016: A total of 16 international students from HHL were awarded scholarships
by former Saxon Prime Minister Prof. Dr.
Georg Milbradt (CDU). Currently he serves
as Chairman of HHL’s Kramer Foundation,
which promotes expansion and development at Germany’s first business school. He
commented, “Foundations such as Kramer
Foundation do not replace public funding
but allow for civic commitment.”
In addition to the Kramer Foundation scholarships, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Winfried Pinninghoff, President of the Board of Trustees of
the KARL-KOLLE-Stiftung, awarded KARL
KOLLE scholarships to outstanding students
from Eastern Europe. Prof. Winfried Pinninghoff said, “Leipzig has had for centuries
a close connection with markets especially in
On July 6, 2016 during the CASiM Conference and right on his 85th birthday, HHL
conferred the title of Honorary Senator to
one of the doyens of German business administration, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Horst
Albach. HHL thus honors Horst Albach’s
special accomplishments with regard to
the development of business administration over the last 50 years into an academic
discipline with his high-quality research
with a strong practical relation as well.
HHL Dean Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart
also emphasized the honoree’s outstand-
Starting in August 2016, part-time M.Sc.
Alumnus Sönke Niefünd (PMSc2), Head
of Portfolio Management at the Hamburgbased Schröder Bank, will manage one of
Handelsblatt’s virtual portfolios with a daily
market comment. His focus: investing money on a sustainable basis. t1p.de/zuk9
Former Mayor of Frankfurt/M.
Dr. Petra Roth and HHL Dean
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart congratulate
Prof. Dr. Horst Albach (right).
ing commitment to HHL’s Center for Advanced Studies in Management (CASiM),
which was founded at the school by Horst
Albach together with Professor Dr. Dr. h.c.
mult. Heribert Meffert, Prof. Dr. Prof. h.c.
Dr. h.c. Ralf Reichwald and Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart four years ago, commenting,
“His groundbreaking ideas and strong creative drive for the interdisciplinary research
center, which examines questions of business administration in the 21st century, deserve special recognition and honors.”
Horst Albach’s academic path led from
the University of Bonn in the 1980s via
WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, where Albach was one of the principal founders, to Freie Universität Berlin and
eventually to Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. His exemplary scientific work with over
600 publications from almost all fields of
business administration was honored with,
among other things, ten national and international honorary doctorates as well as the
acceptance into the Order Pour le Mérite for
Sciences and Arts. In 2001, he was awarded
the Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order
of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Appointed Honorary Professor for Negotiation
Bratislava Wins 20th Edition of Ivy League
19 teams, an exciting panel discussion and
a highly motivated organizing team made
this year’s European Ivy League, which took
place between May 20 and 22, 2016, a unique
experience. The opening address given by
Ulrich Hesse represented a special highlight. The sports journalist and author used
the example of FC Bayern München to show
how soccer, business, social importance and
responsibility for a premier league team are
intertwined. During the subsequent panel
Professor Albach Named New Honorary
Senator of HHL
HHL Alumnus Offering Advice
on Portfolios in Handelsblatt
discussion, the participants discussed the
development of soccer clubs from non-profit organizations to commercial enterprises.
Looking back at the event, the main organizers and HHL MBA students, Dewi Darlina
Kreysa and Thilo Wallenstein, commented,
“The European Ivy League with its winning
team from Bratislava saw its 20th edition this
year and once again attracted participants
from all over Europe to enjoy a weekend of
the world’s greatest pastime in Leipzig. We
are already looking forward to next year
when business will meet soccer once again.”
The XX European Ivy League was sponsored
by the HHL Alumni Association e.V., Stern
Stewart & Co. GmbH, AlixPartners GmbH,
MLP, Greenwater Capital GmbH, Sternburg
Brauerei GmbH and Dr. Oetker Schwartauer
Werke GmbH & Co. KG.
Former Saxon Prime Minister Awards
Scholarships to HHL Students
Renewed Funding for Entrepreneurship Center CEIM
The Leipzig Foundation for Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer is funding the
Center for Entrepreneurial and Innovative
Management (CEIM) for another year. After
one year, the mid-term report by CEIM received a positive evaluation.
3M and IBM at TEDx on October 14, 2016
Eastern Europe. By promoting young people
from these countries with excellent academic
performance we would like to see these contacts intensified by their studies in Leipzig.”
Abduamir Sultanov, a 23-year-old student
from Uzbekistan, who worked in pharmaceutical logistics prior to his Master in Management program at HHL, said, “I was very
glad to receive the KARL KOLLE Scholarship.
Thanks to this financial support, I can fully
focus on completing my studies at HHL.”
Dr. Remigiusz Smolinski was recently appointed Honorary Professor
of Negotiation. By taking
this step, HHL honors the
great accomplishments
of this Polish scientist in the research and
teaching in this particular and very important field of business administration
and management education. Dr. Smolinski
is not only the co-founder of the International Negotiation Research and Teaching
Association, an organization for scientists
from the field of negotiation, but also of
the annual international event “The Ne-
gotiation Challenge”. Dr. Smolinski received
his Master’s degree in International Business from Poznan University of Economics in Poland and completed the Doctoral
Program at HHL. In his research he has focused on the theory and practice of negotiating, particularly in international settings, as
well as on the theory and applications of decision-making routines in management science. Currently, he works as Vice President
for Business Development and Innovation
Management at comdirect, and is a Research
Associate at the Department of Business Administration, School of Business and Social
Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark.
New Chairmen of the Friends of HHL
After six years, Dirk Graber resigned from
his position as 1st Chairman of the Association of Friends of HHL. As founder of
the online optician Mister Spex, he, together with the other members of the
board, significantly shaped the new design of the Association of Friends of HHL
as a hub for entrepreneurs. His position
as 1st Chairman will be now taken over by
HHL alumnus Dr. Burkhart Eymer, who was
the former 2nd Chairman. New to the role of
the Chairman is Steffen Zoller, also an HHL
alumnus and serial entrepreneur, who was
elected as member of the board last year
and is now taking over the position of the
2nd Chairman. Dirk Graber will continue his
support for HHL and remains on the board
as well. hhl.de/gdf
ALUMNI RELATIONS
“We Seek to Foster Education and Development of the Next Generation of Managers”
While awarding four excellent students a
National Scholarship, HHL Dean Prof. Dr.
Andreas Pinkwart welcomed the awardees
and sponsors during the 3rd HHL International Investors Day conference. In that
context the sponsors – the HHL Alumni
Association, represented by its President
Lars Wulfken (P6); the Friends of HHL, represented by Prof. Dr. Stephan Stubner as
Member of the Board; and the WOGETRA,
represented by Chairman of the Board Tobias Luft (P4) – were honored for their commitment. HHL is pleased that its alumni
show such strong engagement when sponsoring scholarships for the excellent aca-
demic achievements and extracurricular
activities of students. Alumnus Tobias Luft
said, “With our support in the National
Scholarship Program we seek to foster the
education and development of the next generation of managers.
06 HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016
HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016 07
CAMPUS
PROGRAMS
Further Progress in Documenting
the History of HHL
Prof. Dr. Hans Göschel
(picture), former Chancelor of HHL, has been
extensively examining
the history of Germany’s
first business school,
founded in Leipzig in
1898, since he retired in 2003. His book Die
Handelshochschule in Leipzig, which was
published in April 2008 on the occasion of
the 110th anniversary of the school’s foundation, was followed in 2013 by a study of
Hungarian students in Leipzig, which contains the names of more than 500 people
who studied at HHL between April 1898
and the spring of 1945. The amateur historian Göschel has been very committed
to further exploration of the archive of the
‘old’ Handelshochschule (Commercial College), which contains almost 200,000 pages of files, documents and prints. These include, for instance, all enrollment books,
one of them with Eugen Schmalenbach’s
name, who was among the first students of
SAVE THE DATE
November 3–4, 2016
VII. Energy Conference
“Digital Solutions for Industrial Energy Efficiency”
Network with students and companies
from all over Germany and Europe during the conference focused on energy
and consulting. Attractive cash prizes
await the top three innovative solutions to an interesting case study from
Roland Berger. All costs for board and
lodging in Leipzig will be covered by
the organizers of the conference, the
HHL Energy Club. Previous sponsors
include: Siemens AG, Siemens Management Consulting, Alstom, Bearing
Point, Deutsche Bahn AG, E.ON, Mibrag, Mitgas, enviaM, CTG Consulting,
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.
hhl.de/energyclub
the freshly founded university in April 1898.
When the authorities in charge incorporated HHL as a department into the University of Leipzig in February 1946, all files and
documents were transferred to the university archive, where they have remained to
this day. In April 2015, Prof. Dr. Göschel completed his work on a digital retrieval aid for
HHL’s archives. It contains almost 600 pages, indexes the inventory which is organized
by 640 signatures and sub-groups and facilitates research significantly. In addition
to his work on the retrieval aid, he is successively adding to a student register, which
is also available online and currently holds
more than 7,800 names of the approximately 20,000 students attending between 1898
and 1945. In 2008 Prof. Dr. Göschel started
research for a paper entitled Wurzeln des
Marketings (Roots of Marketing), which is
now available as a manuscript. It is designed
to answer the question of how this field was
researched and taught at commercial colleges in Germany, and Leipzig in particular,
between 1910 and 1933. The title Curriculum im Wandel – Handelshochschule Leipzig
1898 bis 1945 (Changing Curriculum – Handelshochschule Leipzig from 1898 to 1945)
represents unchartered waters. The author
describes how the university’s curriculum
developed throughout certain periods with
regard to quality and quantity. The paper
contains the topics of all lectures from April
1898 to April 1945, the names of the 518 professors, lecturers and other teaching staff of
Handelshochschule and the University of
Leipzig who contributed to these lectures.
No decision on the publication of either of
these papers has been made. This allows
sponsors who want to help preserve the history of the first German business school to
present themselves as friends and benefactors of HHL. In addition to all projects mentioned above, Prof. Dr. Göschel is constantly
working on the historical timeline of HHL,
which is to be presented in the fall of 2017
on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the
foundation of the “new” HHL.
Contact: [email protected]
Voice of Hope
Students and staff members commit themselves to helping migrants
Students from 37 nations will enroll in an
academic program at Germany’s first business school for the 2016 fall term. To enable
them to start a career on the German job
market in addition to promoting integration, HHL is offering German classes in the
next weeks, prior to the programs starting.
HHL students will have the opportunity to
complete these German classes of various
levels on top of their management training
starting in September.
German teacher Andreas Hellfayer says,
“HHL allows students without pre-existing
knowledge to learn the essentials of vocab-
“Last fall, when a reception facility for
500 refugees opened in the Ernst-GrubeHalle, basically right outside our door, it
quickly became clear: we want to help,”
Maximilian Schreiter remembers. The Research Associate at the Chair of Financial
Management at HHL founded the “Voice
of Hope” initiative together with colleagues and students.
The international students helped out
as interpreters for Arabic and Persian,
opened a collection point for donations in
kind, provided rooms for language classes and supported volunteer workers who
provided sports programs and child care.
Soon, however, the HHL students and
staff members wanted to do more and
started to develop medium and longterm projects which reflect HHL’s core
competencies.
Since this March, application training
programs are held for migrants with a
positive decision on their asylum request
once a month.
“We have a lot of experience in advising
our international students in reference
to the bureaucracy of the German labor
market. We are now passing this on to migrants from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea or
Georgia,” says Anke Plänitz from HHL’s
Affairs department.
The workshops include individual coaching for the creation of a résumé and the
cover letter, as well as a free photo shoot
for the application with the two photographers Dominik Wolf and Thomas Victor.
Afterwards, the students and HHL staff
members continue to support the participants with the application.
There is currently another “Voices of
Hope” project. In the context of “Refugees
on Rails”, a program that started in Berlin
in fall 2015, refugees learn coding, i. e. programming of software and web applications. HHL and the Sage GmbH would like
to bring the project to Leipzig now and are
looking for additional partners that can
support the project.
CHAIR OF ECONOMICS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
HHL Students Developed Analysis Tools for
Public Utilities Together with Arvato Systems
How to Cooperate When There’s No
Time to Talk
Public utilities are currently addressing the
energy revolution as well as the rapid digital transformation of the energy sector. In
order to help these companies take advantage of these opportunities, three Management master’s students from HHL spent
April to July 2016 compiling a comprehensive analysis of the status quo in public utilities digitalization. This field project, which
the students undertook together with the
IT specialist Arvato Systems, involved researching current models for measuring the
digitalization of energy service providers.
In-depth discussions with industry experts
from this sector allowed the students to design what they dubbed a ‘digitalization maturity model.’ It provides 360-degree analysis that helps public utilities identify areas
for potential improvement.
The students undertook the field project with Arvato Systems alongside their
Exchange of information among team
members may or may not be possible, depending on economic and physical constraints. An example of the latter arises in
high-frequency trading, where messaging
across widely dispersed members of a team
would be too slow to be useful. The research
of Prof. Pierfrancesco La Mura, Ph.D. (HHL)
and Prof. Adam Brandenburger, Ph.D. (NYU
Stern School of Business) studies scenarios
where direct communication is indeed unavailable, but team members can use their
shared global environment to achieve highly effective coordination. A recent article
from Nature explains that, on financial markets, the physical limits of communication
have been already reached. While the NASDAQ server processes a new trade every 0.5
milliseconds, the time needed for communication from, say, New York to Shanghai,
even at the speed of light, exceeds 40 mil-
From left to right: Daniel Macula (Business
Consultant, Arvato Systems), Kristina Koch,
Christian Hoffmann, Nicholas Minkner (all
HHL students), Thomas Nautsch (Managing
Director, Arvato Systems), Wiebke Stranz
(Research Associate, HHL), and Daniel Elsner (Senior Manager Business Development,
Arvato Systems)
studies. A presentation was held midway
through the project to discuss initial results,
and the concluding presentation was held
on July 8, 2016.
liseconds. Given that such physical limits
cannot be overcome, Prof. La Mura and his
co-author investigated what other opportunities are available to high-frequency traders and other distributed teams in order to
improve cooperation even when communication is not possible. The researcher says:
“Our solution was to show how cooperation
can be improved even when communication
is too slow to be useful. This is not obtained
by trying to out-speed other traders; rather, successful cooperation can arise from
balancing market activity at separate locations”. The research led to a publication in
the prestigious Philosophical Transactions
of The Royal Society A. Prof. La Mura explains that this line of research also led to a
new patent application together with NYU,
and to an ongoing business project involving partners from the US financial intermediation sector.
“New Leipzig Talents”: Launch of the
HHL Competency Coaching
ulary, grammar etc. and to internalize these
skills so that they can increase their proficiency later while completing the program.”
German as a precondition for a
career in Germany
Oleg Fedoseev from Russia started his German classes prior to his MBA program. “If
you want to be successful in the German job
market you need to speak German. Besides
the cost, the big advantage is that all language classes take place on the campus of
HHL and never overlap with other classes.”
Farewell Weekend of HHL’s Part-Time MBA Class
RESEARCH, TEACHING AND TRANSFER
STIFTUNGSFONDS DEUTSCHE BANK CHAIR OF INNOVATION
MANAGEMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
HHL Offers German Classes Before
Programs Start
What can I do? How do I create new things?
