Research - HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management

14
Activities
HHL – a reliable partner in the region
From left to right: Detlef Scheunert, Dr. Stephan Stubner and
Christian Vogel
At the two events HHL-Unternehmergespräche
(Entrepreneurs’ Talks at HHL) and Wirtschaft trifft
Wissenschaft (Business meets Academia) HHL
demonstrated once more its strong partnership
with the regional business world.
On November 26, 2008, representatives of local
firms met with professors and students from
HHL for the fifth time for the HHL-Unternehmergespräche
on the premises of PC-Ware Information
Technologies AG. The topic was “Succession
challenges in family business”. Dr.
Stephan Stubner, Assistant Professor at the
Chair of Strategic Management and Academic
On the path to success
Dr. Stefan Niemeier
Partner
McKinsey & Company, Inc.
HHL news: How did your studies at
HHL prepare you for your career?
Dr. Niemeier: In many ways, my time
at HHL helped me to make a smooth
transition from studying to working.
HHL teaches you the right balance
Director of the Program “Inter-
national Entrepreneurship” at HHL,
gave a presentation on problems of
succession planning for privately
held companies. He showed first
results of a study, which he is
conducting with the financial support
of the IHK zu Leipzig
(Leipzig Chamber of Industry and
Commerce), and outlined the importance
of long-term succession
planning. The second presentation
by Christian Vogel (CEO of the
Leipzig-based CFH Beteiligungsgesellschaft
mbH) dealt with the topic of
the valuation of a company.
In the final presentation Detlef Scheunert,
CEO of an international contract manufacturer,
gave insights into the situation of an entrepreneur
involved in a management buy-in.
The event, generously hosted by PC-Ware
Information Tech-nologies AG, was jointly organized
by PC-Ware, the IHK, BVMW Leipzig
(German Association for Small and Medium-sized
Businesses) as well as HHL, and
supported by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche
Wissenschaft and the BMBF (Federal
between academic and pragmatic thinking,
develops your team work and leadership
skills, and gives you countless opportunities
to improve your presentation skills.
HHL news: What does your current job
involve?
Dr. Niemeier: As a partner at McKinsey &
Company, my job offers a lot of variety. On
projects, I need to make sure that my teams
develop the right solutions for our clients. I
counsel individual clients on issues important
to them and I keep in touch with prospec-
tive clients. In addition, I help to develop
McKinsey and its people further by being
responsible for a number of internal activities.
HHL news: What does the HHL alumni network
mean to you?
Dr. Niemeier: Some of my best friends are
HHL NEWS – WINTER 2008/2009
Ministry of Education and Research) in the
framework of the HHL Open School Initiative.
On December 4, 2008, the academic and
business worlds met for the sixth time under
the heading Wirtschaft trifft Wissenschaft at
the invitation of the IHK. HHL is one of five institutions
of higher education in the region that
signed the new cooperation agreement with
the IHK at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell
Therapy and Immunology (IZI) in Leipzig. The
IHK set aside 120,000 EUR to support the
knowledge and technology transfer between
research facilities, universities and small and
medium-sized companies in the region.
In addition to its long-standing chair endowment,
the IHK has financed a number of HHL
projects over the years. In the course of the
plenary event, Dr. Marcus Kölling, Executive Director
of the Center for Leading Innovation &
Cooperation (CLIC), and Dr. Anne-Kathrin Neyer,
Senior Research Fellow (CLIC), gave insights
into one of the other IHK-funded projects when
they talked about “Open innovation – alternative
innovation strategies for SMEs”.
Dennis Häckl, Volker Stößel
people I met at HHL. Our 10 th anniversary
class reunion of K2 took place recently
and it was amazing to see how close people
are even after such a long time and
how many memories we share. It felt like
our graduation had just happened the day
before.
HHL news: What is the smartest advice
you ever got?
Dr. Niemeier: It’s very difficult to pick “the
smartest” advice. What was definitely a
good piece of advice was that whenever
you’re worried by something, you should
think about what was worrying you three
months ago. Most of the time you won’t
remember, and that’s exactly what will
happen with your current problem.