Prof. Dr. Christian Heinrich

Professor for digital transformation
Quadriga Hochschule Berlin

Prof. Christian Heinrich is Professor of Digital Transformation at Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. He holds a degree in Business Administration and received his doctorate from Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg in Business IT with a thesis on integrated planning and decision-making systems in industrial companies. During and after his practical doctorate, he worked for several years on various global projects with management consultancies and industrial companies.

Christian Heinrich gained international teaching experience in the field of Business Process Management during his International MBA at the University of Wuerzburg in 2010. He lectured on Supply Chain Management, E-Commerce and Digital Transformation (University of Würzburg) and Production and Organisation (University of Ulm).

Since 2012, he founds and advises innovative and technology-oriented companies. His focus is on identifying digital business models and sales channels for established and new companies as well as the organisational implementation of the transformation process.

(Co)Founder AND SUPERVISORY BOARD MEMBER

  • scoutbee GmbH
  • stexecute GmbH
  • Vinothek Wohlsein
Prof. Dr. Christian Heinrich

Reasearch

1) Digital business models and agile organisation

Digitisation is progressing and affects every area of work and life. As a consequence, consumer behaviour and business models are changing for companies. The task is to support young innovative companies in their growth through professional structures and, at the same time, to show established large companies a new organisational form of adaptive corporate management. The clever integration of innovative technologies with the use of radar technology helps established companies to convert their business models and identify new service and data-oriented revenue streams. New occupational fields such as the CDO are driving digital leadership forward.

Examples:

 

2) Venture Incubation: Cooperation between corporates & start-ups

If you lack good ideas of your own, you buy a company that has them. This is the basic idea of Venture Incubation. However, such equity investments in start-ups cannot only fuel your innovation activity.

As it becomes increasingly important to launch innovations, and to do so as quickly as possible, Venture Incubation has advanced from a nice-to-have to a must-have for some industries. With a few notable exceptions, Venture Incubation is still in its infancy. This is a pity, because venturing offers many advantages, even for smaller companies.

Irrespective of the structure of the organisation, the main tasks of such units are

  1. the exploration of new business ideas,
  2. the development of business plans for new business areas and
  3. early marketing. The target spectrum is broad. Furthermore, improved exploitation of existing resources or ideas is often in the background. At the same time, some companies describe their corporate venturing activities as windows of new technologies with the intention of more competitive adaptation in rapidly changing industries.

On the one hand, advantages of large companies (resource advantages, especially of a financial nature and economies of scale) should be combined with advantages of smaller units (flexibility, greater identification and motivation of employees). Demand promotion for core products is the intention behind another group. Some companies pursue purely financial goals with corporate venture capital.

 

3) Socio-economic changes through digitisation

In the course of digitisation, fundamental economic and social changes are taking place. Social and economic systems must be adapted accordingly. Fields of action (e.g. tax relief for start-ups, unconditional basic income, digital education, etc.) that need to be transformed are identified. Subsequently, studies will be carried out with practical partners and the results will be translated into real projects by means of predominantly conceptual-deductive and explorative research methods.

Examples:

  • PGUARD – Development of an app for data protection based on artificial intelligence to enable the individual citizen with regard to security
  • Student research project: Digital education – Development of a curriculum for digital education

Teaching

Content

  • Economics and Network Society
  • Digital Supply Chain Management
  • Digital Marketing
  • Digital Leadership and Agile Organization
  • Digital business models and innovation

Courses and Programs

  • Certified Digital Business Transformation Expert
  • M.A. Communication & Leadership
  • MBA Communication & Leadership
  • MBA Public Affairs & Leadership
  • MBA Leadership & Digital Business Transformation

Publication

Monographs and editorships

Gärtner, C./Heinrich, C.: (i.V., 2017) (Hrsg.). Fallstudien zur Digitalen Transformation. SpringerGabler (Berlin).

Heinrich, C. (2015): Situative Entscheidung in Produktionsbetrieben durch integrierte Planung. Gubus (Würzburg).

 

Articles in journals, anthologies and other publications

Gärtner, C./Heinrich, C./Lopper, E. (2017). Chief Digital Officer: Relevanz, Rolle, Roadmap. Quadriga Media Berlin GmbH.

Heinrich, C.: Marketing Disruption: Kannibalisiert sich Marketing selbst? In: Berlin Marketing Journal (2017) Quadriga Media Berlin GmbH.

Heinrich, C. und Stühler, G.: Die Digitale Wertschöpfungskette: Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) im Einkauf und im Supply Network Management. In: Gärtner, C./Heinrich, C. (i.V., 2017) (Hrsg.). Fallstudien zur Digitalen Transformation. SpringerGabler (Berlin).

Heinrich, C./Kose, J.: Innovation und Digitalisierung. In: Gärtner, C./Heinrich, C. (i.V., 2017) (Hrsg.). Fallstudien zur Digitalen Transformation. SpringerGabler (Berlin).

Heinrich, C. (2014): Produktions- und Absatzplanungssystem (PAS). WISU – Das Wirtschaftsstudium, 43/4, 2014.

Industrie 4.0: Entscheidungsfindung durch Business Analytics. (work in progress).