How do I shape relationships? How sensitive
am I to my social environment? People deal
with these questions throughout their entire career, particularly on the path towards
a leadership position. The “New Leipzig Talents” program offers HHL students an opportunity to reflect upon these questions while
developing their own points of view and lines
of action starting in the fall term. A specially
designed competency model represents the
framework of the program. The candidates
will be coached and accompanied by well-re-
spected personalities from the economy and
society; amongst others, Timm Richter, CPO
Xing AG, and Dr. Arend Oetker, one of Germany’s most successful entrepreneurs.
The Competency Coaching builds on expanding individual competence to act in order to meet the challenges as a leader and
entrepreneur in a successful manner. In doing so, the program adds to HHL’s existing
Career Coaching in a special way. First-term
students from the full-time and part-time
M.Sc. and MBA programs may apply. The
15 chosen participants will determine their
own individual competency profile, which
represents the foundation of the coaching
process, in the opening session on November 9, 2016. When the program is kicked
off on November 17, the students will meet
their personal coaches. The coaching will
take place over the course of half a year in
the form of regular individual talks.
Information and application by October 12,
2016, at newleipzigtalents.com
ALUMNI RELATIONS
On June 17, 2016, two and a half years of
studying came to an end for HHL’s part-time
MBA class P10. During the last “official”
weekend, the class carried out some extracurricular activities during the day and outside of the classroom. Petra Spanka, HHL’s
Senior Manager Student Recruitment Parttime MBA, and some P10 students planned
a curriculum which was filled with theoretical aspects as well as a boat trip. Thanks to
P10 student Sven Prager, the class was able
to look into the productive world of the Por-
sche plant in Leipzig and got a presentation
by the company’s CFO Dr. Joachim Lamla.
Join our Next Part-Time
MBA Class and Apply Now!
Early Bird Deadline: October 30, 2016
Application Deadline: January 15, 2017
hhl.de/part-time-mba
Insights Onsite: HHL Students Visit
PUMA and St. ERHARD
In addition to valuable insights which students gain during regular company presentations on campus, the team of Alumni
Relations and Career Service organizes
company visits every year. This year, we
were guests at PUMA and St. ERHARD.
The participating students benefit from
the visits in different ways, on the one
hand they can gather real life experience
in a company and on the other hand, the
informal atmosphere enables network opportunities and experience exchanges.
Learning From Alumni
House of Talents: a Breeding Ground
for Talent
The Doctoral Program of HHL allows
for a career in science as well as the
economy
Marcus Saber is a cosmopolitan: in his personal and professional life, he travels across
Europe; for his studies, he comes to Leipzig.
How does that work? Marcus Saber is a parttime doctoral candidate at the House of Talents, the Doctoral Program of HHL. He has
worked at Schwarz Group since 2008 and is
currently serving as Head of the Digital Department at Lidl E-Commerce International.
Says the 26-year-old, who works on his dissertation mainly in the evening and on the
weekends: “I am interested in new concepts
and developments and, first and foremost, I
love comparing notes with other students.”
The right mix of theory and practice
The House of Talents of HHL offers him the
perfect environment to do so. A few weeks
ago Marcus Saber completed HHL’s Summer School in Leipzig. This is good input for
Marcus Saber, who comments, “The classes provide just the right mix of theoretical
models and practical application.” When he
returned to his desk he was able to apply the
new knowledge straight away.
Out of approximately 200 graduates from
HHL’s Doctoral Program from the last
20 years, 30 went on to pursue a career in
science as post-doctoral candidates, academic lecturers and university professors;
the remaining 170 launched a career in the
free economy, with some of them even starting their own businesses.
Those applying to HHL should come with a
high degree of inquisitiveness as well as a
topic with which they can and want to deal
with for the next three years. While many
applicants have a Master’s degree in economics, the program is also open to people
from other fields.
When Stefan Anderer’s doctoral supervisor came to HHL, he applied for one of the
coveted Friede Springer Scholarships. For
scholarship holders, HHL waives the tuition
fees of EUR 15,000. The scholarship covers
the cost of living as well as participation in
scientific conferences.
Connecting research and instruction
A third path to obtaining a doctoral degree is
a Research Associate position. Additionally,
doctoral candidates will be given the opportunity to obtain a post-doctoral degree from
HHL after completing the program.
hhl.de/hot
During the Alumni Talks, students have
the opportunity to meet alumni working
in exciting sectors or challenging positions and discuss questions of possible
concern, pros and cons as well as tips and
advice when seeking the perfect job after graduation. Last spring term, we discussed the following topics with alumni
on campus:
In March, Carl-Constantin Ehret (MSc8),
Executive Assistant at Henkel, and
Dominik Schütz (MSc10), Assistant to
the CEO at SparkassenVersicherung, discussed the pros and cons of being the Executive Assistant to a Management Board
with the students.
In April, we talked about the opportunities to start a career within the automo-
tive sector and thereby welcomed Daniela Peter (MSc4) from Daimler and Paul
Mühlbach (MSc7) from Volkswagen
Consulting.
The Alumni Talk series was rounded
off by two talks in May when HHL welcomed alumni from P&G and Danone in
order to discuss job opportunities within FMCG. And as one of the most recent
topics, Erik Pfannmöller (K23), Friedrich
von Bernewitz (K22) and Sascha Meissner (M12) shared their experiences when
beginning a career in the start-up scene
either as founder right from scratch or
as part of an established start-up company or as consultant who starts running
one’s own business after some years in
consulting.
Alumni Chapter Meeting in Leipzig
When meeting up on a regular basis, alumni
and their companies host Alumni Chapter
meetings in order to present some insights
into their businesses and discuss challenges. In this context, the alumni Sven Petersen (P1) and Jan Hartlieb (P3) extended an
invitation to the Alumni Chapter Leipzig
on July 5, 2016. After graduating from HHL,
a financial crisis created a business model
which Sven and Jan then pursued when expanding the company Sachsen Asset Management. After a lively discussion and a
short overview of HHL’s development provided by the Executive Management, the
evening continued with discussions and
networking opportunities.
08 HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016
HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016 09
PROGRAMS
CAREER SERVICE
GEMBA Offers Insights Into China
The Global Executive MBA Program (GEMBA) of German HHL and Spanish Escuela de Alta Dirección y Administración
(EADA) consists of six compulsory modules of which three must be completed in
Germany and three in Spain. Another two
of three electives have to be completed at
renowned business schools in Brazil, India
or China. Regarding China, the coastal regions have been the drivers of growth and
modernization – hence the choice to hold
the module in the country’s third largest city, Guangzhou, is merely a logical
consequence.
The 10-million-inhabitant metropolis on
China’s southern coast is the central trading hub of the region with the province
Guangdong being known as the workbench of the world. As the political leaders
have now announced plans to transform
the country into a high-tech economy,
Guangzhou is a perfect place to watch this
transformation evolve. The company visits
of the GEMBA class during the study week
reveal how, for example, the textile industry struggles to maintain its competitive
advantage. Also – as the manufacturing is
moving inland – how can high-tech companies find their place? Lingnan College
is an ideal place to start exploring these
questions. With the campus grounds as a
green lung, Lingnan College offers a quiet
environment to study while being in a vibrant city at the same time. Professors and
staff are very experienced at delivering international exchange and study programs.
