Expert Excellence Program

The expectations on experts responsible for technology development & management are continuously rising. By delivering more innovative products and services in a shorter time, they are supposed to create unique value and higher profits for the customer.

As products incorporate a greater variety of technologies, what is defined as core technology competence today might become irrelevant tomorrow. So, experts need to manage an ever greater and continuously shifting portfolio of technologies. Moreover, the entry of new players in the technology value chain leads to increasing competition on the one hand and growing options for partnerships on the other. Experts need to learn to make better choices in a dynamic eco system. Last but not least, greater accountability for performance and spending requires experts to continuously increase the effectiveness of their organizations and processes.

The program Expert Excellence supports talented experts in enhancing their competencies in innovation and technology management and in developing their strategic thinking and interpersonal skills. Our goal is to help organizations improve their strategic capabilities in the field of technology development and management.

The Expert Excellence is launched as a consortium program with a selected number of companies that send three to five participants. The consortium partners can get involved in the program development so that their needs can be better met. The program will be offered jointly by the HECTOR School and ESMT.

Target Audience

The program is designed for experts who have around five years of work experience and who are high potentials on the expert track, including:

engineers and scientists who work as experts for technology companies or
technical experts, such as IT specialists, who play an important role in non-technology companies such as financial institutions

Key Topics

The program focuses on three main areas:

Technology management

Understanding the opportunities of emerging technologies
Mastering the continuous shift of core technological capabilities
Dealing with a broad portfolio of technologies
Re-designing the technology-development value chain

Technology and business

Expanding perspectives beyond technological issues and building bridges to business and society
The requirements of value-based management and its implications for technology initiatives projects

Self-management and interpersonal skills

Fostering innovation and creativity
Working effectively across borders and in virtual teams
Managing own time and energy and capitalizing on own strengths and values

Take-Home Value

You will be equipped with knowledge, skills and capabilities that will help you to excel as an expert. You will learn about methods to foster innovation and creativity, explore how to manage a growing number of technological options and combinations and how to build up successful collaborations with internal and external partners. You will develop a more strategic view of technology management and be better able to respond increased demand for accountability. Moreover, you will reflect on your own goals, strengths, and values, learn about team dynamics and improve communication skills. Becoming a more reflective practitioner will also help you to increase your influence within the organization.

Meet the Faculty

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Ulrich Lemmer/ KIT
Prof. Lemmer is full professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology since 2002 (Full biography). With more than 50 co-workers and an annual third party turnover of EUR 2 million, he is the director of the largest German academic research institution in the field of light generation and light engineering. A 200 sqm cleanroom facility for thin film technology and three laser laboratories for high resolution optical spectroscopy and optoelectronic characterization enable high-end research on optics and photonics. Uli has more than 150 refereed publications and nine patent applications since 1989.

Dr. Maximilian Fichtner/KIT
Dr. Fichtner is full professor at the Institute of Nanotechnology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and spokesman of the HyTecGroup at the Campus North. The HyTecGroup is the biggest research activity on hydrogen technology in Germany. Futhermore he is member of the advisory council “Hydrogen and Fuel Cells” of the Federal Government, co-ordinator of EU-RTD project “NANOHy” and the EU-ERA-NET project “Hy-CO” in the 7th FP, co-ordinator of the “German-Chinese Sustainable Fuel Partnership” (GCSFP), member of the International Steering Committee of the International Symposium on Metal-Hydrogen Systems, vice-Chairman (2011) and Chairman (2013) of the GORDON Research Conference on Hydrogen-Metal Systems, and awardee of the project prize 2010 of the International Energy Agency (IEA-HIA).

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Schmeck/ KIT
Hartmut Schmeck studied at the Universities of Kiel (Germany) and Waterloo (Canada). He got his academic degrees (Dipl. Inform., Dr.rer.nat., Dr. habil) at Kiel. Since 1991 he is a Full Professor of Applied Informatics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - KIT. He is (co-)author of more than 140 publications on advanced algorithms and architectures, in particular on bio-inspired methods in optimisation, algorithms for reconfigurable architectures, and, more recently, on self-organising, adaptive systems. He has been program and conference chair for numerous international workshops and conferences (a.o. RAW, ARCS, IFIP BICC 2006, 2008, ATC 2009, ICAC 2011), is a key member of the “Organic Computing Initiative” and coordinator of the German priority research program SPP 1183 on “Organic Computing”. At Karlsruhe, he is the Scientific Spokesperson of the KIT-Focus “COMMputation”, addressing the scientific challenges implied by the inherent combination of communication and computation.

Francis Bidault/ ESMT
Francis Bidault is a full professor at ESMT, since September 2005 (Full biography). From September 2005 to December 2009 he was the founding director of ESMT's Full-time MBA Program. Before joining ESMT he was a professor of Strategy and Innovation Management at Theseus Institute and EDHEC Business School and the dean of the Theseus MBA program. His special area of expertise covers industry analysis, the management of alliances and the management of innovation.

Martin Kupp/ ESMT
Martin Kupp is an ESMT faculty member as well as a program director at ESMT Customized Solutions, which is a subsidiary focusing on consulting and executive education, where he directs and teaches open enrollment, executive education and customized programs for many of our founding companies as well as other clients. Furthermore, he is a visiting professor at EGP Business School in Portugal. Martin’s area of expertise is in strategy, business market management and value based management. He has written several articles and book chapters on strategy, core competencies and environmental management. Martin received his doctoral degree in business administration from Universität zu Köln, Germany and has previously taught at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh.