05.28.08 by Bärbel Schwertfeger

Hohenheim founds business school

There are just 100 meters in between the newly-founded Hohenheim Management School and the Stuttgart Institute of Management and Technology (SIMT), which was once considered one of the most promising business schools in Germany. Founded in 1998 as a public-private partnership by three universities – Stuttgart, Tübingen and Hohenheim, as well as the German industry, - the institute was to be financed primarily through company donations and student tuition fees. But in 2003 SIMT was broke due to blatant mistakes in financing. After unsuccessful rescue attempts, the school was taken over in March 2007 for one euro by the Steinbeis group. Since then, one-third of the buildings are occupied by the IT company GFT. According to a report by the Stuttgart newspaper, there are currently only 25 new MBA students.

At the newly-founded Hohenheim Management School much value is placed on being able to finance itself from the participant fees and private endowments alone and without public and private grants. The business school was founded as an institute of the Foundation for international management development (Stiftung für internationale Managementweiterbildung). The endowment capital comes from friends of the economic sciences faculty of the University of Hohenheim and the European School of Business in Reutlingen.
The activities of the new business school have not burdened the marginal resources of the University of Hohenheim, emphasized Professor Hans-Peter Liebig, President of the University of Hohenheim. Even the rooms for the yearly four-week blocks would be rented to standard conditions.

With the program starting in January 2009, the Executive MBA is directed towards executives who already have five to 12 years work experience and who wish to qualify themselves for more advanced management responsibilities. The program consists of 11 week-blocks. Four will be offered in Paris, four in Hohenheim, one each in the U.S. and Asia and one at another business school in Europe.

HRH, Michael Duke of Wurttemberg is the Chairman of the Advisory Board, which consists of industry representatives. These include BP Group Europe, Celesio AG, Daimler AG, ebmPapst Motoren GmbH, Mann + Hummel GmbH, Mercedes Benz Bank, MLP AG, Putzmeister GmbH and Würth GmbH & Co. KK.

The company representatives’ reactions to the new program are very positive, says Professor Hans Tümmers, who is in charge of the project and will be a guest professor at the University of Hohenheim starting on April 1. Whether the companies will send participants to the program, however, is another matter. A considerable problem is reportedly the obligation of the companies that are involved as sponsor companies at the ESMT in Berlin to send their employees there.

As the Germany-representative of the HEC, Tümmers has been looking for the ideal partner school for a long time. There were also negotiations with the Technische Universität Munich, but there the French were dubbed “too demanding and self-confident.” The new cooperation appears to have little significance for the HEC. Over a month after the letter of intent was signed by both universities still no indication whatsoever of the new Germany activities could be found on the HEC website.


www.hec.edu
www.uni-hohenheim.de