Dr. Björn Mathes, current student in the
GEMBA program, says, “Overall, with
many participants being in China the first
time, the study tour presents a great opportunity to get a first glimpse of this vast
country, and how the cultural differences
may impact consumer behavior and business relations.” Additionally, two classes
of the Global Executive MBA program met
in China to network and chat over a cup of
Chinese tea and some Cantonese cuisine.
hhl.de/gemba
Successful: First Global Executive MBA
Reunion
At the end of June, 40 alumni met together with participants of the Global Executive MBA program and members of HHL
and EADA Business School in Collbató
and Barcelona, Spain, in order to celebrate
the very first reunion event. As a joint program, HHL and EADA started four years
ago with the first class of Global Executive
MBA students. This year, the third class has
already graduated, which was one of many
reasons that sparked the idea to reunite all
GEMBA participants and spend a memorable weekend together. The event started
off with a welcome dinner when everyone
had the chance to meet old friends as well
as new faces from all the Global Executive
MBA classes. The next day, the participants
worked in teams in an interactive session
that was dedicated to the claim of the program “Develop the leader in you!” Afterwards, some went hiking, others went to
Barcelona for a visit. In the evening, the
group met in the city center of Barcelona
Great excitement among the students of
the third class of the Global Executive MBA
Program (GEMBA): a ceremony at Leipzig's Club International on Saturday, June
for a nice dinner with tapas and continued
discussions with friends they met before
and those who they had met for the first
time during the reunion.
In order to keep the strong bonds with all
GEMBA alumni and to foster the network
among the participants, the event will definitely be continued. At the same time, HHL
and EADA look forward to welcoming the
new GEMBA class in October when excellent new candidates are awaited.
hhl.de/gemba
18, 2016, marked their graduation. Some
graduates have already become successful entrepreneurs or are planning to start
their own businesses.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Internal Profiling. Workshop for Young
Professionals
a while as professionals.” The
How can I become even more visworkshop placed particular focus
ible in the company and, as a conon questions such as: “How can I
sequence, be promoted? The “Infocus on the right tasks linked to
ternal Profiling – A Five-Point
the actual needs of the compaProgram for Internal Career Develny?” The part-time M.Sc. student
opment” workshop examined this
adds, “I found it very interesting
and other questions on May 20,
Madeleine Rulf,
to look at things from an employ2016 with the part-time MSc-stu“Networks are
er’s perspective for once. This
dents. Martina Beermann, Direcimportant in
insight will surely be an advantor Employer Relations/Career
Service at HHL, talks about the internal profiling.” tage during the next personnel
discussion as strengths can be
workshop’s relevance: “The comhighlighted better.” The significance of netpetition for leading positions has increased.
works was also an important issue. With toAt the same time, I notice a certain perplexiday’s technology and social networks there
ty in young professionals as to how they can
are numerous advantages and disadvanget promoted. Dealing with strategic questages as well as rules of conduct that need
tions is therefore essential and can add to
to be considered, according to Madeleine
the effect of one’s own university degree.”
Rulf. “It was particularly important for me
Participant Madeleine Rulf found the workto find out how to create and maintain a
shop important, “because we were able to
network,” she adds.
address things that have concerned us for
HHL’s Career Service Goes Digital
As in other areas at HHL, digitalization has
found its way into the Career Service, taking big steps. Martina Beermann, the Director Employer Relations/Career Service at
HHL, says, “We will soon launch our onlinebased JobTeaser career platform. It bundles
job offers with videos and numerous bits of
information which students can use to find
jobs. Students have the advantage that they
can upload their CV onto JobTeaser and save
their search criteria on the platform. In cooperating with other well-respected international business schools we will increase
the number of job offers for our HHL students. Thanks to this digital support we
can focus more on the really important aspects of our work in future, and we move
In some of HHL’s Master programs, a term
abroad is compulsory. First and foremost, it
represents a benefit for the students as they
can gain experience and develop as individuals. Many potential employers today particularly value flexibility, the ability to work
Doing Business in Germany:
A Program for NYU Stern
in a team and openness and find these qualities in applicants who studied abroad for a
period of time – all of that in addition to the
language skills which the students pick up
almost automatically during their stay in
the host country.
USA, New York
The City University Of New York, Baruch Colleg
As an exchange student at Baruch, we had more than 100 business courses to choose
from. The quality of the classes was quite good. The professors were nice and approachable. Some of them had a full-time job in the corporation and loved to provide some professional support. The students at Baruch are from all over the world, so it was easy to
integrate. The International Office would organizes a lunch gathering or other activities
every month. There are also dozens of student clubs in the school, ranging from the academic groups through professional ones to hobby clubs. My stay abroad was definitely
a special and unforgettable experience in my life. I could really feel the whole world at
hand and experience something completely different every day. Here I met some interesting and nice people from all over the world. Their stories, their attitudes towards life
and hard work striving for their dreams have impressed me greatly and also broaden
my horizons. I highly admire their devotion and strive for the spiritual freedom, no matter from a cab driver on the street or from a manager working on Wall Street. It is the
people who make the city different. I wish I could stay longer and meet more people!
Yeyu Lu, MBA student at HHL
From May 22 to 27, 2016, HHL organized a
one-week program for 38 full-time as well as
part-time MBA students from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business
in Berlin and Leipzig for the very first time.
The intensive program, planned by Reshma Joshi, Manager International Relations
at HHL, included lectures, corporate visits,
guest speakers, and cultural activities. During the program, the students were able to
explore how business is conducted in Ger-
many and develop a deeper understanding
of the issues, opportunities, and challenges
faced by businesses operating in Germany.
Moreover, the lectures gave insights into
the German start-up scene, into the German
Economic System and its Role in the EU, and
current political issues and trends in Germany. Participant Laura Capucilli says, “Besides the lectures, I most enjoyed the company visits and appreciated the insiders’ view
into Porsche and the start-up Mister Spex.
These were conversations that we might
not have experienced without the support of
HHL and were critical in developing an understanding of the business environment in
Germany.” The program was met with great
approval by the partners. NYU plans to repeat the program in the next year.
New International Advisory Board
In addition to the existing Supervisory
Board and the Scientific Advisory Board
of HHL, the International Advisory Board
has been founded recently. The goal is to
deduce new impulses for the internationalization of HHL from the rich experience
of the board members. The board has elev-
en members, all of whom have high-ranking positions in science management and
come from China, Costa Rica, Hong Kong,
India, France, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain as well as the USA.
An initial meeting at HHL is scheduled for
March 2017.
CAMPUS
China, Peking
Moves profiling, career targets and career
strategies into the center for HHL students:
Martina Beermann, Director Employer
Relations/Career Service at HHL
points such as profiling, career targets and
career strategies into the spotlight for our
students.”
CAMPUS
Minister Wanka Presents Awards to Winners
of the 2016 HHL Leibniz Math Olympics
Great excitement among the pupils Leo Gitin, Arne Wolf and Erik Zeiske from Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium. On June 24,
2016, the Federal Minister of Education,
Johanna Wanka (CDU), and the Mayor of
Leipzig, Burkhard Jung (SPD), presented
the math experts with certificates, EUR
500 in prize money, a gift card for a scientific tour of the three Leibniz institutes in
Leipzig as well as heart-felt congratulations for achieving first place in the 2016
HHL Leibniz Math Olympics. Co-initiator
of the event and HHL faculty member, Prof.
Dr. André Casajus, said, “2016 is a Leibniz
Year. In mathematics, Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz is considered to be one of the fathers of differential and integral calculus.
This is why HHL hosted the 2016 HHL Leibniz Math Olympics. With this math competition, we would like to inspire pupils to
work with mathematical problems. At the
same time, the event should bridge the gap
from Math into a Management education.”
Prof. Dr. Casajus continued, “Mathematicians are analytically gifted, have abstract
thinking, quickly recognize connection
and look for perfection.” This perfection
of finding at least one elegant approach to
solving the four functional equations was
required from the participants of the 2016
HHL Leibniz Math Olympics. Six teams of
students from five upper secondary schools
“My Stay Abroad Is Definitely
an Unforgettable Experience”
from Leipzig, Brandis, Schkeuditz and Torgau competed in the 2016 HHL Leibniz
Math Olympics on Saturday, May 21, 2016.
The 2016 HHL Leibniz Math Olympics was
kindly supported by the Association of
Friends of HHL and the Saxon Education
Agency.
