Passing on the Start-up SpiritMaster's program "Business Development / Product Management / Start-up Management" is being further developed by Prof. Dr. Constance Richter and her team

We, 17. November 2021

Providing impetus for national and international companies in terms of business opportunities, employing entrepreneurial thinking and acting with economic know-how, recognizing and classifying market analyzes, breaking old structures and developing new products - from 2016 onwards, Prof. Dr. Harry Bauer gave the graduates of the Master’s program in Business Development/ Product Management/ Start-up Management a way to do this. With Bauer's departure and the start of the 2021/22 winter semester, Prof. Dr. Constance Richter, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Optics & Mechatronics, coordinator of the study program Technical Content Creation and founder of the study program User Experience, is its director. In her opinion, these bachelor and master programs determine each other strategically, and in terms of content, “The products are becoming more and more complex, but they must not be complicated. User Experience students test the product and make it as easy as possible to use. Technical content creators design information about the products in such a way that we understand even complex products and can use them easily and safely. And then you need people who manage these products and come up with new ones that make our lives easier. This is exactly where the master program comes in,” says Richter.

It looks like great potential for further development in one of the most popular master’s courses at Aalen University. “The content of the course should not only be management-oriented, but people-centered. The range of courses should be attractive for both business administration and technical students,” confirms Prof. Dr. Karsten Wendland and Prof. Dr. Markus Weber, who already supported the bachelor's degree programs with their expertise.

Expert support also comes from the Faculty of Business Studies. Prof. Dr. Jörg Büechl, Dean of Studies for the Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration for small and medium-sized Businesses and the Master’s degree in SME Management, had already exchanged ideas regularly with Prof. Bauer and is now supporting the master´s program together with colleagues from his study department Prof. Dr. Rene Niethammer and Prof. Dr. Holger Held vigorously. Among other things, he teaches human resource and organizational management as well as international management, while at the same time he is establishing the China Center Tübingen (CCT) together with Prof. Schmidt-Glintzer at the University of Tübingen. In terms of content, he would like to contribute to the degree program through internationalization, methods & transformation as well as cooperation. As part of the ongoing strategic development of the program he also wants to enable students to choose areas of specialization. Büechl stated, “in the future, too, there will be continuous sparring between the departments and with industry. We will adapt the range of courses and the team capacity that we have at our disposal in such a way that we strive for the most efficient possible comparison of tasks, motivation and skills of the individual actors, while at the same time coordinating with the current and future challenges and areas of industry activity.” Newly appointed professors with modern course content such as user experience management and design strengthen and round off the program in addition. 

The entire team also sees the master’s program as a great opportunity for the start-up region; “products have to be managed and communicated and be close to the user. Because our world is becoming more and more complex and digital, there needs to be a link between product or company and user,” they all agree.