Porsche Supports Chair of Strategic Management and Family Businesses at HHL

[HHL gGmbH - 09.07.2013] Sports car manufacturer Porsche is sponsoring the establishment of a Chair of Strategic Management and Family Businesses at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. An agreement was signed by the university and the automotive manufacturer in Leipzig today. Initially it starts with a term of five years. The chair of the venerable private German university aims to develop research in the key areas of the professorship with a clear practical relevance. Pursuing an approach with a focus on top management, the chair will offer scientifically-founded solutions to the issues faced by entrepreneurs. The chair will therefore complement HHL's profile as an innovation-oriented entrepreneurial business school and contribute significantly to the implementation of the innovate125 HHL Future Concept.

The Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG Chair of Strategic Management and Family Businesses will be held by Prof. Dr. Stephan Stubner. Following his doctoral degree from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and several years of professional experience in strategy consulting, Prof. Dr. Stubner has served as the Academic Director of HHL's successful Program for International Entrepreneurship since 2007. After his post-doctoral degree for which his research focused on the fields of family businesses as well as strategy and governance, HHL has managed to recruit him to assume the leadership of the new Chair of Strategic Management and Family Business although he had several other offers.

"Porsche stands for a successful product strategy and decades of tradition. We continue to stand by our roots as a family business and are aware of our social responsibility at our locations," says Lutz Meschke, CFO of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, on supporting the Leipzig business school. "The new chair is an ideal symbiosis of science and economy and offers young people and managers a facility to link theory with practical experience - because that is what it is about." On the other hand, continued professional development for its own managers is just as important for the company which has major sites in Leipzig, Stuttgart and Weissach, according to Lutz Meschke. "Moreover, in order to reach our ambitious goals within the framework of the Porsche Strategy 2018, we will increase our number of employees worldwide to over 20,000."

"We are very pleased about Porsche AG sponsoring the new chair and Prof. Dr. Stubner taking over this important task," says HHL Dean Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart. "The chair will play a crucial role within the 'Strategic and International Management' academic group at HHL. Being one of five groups in the school's new structure, it encompasses all of the professorships and centers with a direct relation to entrepreneurial decision-making with regard to strategy and leadership in an international context. In collaboration with the corporate governance research and teaching area, the new professorship will confirm our capability in and penetration of a field which will play a strategic part nationally and internationally in the future," Prof. Dr. Pinkwart continues.

The concept of the Porsche Chair of Strategic Management and Family Businesses is based on the pillars of research, teaching and knowledge transfer. The empirical research will examine key topics in the fields of strategy and governance. Great importance will be attached to the particulars of family businesses, but also high-growth companies. A specific theoretical founding and the competence of practical implementation will be taught in the various study programs as well as in HHL's Executive Education. The new chair will also be actively involved in the knowledge transfer at and around HHL. Together with other HHL research centers as well as the Association of Friends of HHL, the chair seeks to establish a network of advisers which will include managers and entrepreneurs taken from the circles of the HHL alumni. The goal is to enable start-ups and family businesses to work exclusively with voluntary advisers and other sparring partners on strategic topics. Similarly, a network of strategists coordinated by the chair will serve as a contact point for a dialogue between entrepreneurs and those responsible for strategy.

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG

With 141,075 cars delivered in 2012, Porsche AG, headquartered in Stuttgart, is the largest and most venerable sports car manufacturer and the most profitable automobile manufacturer in the world. In addition to the core business - the development, production and distribution of exclusive 911, Boxster/Cayman, Cayenne and Panamera sports cars - Porsche's subsidiaries also offer technological developments for the industry, company consulting and financial services as well as lifestyle products.
As of late 2012, the company had 17,500 employees, produces in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and Leipzig and operates a development center in Weissach. The sports car manufacturer had a turnover of EUR 13.9bn in the 2012 business year and achieved an operating result of EUR 2.4bn. http://www.porsche.com

HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management

HHL as a university-level institution ranks amongst the leading international business schools. The goal of the oldest business school in German-speaking Europe is to educate effective, responsible and entrepreneurially-minded leaders. In addition to HHL's international focus the combination of theory and practice plays a key role. HHL stands out for its excellent teaching, its clear research focus, its effective knowledge transfer into practice as well as its outstanding student services. http://www.hhl.de