Peking University, HSBC Business School
Looking back, it was the best decision to spend half a year in a culture
as different as it can be from the western one. The cultural experiences
while travelling as well as the student and academic life on PKU’s campus were amazing and brought memories and friendships that will last. I just remember the countless
hours that we spent around Mirror Lake discussing group work, the consequences of
the Brexit or our next travel destinations. Besides the social and cultural part, we also
had a good time academically as we were given the opportunity to get lots of insights
into how to do business in China. PKU’s professors usually mixed both worlds and explained how theories developed in the West might apply differently in China. What I
learned the most from my semester abroad was to open my eyes for different markets,
their opportunities and how cultural differences offer potential.
Leif Lewinski, part-time M.Sc. student at HHL
Uruguay, Montevideo
Universidad ORT
I liked the well-organized university with a good academic level, the motivated professors and students and the teaching style of the professors. All courses were held in Spanish. What was outstanding was the course where we learned not only about the VW affair in detail but also gained a holistic understanding of the world economy. In another
course, I worked closely with the professor to develop a case study based on an actual
business event in my company in Germany. I enjoyed being a part of the university’s
handball team. My biggest take away was not only to improve my Spanish but also to
handle a couple of challenging situations by myself.
Nora Barhoumi, part-time M.Sc. student at HHL
Turkey, Istanbul
Sabancı Üniversitesi
Award ceremony at the 2016 HHL Leibniz
Math Olympics with Federal Minister of
Education, Johanna Wanka
(Christian Democratic Union).
I really enjoyed the cultural diversity of the students due to their different backgrounds
as well as the quality of the lectures and professors. Especially the Master in Finance
program is worth mentioning which belongs to the best programs in Turkey. Here, the
professors included many guest lecturers from theory and practice and taught the latest knowledge in terms of M&A transactions, corporate restructuring as well as international financial markets. In case you wanted to explore the beautiful city of Istanbul
you just needed one hour to the European side and could visit the famous and exciting
sights of Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Hagia Sophia or the Grand Bazaar. If you wished to
escape the hustle of the city you could also spend one weekend on the numerous islands
located just off of the coast line of Istanbul and enjoy the beautiful nature.
Damian Hesse, M.Sc. student at HHL
Outstanding Doctoral Candidate to be Awarded 2016 Beta Gamma Sigma Scholarship
The 2016 BGS scholarship is being awarded
to Josefine Böhm, Research Associate and
doctoral student at the Chair of Accounting
and Auditing. The scholarship amounts to
1.000 EUR, and is funded jointly by the Beta
Gamma Sigma Chapter at HHL and the Association of Friends of HHL (Gesellschaft
der Freunde der HHL – GdF).
In his recommendation, Professor Dr. Henning Zülch, HHL faculty member and the
nominee’s PhD advisor, mentions Josefine
Böhm’s outstanding academic achievements and her exceptional research in the
field of financial restructurings. She co-authored and recently published an article on
the widely unknown phenomena of negative
goodwill in the Journal of Corporate Ownership and Control, and was invited to present
a teaching case on the regional bicycle producer MIFA Mitteldeutsche Fahrradwerke
AG at the annual conference of the American
Accounting Association in New York.
In collaboration with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Josefine Böhm has published a study on the characteristics of financial covenants in German corporate
debt financing, and discussed the findings as an invited guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Mergers& Acquisitions
Alumni Deutschland e.V.
Before her PhD, Josefine Böhm successfully graduated from Bocconi University
among the best of her class and absolved
the internationally renowned CEMS Master’s degree in International Management
at ESADE University. Next to her studies,
she is strongly committed to the local NGO
“Nepalmed e.V” that supports a variety of
Nepalese health projects and runs the Amppipal Hospital. hhl.de/awards
New members inducted into
Beta Gamma Sigma Chapter at HHL
As one of nine AACSB-accredited business
schools in Germany, HHL hosts one of the
now 4 German chapters of Beta Gamma
Sigma (BGS), the world’s first truly global
honor society in business. Membership is
increasingly recognized as a mark of academic excellence, and every year the chapter invites the top 20 per cent of graduates
from HHL’s programs and all
who completed HHL’s doctoral
program to become members.
HHL’s Chapter of Beta Gamma
Sigma now totals 574 life members. In June 2016, the following
26 HHL students and graduates
were inducted:
Lennart Bachmann
Bastian Brauns
Dr. Markus Brendel
Dr. Anja Buerke
Dr. Christian Comberg
Ariane Curbach
Kolja Czudnochowski
Johannes Deubener
Dr. Matthias Höltken
Robin Jung
Stefan Lehmann
Jork Leonhardt
Dr. Marc Marheineke
Viktor Meier
P11
Josefine Niemand
P11
Dr. Silko Pfeil
Doctoral Program
Anna-Katharina Poppe
P11C
Alexander Schaefer
MSc10
Arno Ruben Schleussner
P11
Dr. Tatjana Steusloff
Doctoral Program
Hans-Werner Theobald
P11
Niclas Vieten
MSc13
Dr. Eric Weber
Doctoral Program
Dr. Martin Daniel Wiedmann Doctoral Program
Sarah Wieske
P11
Matthias Wilm
P11C
MSc13
MSc10
Doctoral Program
Doctoral Program
Doctoral Program
MSc10
MSc13
MSc10
Doctoral Program
MSc13
P11
P11
Doctoral Program
10 HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016
HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016 11
RESEARCH, TEACHING AND TRANSFER
CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDIES IN MANAGEMENT (CASIM)
“European Cities in Dynamic Competition”
European cities are facing growing global competition. They compete with other
cities for skilled and creative labor and innovative and successful firms. In order to
assert themselves, the cities need to understand the opportunities and threats that the
21st century is expected to bring, as well as
rethinking and redefining themselves. How
should the transition process be organized
and managed? How should city inhabitants be involved in shaping the cities? What
can be a positive and useful contribution by
business economics?
These and other questions were the focus of
the fourth annual interdisciplinary conference hosted on July 6 and 7 by the Center for
Advanced Studies in Management (CASiM),
the interdisciplinary research center of
HHL. The challenges and opportunities of
urban management and governance of European cities were discussed with outstanding representatives of academia, research
and practice – amongst others Dr. h.c. Petra
Roth (former mayor of Frankfurt/M), Prof.
Dr. Karl-Heinz Paqué (University Magdeburg), Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research),
Slagin Parakatil (Mercer), and Bernadette
Spinnen (Bundesvereinigung City- und
Stadtmarketing Deutschland) to count just
a few.
Great talks and lively discussions demonstrated the importance and relevance of
Talked about “Urban Innovation for
Socio-Technical Transition”: Steffen Braun
from Fraunhofer IAO
leadership skills and scientific inquiry for
urban management. Access to the conference findings should by no means be limited
to the conference participants and a publication is planned to make them available to
a broader public. Beyond the contributions
of the conference speakers, this book project also intends to include papers from other experts from research and practice.
The organizing committee is thankful to the
outstanding speakers and the receptive and
enthusiastic audience for their great contributions and feedback. The strong support
of sponsors and partners – Stiftung Mercator, VNG Verbundnetzgas AG, Fraunhofer
IAO, Stadt Leipzig, and Handelsblatt Hochschulinitiative – is kindly acknowledged.
hhl.de/casim
Insight Into the Business Strategy of
Porsche
As M.Sc. student Benjamin Kühl says,
“It was astonishing to see on such a detailed level how the strategy process of
Porsche is structured. The keynote address and the discussion with Mr. Kück really changed my perspective on strategy
implementation.”
Studies: How Do I Structure Problems
and Communicate Solutions?
