[Translate to English:] Warum Unternehmensentwicklung und -beratung?
Das Spezialisierungsmodul soll die analytisch-methodische und die sozial-kommunikative
Umsetzungs- und Handlungskompetenz für die Entwicklung und Beratung von Unternehmen steigern. Hierfür müssen einerseits soziale und kommunikative Fähigkeiten aufgebaut werden, um in Projektteams und gegenüber den vielfältigen Stakeholdern in der Praxis erfolgreich zu arbeiten und zu adressieren. Andererseits sollen Sie in die Lage versetzt werden, typische Geschäftsentwicklungs- und Beratungsmethoden und -programme weitgehend selbständig für die Lösung bzw. Handhabung von Problemen in der Unternehmens- und Beratungspraxis anzuwenden.
Objectives and aspirations
After completing this major, our graduates should have a command of the considered, sustainable methods and instruments used in cutting-edge corporate development and consultancy focusing on the market, competition and practice. In particular, this includes the analytical procedures and methodical expertise required to pursue active management.
We want to increase the expertise of our graduates to implement actions aimed at securing current and future success in the face of competition in terms of price, quality, time and innovation.
We want to enable them to devise, launch and apply concepts, methods and tools for purposefully developing products, functions, businesses and entire companies independently and based on self-motivation.
We link this with an active network for nurturing our students in collaboration with our BDC partners, with the aim of helping promote and professionalise our graduates.
This major runs each summer semester. It can be studied (duration one semester) after completing the foundation course, any time between the fourth and seventh semester. BDC can basically be suitably combined with any other choice of major. We will be happy to offer advice if required.
Module content
Business development and consultancy programmes:
This module focuses on how to vitalise and optimise products, business transactions, functions, entire companies and manage deficits and crises. You will learn how you can quickly gain a substantial overview of a company’s economic situation along with its competitive status. You will be enabled to create business plans, devise corporate strategies and underpin these with practical, directly implementable business development programmes and measures. You will get to know the typical consultancy programmes and check their particular economic viability.
The focus is primarily on acquiring the requisite methodical and implementation skills. Such methods include conjoint measurement, quality function deployment, success resource deployment, multiple portfolio methods, benchmarking regressions and multidimensional network analyses. To strengthen your ability to implement and enact your intentions (including the required social skills), you will apply the learned spectrum of methods in team-oriented training, working in groups on specific case studies relating to “Allgäuer Mobilitäts- und Innovations-GmbH” (AMI-GmbH). You will form, business development and consulting teams charged with saving this company from impending losses and steering it into profitability.
Consultancy management
This module focuses particularly on the relationships between consultants and clients, along with the internal processes involved in classic and in-house business consultancy (acquisition of orders, follow-up consultancy, consultancy roles, how clients select and monitor consultants, making or buying consultancy services, consultancy project management, how to calculate fees, etc.). We will also examine the current consultancy strategies and trends, primarily drawing upon the expertise of visiting lecturers working in business and consultancy.
Seminars on corporate development and consultancy
These seminars discuss and work on classic and contemporary topics in corporate development and consultancy, addressing some of the following range of topics:
- Business development stages and strategies
- Professionalising family businesses
- Business development through value chain strategies
- Globalisation through acquisitions
- Evolution in corporate networks
- Business demographics
- Success factors in founding companies
- Innovation and venture management
- Case studies with SPSS
- Consultants’ career strategies
- “From employee to consultant”
- Temporary managers
- In-house or external consulting
(making or buying consultancy services) - “War for talent”
- Consultants’ and consultancy strategies
- Consultancy and coaching
- Careers in business consultancy
Working on compiling a seminar paper – coupled with presentations and discussions – equips you with the foundation for tackling a thesis in the field of BDC.
Career prospects
We train our graduates for both senior business roles (e.g. as executive/directors’ assistants, in business planning and development, business auditing, corporate strategy, business analysis and business research).
Our graduates are particularly suited to activities in divisional and product management, in-house consulting or in various corporate functional areas or stages of business (e.g. product, service, project and new business development, active business controlling and business vitalisation, business and market research, or innovation and interface management).
They also enjoy extremely good prospects in business consultancy – after all, this segment has been booming for years, with growth rates in double figures. In addition, they have very real prospects of setting themselves up in business independently.
BDC basically makes a good combination with all other majors, as the methods, skills, thought processes, strategies, etc. covered are useful for all business functions. Hence BDC boosts career prospects in all areas of activity and is complemented well by all other majors.
Business Development and Consultancy
The Centre of Competence for Business Development and Consultancy (“KUBE” – www.kube-ev.de) networks members of major companies, SMEs and business consultancies together with a number of former students,
who support the major in BDC and its students in various ways (e.g. practically underpinning and furthering BDC, actively contributing to events, sponsoring). This folder was also created with the assistance of KUBE members.
Members of KUBE benefit, amongst other things, from the special opportunities provided by the network (e.g. contact forum, shared expertise, networking and helping graduates search for jobs, promoting transfer of knowledge, using the network’s services).
Students can apply for membership after completing the BDC major. All members are issued with a KUBE card (sponsored by A. Öner, ORGA-Kartensysteme GmbH, Paderborn).