During the Problem Solving and Communication course, the HHL students deal
with a real-life case provided by Strategy
Consulting firm Stern Stewart. They need
to analyze the root causes for the presented problem and develop well-founded recommendations for a solution in front of a
practitioner/academic jury. Stern Stewart
consultants coach the students during the
process and provide detailed feedback.
“The class is very close to the practical
world and represents an ideal connection
between the professional knowledge we
obtained completing our Bachelor’s pro-
grams and the new communication skills
we quickly learned at HHL. Everything is
covered – from the problem, which needs
to be clearly mapped out, to the result,”
says one of the M.Sc. students.
Prof. Dr. Stubner concludes, “Many of our
graduates tell us that it was of major significance for their careers.”
In April, the Chair could again welcome
guests of Siemens Management Consulting (SMC) to the course. SMC is a longtime
partner of the Strategy Chair and regularly provides workshops inside the Strategy
elective.
Start-up Career Fair
Fostering the entrepreneurial spirit – in
March 2016, around 100 HHL students and
alumni joined the 16th Start-up Career Fair,
organized by the Porsche AG Chair, the Association of Friends of HHL which developed into the entrepreneurs hub for HHL
alumni, and HHL’s Career Services in cooperation with CEIM.
Current HHL students attended the inspiring presentations held by HHL
alumni from MisterSpex, Leverton, Ap-
plift/Hitfox/FinLeap, NetResearch and
CoffeeCircle.
The Start-up Career Fair is a win-win-situation for students and start-ups, because
students learn about the individual success
stories, challenges and various opportunities a career in a start-up can have and startups in turn get access to a great talent pool.
The casual networking BBQ afterward
sponsored by the start-ups marked the end
of a great event.
ICCR CHAIR OF CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND GOVERNANCE
that were previously researched at CASiM;
e. g. the boundaryless hospital and urban
dynamics. Commenting on his new position
in Leipzig, he says, “HHL’s international orientation, and the global competition connected with that, is a big chance for Leipzig
to allure the best people. I find the opportunity to participate in that very appealing.”
SAVE THE DATE
October 28, 2016
Book Presentation and Panel Discussion:
“Freedom and the Common Good”
Federal Administrative Court, Leipzig
The recently published book
“Freiheit und Gemeinwohl:
Ewige Gegensätze oder zwei
Seiten einer Medaille?” (“Freedom and the Common Good:
Eternal Opposites or Two Sides
of the Same Coin?”) has collected controversial points of
view in the form of essays on
the relationship between freedom and the common good,
penned by well-respected scientists from
various disciplines. What consequences
can we draw from it for our own actions
as individual entrepreneurs, lawyers, scientists or within a partnership. Editors of
the book are Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hans-Jürgen
Papier, scholar of constitutional law and
DR. ING. H.C. F. PORSCHE AG CHAIR OF STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT AND FAMILY BUSINESS
Patrick Kück, Head of Strategy for Porsche
AG was the guest speaker in the spring
2016 Business Strategy course. Mr. Kück
provided deep and valuable insights into
the Porsche AG´s strategic planning process and engaged in a vivid discussion with
all students.
The Baton is Passed on at CASiM
Prof. Dr. Erwin Pesch is the new Academic
Director at the Center for Advanced Studies in Management (CASiM) at HHL. Prof.
Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Horst Albach, Prof. Dr. Dr.
h.c. mult. Heribert Meffert, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart and Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ralf Reichwald, the previous directors, who devised
and successfully created the interdisciplinary research center for business studies of
the 21st century during the past five years,
now form the Scientific Advisory Board together with other experts from science and
industry. Dr. Lukasz Swiatczak continues to
be the Executive Director of CASiM.
Prof. Dr. Pesch, who has been amongst the
busiest researching business economists for
many years und who represents the Chair of
Information Systems at the University of
Siegen, will continue working on the topics
RESEARCH, TEACHING AND TRANSFER
former President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, and Prof. Dr. Timo Meynhardt, who holds the Chair
of Business Psychology and
Leadership at HHL. The project
was completed in cooperation
with the Haniel Foundation.
In addition to the two editors
of the book, Stefan Raue, editor-in-chief of the MDR broadcasting association, will be among those
joining the presentation and discussion,
which will take place on October 28, 2016,
starting at 7.00 pm.
To register, please send an e-mail to
[email protected]
New Indian Professor with Entrepreneurial
Finance Focus at HHL
Prof. Shailendra Kumar Rai, Ph.D., is the
new Holder of the ICCR Chair of Corporate
Responsibility & Governance at Germany’s
HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. He succeeds Prof. Sushil Khanna,
Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan and Prof. Radha
Sharma who had been holding the ICCR
Chair with great engagement for the past
three years. The Chair is kindly supported
by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations
(ICCR), an institution affiliated with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
Says HHL Dean Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, “Our international faculty colleagues
strengthen our networks, expand our cultural horizon and support us in the global
interlinking of research. They constantly
contribute new ideas which we can then utilize, keeping in line with our motto ‘Leading
through innovation’. Learning from others
is basic prerequisite for this purpose; especially from nations which are developing as
dynamically as India.”
As full professor for Finance at the MDI
(Management Development Institute) Gurgaon, New Delhi, Prof. Rai has worked in the
academic fields of Venture Capital, Private
Equity, Crowdfunding, Corporate Finance,
Banks and Financial Institutions. Prof. Rai
says, “The most important part in a company is the financials. Mostly, firms grow or
CHAIR OF ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING
Prof. Dr. Zülch Discusses Earnings
Management on Finance-TV
Invited to the CFO-centered web channel
Finance-TV last May, Prof. Dr. Zülch talked
about whether or not investors are actually able to detect earnings management in
listed companies’ financial reporting documents. Prof. Dr. Zülch explained the development of IFRS reporting in Germany
over the last ten years and emphasized that
during this period investors moved up the
learning curve. To date, shareholders are often capable of correctly detecting and evaluating any earnings management effects
in the stock price. Moreover, Prof. Dr. Zülch
advocated transparent financial communication to investors which can have tremendous positive effects on the stock price. For
example, Alphabet Inc.’s (previously Google
Inc.) stock price jumped after it introduced
segment reporting for the very first time last
year. The introduction helped reduce information asymmetry between the company
and its shareholders which in turn translated into a significant risk reduction in shareholders’ perception. Finally, Prof. Dr. Zülch
summarized that investors have learned to
see through earnings management, yet still
substantially reward transparency and effective financial communication.
Practical Insights: Rocket Internet @ HHL
The Chair of Financial Management’s
courses regularly offer a place to guest lecturers presenting specific financial topics
from real life to the students. Within this
framework, the MSc12 class welcomed Dr.
Marco Sperling in the Seminar in Finance
in June 2016. Dr. Sperling, who pursued
his doctoral degree at HHL under Prof. Dr.
Schwetzler’s supervision and is currently
Global Venture Development Director/Interim Venture Managing Director at Rock-
Together with Roland Berger, a major
European consultancy, HHL’s Chair of Accounting & Auditing
has conducted an extensive survey among
German-speaking
CFOs delivering several interesting insights
on financial communication practice. These
insights had been published in a Think:Act
study in July and have since drawn significant attention from the financial press. For
example, in contrast to general perception,
the average CFO does not actually consider
the communication with banks and investors a necessary evil but instead a useful lever to substantially improve financing options and conditions. By building strong
relationships to equity investors, CFOs also
admit to benefiting from their investors’
feedback. On the other hand, the communication with banks turns out to be less intensive resulting in considerable information
asymmetry by comparison. Thus, the study
recommends acting CFOs to provide banks
with more future-oriented information.
Last, CFOs are advised to personally commit to financial communication: As the CFO
knows the numbers best, he or she has the
most credibility in talking with financiers.
Loopholes in Lease Accounting to be
Closed Eventually
On May 25, 2016 the Gesellschaft für kapitalmarktorientierte Rechnungslegung e. V.
(GKR, “Society for Capital Market-Oriented
Accounting”) provided a platform to discuss
the new rules for lease accounting under
IFRS 16. After a short introduction by Prof.
Dr. Zülch, Andreas Muzzo, Partner at EY,
presented upcoming changes in lease accounting due to the new standards. IFRS 16
will come into effect for annual reporting
periods beginning on or after January 1,
2019. To ensure that lessees and lessors
provide relevant information on respective
transactions, IFRS 16 accordingly establishes extensive principles for the recognition,
measurement, presentation and disclosure
of leases. The participants of this GKR event
were particularly interested in the economic effects of IFRS 16 and whether current
loopholes can be expected to exist in the future as well. Mr. Muzzo explained that companies like DHL and Lufthansa are expected
to be severely impacted by IFRS 16 and that
most relevant loopholes allowing for the offbalance sheet accounting of assets will definitely cease to exist.
Business Model Design Paper Nominated
for Award at 2016 ISPIM
The research paper “Corporate Entrepreneurship and Business Model Design: Interacting Contradictory Design Logics” by
Mirjam Roessler, Dirk Schneckenberg and
Vivek K. Velamuri has been nominated for
the Alex Gofman Award. The award is named
after Alex Gofman, a great supporter of the
International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM), and is given to
the student with the best paper, as chosen by
the Scientific Panel of the association.
The research paper deals with the role of
managerial cognition in developing new
business models. By highlighting how managers enact new business models in the
context of corporate entrepreneurship initiatives, the authors provide new evidence
emphasizing distinct cognitive processes
that guide managerial reasoning in the design of new business models.
This year’s ISPIM was held in Porto, Portugal
from June 19 to 22. ISPIM, founded in 1983, is
the largest and most active association of international networks of researchers, industrialists, consultants and public bodies who
share an interest in innovation management.
et Internet, gave a talk on “Hard Things
about Entrepreneurial Finance”. He provided insight into the globalization of
business models, the difference between
venture capitalists vs. incubators, as well
as trends and common pitfalls in venture
financing. We are happy to welcome Dr.
Sperling back to his alma mater and look
forward to continuing our tradition of
bringing together theory and practice in
future finance seminars at HHL.
Best Paper Award for HHL Finance
Paper Again
Study on Financial Communication:
Walk the walk – but talk the talk too!
SCHUMPETER JUNIOR PROFESSORSHIP IN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
fail because of the financials. Fraud generally means financial fraud. Thus, corporate
governance is closely linked to the financial
domain.”
Since Prof. Rai completed his post-doctoral degree in Entrepreneurship at the Max
Planck Institute of Economics in Jena, Germany, he has developed a keen interest in
entrepreneurial finance. “I love to teach entrepreneurial finance. For me anybody who
wants to start his or her own business requires a basic understanding of finance”,
Prof. Rai says. By quoting the title of the
start-up initiative ‘Start-up India, Stand Up
India’ he, too, points out the strong role of
start-ups in his mother country.
CHAIR OF FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
The paper “Modeling Dynamic Redemption and Default Risk for LBO Evaluation:
A Boundary Crossing Approach” written
by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alexander Lahmann, Maximilian Schreiter and Prof. Dr. Bernhard
Schwetzler won the Best Paper Award
in the Corporate Debt category at the 3rd
Young Finance Scholars’ Conference at
the University of Sussex, UK, on June 9–10,
2016.
The conference provides an opportunity
for Ph.D. students, post-doctoral researchers and other young finance scholars to
share their research, discuss and debate
their methodologies and approaches, network with their peers and receive expert
comments and advice from leading researchers including the editors of some
key journals in the field. All sessions were
chaired by leading academics like Prof.
Carol Alexander (University of Sussex, UK)
or Prof. Douglas Cumming (York University, Canada). The main theme for this year’s
event was “Corporate Debt: Markets and
Instruments”. The paper of Jun.-Prof. Dr.
Alexander Lahmann, Maximilian Schreiter and Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schwetzler, examining the optimal financing structure
in leveraged buyouts and demonstrating
how the choice of investment criteria trigger different financing decisions, won the
“Best Paper Award” in this main category.
The jury based its selection on the paper’s
strong technical contribution to the literature strand of Real Options and its practical
implications for the valuation of Leveraged
Buyouts. The prize was awarded to Maximilian Schreiter by Prof. Steven McGuire
(University of Sussex, UK, see picture).
Strengthening the International
Research Network
From April to July 2016, Benjamin Hammer was a visiting scholar at John Molson
School of Business of Concordia University, Montreal, strengthening the Chair of
Financial Management’s international research network. Mr. Hammer has been invited by Prof. Dr. Denis Schweizer, Associated Professor of Finance, to facilitate two
joint research projects on Private Equity
related topics.
The research sojourn was the result of the
Chair of Financial Management’s active
conference participation in recent years.
Prof. Dr. Schweizer and Mr. Hammer first
met two years ago at the Financial Management Association’s Annual Meeting
2014 in Nashville, TN, USA, and have stayed
in touch since then. However, Mr. Hammer’s research visit was definitely not the
first contact point with Montreal: Prof. Dr.
Schwetzler himself was Visiting Professor
at Concordia University a few years ago.
The two projects will be completed within
the next months and will be available from
SSRN soon. Because of the success of the
cooperation, Prof. Dr. Schwetzler and Mr.
Hammer expect more of such projects to
come.
HEINZ NIXDORF CHAIR OF IT-BASED LOGISTICS
Back to the Fruit
In June 2016, one of the highlights in the Intelligent Logistics and Supply Chain Management seminar was a refreshing excursion to the distribution center of the REWE
Group Fruchtlogistik GmbH in Leipzig Lindenthal. Here, the Chair went with the Master in Management students from the classes MSc12 and MSc14 as well as those from
abroad to learn about the main transshipment hub for fruit and vegetables for the
regional warehouses of Penny and REWE
markets in the new federal states. At wellcooled 11 degrees Celsius or, in some parts,
4 degrees Celsius the group received insight
into the quality assurance, logistics facts as
well as about customer behavior. During the
tour through the frosty halls surrounded by
the sound of busy forklifts, the group recognized once more, what effort is necessary
along the supply chain to have such a huge
variety of high-quality fresh fruit and vegetables in our supermarkets every day.
12 HHL NEWS SUMMER 2016
RESEARCH, TEACHING AND TRANSFER
SVI-ENDOWED CHAIR OF MARKETING,
ESP. E-COMMERCE AND CROSS-MEDIA MANAGEMENT
JUNIOR PROFESSORSHIP IN RETAIL AND MULTI-CHANNEL
MANAGEMENT
“How Can Inner-City Retail Win Back
Online Shoppers?”
Based on a recent survey on the ways in
which retail can respond to the increasing amount of online trade, Leipzig representatives of both stationary and internet
retailers entered into a discussion during
the Long Night of Science in Leipzig at the
Modehaus Fischer fashion boutique on
June 24, 2016. What are the clients’ preferences? How is retail currently responding to them? What other possibilities to
react are there? The discussion was led by
HHL’s two professors for Marketing and
Retail, Prof. Dr. Manfred Kirchgeorg and
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Erik Maier. The panelists included Andreas Böttcher (jeweler Sonntag & Sohn), Ulrich Fischer (fashion boutique Modehaus Fischer), Justus Nagel
(start-up Sensape) and Michael Petersen
(designer furniture retailer labelfarm/
smow). Jun.-Prof. Dr. Erik Maier, who represents the field of Retail and Multi-Channel
Management, said, “There are the first positive signs that stationary retail is developing
the right strategies to react to online trade.
Whether these reaction strategies will suffice on a long-term basis, however, remains
to be seen.”
Ulrich Fischer CEO of Modehaus Fischer
with 16 branches in the region of Central
Germany, added, “It is particularly us retailers who are responsible for developing
concepts which look beyond our own horizons. Of course, Modehaus Fischer also offers its products online. This is a must in today’s fashion industry. At the same time, we
are creating a shopping experience in our
stores with an added qualitative value. Service, personal advice and feeling good come
first. Online retail cannot keep up at this
emotional level.” Jeweler Andreas Böttcher
built his website as an addition to the stationary business. He comments, “We have
had the experience that clients go online for
information but the actual sales are mainly
made in the store.”
The survey “How Can Inner-City Retail
Win Back Online Shoppers?” is available at
hhl.de/studie-handelsreaktionen.
DR. WERNER JACKSTÄDT CHAIR OF ECONOMIC AND
­BUSINESS ETHICS
Field Project “The Responsibility of
Companies for Refugees”
The Dr. Werner Jackstädt Foundation is currently providing the Chair of Economics and
Business Ethics with additional support for
the project “The Responsibility of Companies for Refugees”. In the course of this project, it was possible to complete a student
field project on this subject between March
and June 2016 in cooperation with the Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics as a representative for a number of well-known
companies.
The objective of the project was to establish
expectations for companies in the current
situation with refugees in Germany and to
compare them to measures that are actually
being carried out. The project team, which
consisted of three HHL M.Sc. students, analyzed and systemized current and active
company measures in Germany on the basis
of desk research and interviews with representatives of globally-acting companies.
Another project step identified social and
political expectations for companies in reference to the new arrivals. Prof. Dr. Andreas
Suchanek says,
“Our field project showed that, so far, there
are only a few articulated, heterogeneous,
explicit expectations from NGOs, society
and other stakeholders for companies. One
thing became clear: target-oriented corporate communications are particularly
challenging.”
The project provided substantial additional
value in defining the status quo and, at the
same time, raised interesting questions. It
will be continued by the Chair. The results of
the project will be incorporated into the next
Welcome Event in September, and they will
be the foundation for a workshop which is
planned with corporate representatives at
the Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics in cooperation with the Bertelsmann Foundation.
Field Project: Marketing Strategy for a Software
Applicata GmbH was founded by two former HHL students, Sebastian Rieschel (K11)
and Carsten Petzold (K15), in 2013 and is a
“Marketing Intelligence Software as a Service” provider located in Berlin.
The aim of the joint “Development of a Product and Marketing Strategy” project from
January to June was the development of a
marketing strategy for the software. As a
first step, approximately 20 different target
markets and their potential for Applicata
were analyzed. Afterwards, the Executive
Board and the students identified the most
promising verticals and developed a marketing strategy which addresses the target industry directly on the basis of that decision.
In close cooperation with the customer, a
marketing strategy for the potential market
was identified, Applicata’s USP defined and
a promotional video was produced.
Thanks to the great commitment of the HHL
project team, all of whom are international
MBA students, results that met with the client’s complete satisfaction could be presented in the end. The results will now be
applied in Applicata’s business practice.
LUDWIG FRESENIUS CENTER FOR HEALTH CARE
­MANAGEMENT AND REGULATION
How Efficient Is the German Health Care System?
How do the use and misuse of antibiotics
in intensive animal farming affect the German health care system and which disincentives foster the spread of multi-resistant
bacteria? Research Associate Dennis Haking dealt with these questions in his poster
presentation at the annual conference of the
European Health Management Association
(EHMA), which was held from June 14–16
in Porto, Portugal. He reported on how antibiotic resistance develops in veterinary
medicine and how these resistant bacteria are transmitted to hospitalized patients
and even to the community. Multi-resistant
bacteria can be found in the slurry which is
used to grow culture plants that are either
used as animal feed or food for humans. Furthermore, these bacteria are found along
the entire grocery chain, from stables, over
slaughterhouses, up to the meat products in
stores. If humans and animals become contaminated with multi-resistant bacteria,
antibiotic treatment may fail or expensive
antibiotics with many side effects may have
to be used.
To cope with and to prevent the consequences of an extended use of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine, the German
Federal Ministry of Health initiated the German Antibiotic Resistance Strategy (DART),
which contains measures to identify, prevent and combat resistances in human and
veterinary medicine. The aim of the strategy
is to develop a one-health approach where
human and veterinary medicine jointly prevent the spread of multi-resistant bacteria
by developing an early warning system to
recognize resistances immediately.
CENTER FOR LEADING INNOVATION AND COOPERATION (CLIC)
HHL Researchers Make Presentation on
Innovation and Value Creation
“From Science to Society: Innovation
and Value Creation” was the focus of this
year’s R&D Management Conference held
at Churchill College of Cambridge University from July, 3–6 . The conference, which
attracted over 300 papers from academics
across the world, addressed the challenges
surrounding research and development for
technology intensive enterprises, dealing
with topics such as novel tools, techniques
and processes for managing technology,
R&D and innovation as well as entrepreneurship, investment, open innovation, business
models and intellectual property, to name
just a few. Representing HHL’s current research activities in the fields of innovation
and entrepreneurship, three colleagues presented their papers.
In addition to co-chairing the business
model innovation track, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Vivek
Velamuri, Schumpeter Junior Professor of
Entrepreneurship and Technology Trans-
fer, presented the paper “Not All Are Equal –
Linking Dominant and Emergent Business
Model Logics in Corporate Entrepreneurship Initiatives”.
Research Associate Julia Busch, Chair of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship, contributed her results on “Adopting
a Mass Customization Approach to Implement Personalized Medicine in German
Hospitals” and was awarded the second
prize in the Best Ph.D. Poster competition
for her dissertation poster on “Innovation
Management in Healthcare”.
Leontin Grafmüller from the Center for
Leading Innovation and Cooperation (CLIC)
provided insight into his research on “Mass
Customization and B2B Markets – A Stocktaking of Current Challenges”. Besides the
high quality exchange about R&D management topics, the conference offered
great opportunities for socializing with the
community.
Upcoming Events 2016
August 27 Graduation Ceremony
September 5 Enrolment Ceremony
September 10–11 Alumni Homecoming
September 22 Research Seminar with
Christian Basteck (TU Berlin)
October 5–7 2016 G-Forum
“Business Model Innovation”
October 14 TEDxHHL
November 3–4 HHL Energy Conference
Application Deadlines for
HHL’s Study Programs
Full-time M.Sc. Program:
January 15 ­(intake March),
May 30 (Non-EU ­applications, ­
intake September),
June 20 (intake September)
Full-time MBA Program: June 30
Non-EU applications: May 30
Part-time MBA Program
(Leipzig/Cologne): January 15
Part-time M.Sc. Program
Leipzig/Cologne: June 20
Global Executive MBA: August 31
November 10 8th Doctoral Seminar
on Accounting/RIC Lecture Series No. 2:
“Reporting, Investor Relations, Capital
Markets”
November 11 HHL Master
Information Day
December 6–7 2016 HHL Forum
“Rethinking Leadership – New Leipzig
Leadership Model for the Digital Age”
IMPRINT
Publisher:
HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management
Jahnallee 59 · 04109 Leipzig · Germany
Tel.: +49 341 9851-60 · Fax: +49 341 9851-679
e-mail: [email protected] · Internet: www.hhl.de
Publication Date: August 27, 2016
V.I.S.D.P.: Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart,
Dean of HHL
Editors: Executive Management of HHL:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Dr. Axel Baisch
Editorial Board: Volker Stößel (MBA)
Concept: CLAUS KOCHTM www.clauskoch.com
Photos: HHL, Arvato Systems/Ireen Lampe,
Christian Modla, Tom Werner
Frequency: three times a year.
ISSN 1433 934X · ISSN 1867-8017
Thank you to all contributors and
proof­readers of this edition.