Prof. Frank Widmayer
Honorary Professor
Frank has sat on the side of the table students are heading toward. He was a member of the management board at CAS Software AG with responsibility for finance, human resources and organisation — the three things most strategy courses discuss and few instructors have actually had to answer for. He now coaches founders, advises companies on leadership and organisational development, and has taught at Karlshochschule since 2010.
Resources are people, money and structure at once
Frank teaches the Resources module, which covers financial resources, human resources and organisation together rather than as separate disciplines — and that combination mirrors the job he actually held. His argument is a practical one: a hiring decision is a financial decision, a reorganisation is a people decision, and treating them separately is how companies end up with strategies nobody can execute. He also teaches the fundamentals of strategic management, where the same insistence applies.
Still building things
Alongside teaching, Frank is managing partner of the Gründerspinnerei in Ettlingen, a startup incubator, and sits on the board of the Wissen + Können Foundation. He works independently as a consultant, coach and speaker on personnel management, leadership, strategy and organisational development. His published work reflects the same concerns — that CRM is an organisational question rather than a software purchase, that talent management is not simply recruitment, and that employees should be treated as people rather than resources. He trained as an industrial engineer at the University of Karlsruhe, now KIT.
Facts, figures and the full CV
Role
- Honorary Professor
- Teaching at the university since March 2010; honorary professor since March 2015
Focus on teaching
- Strategic management
- Human resources
- Guidance
- Innovation management
Modules
- Resources: Financial Resources, Human Resources, Organization
- Fundamentals of Strategic Management
Academic training
- Studies in Industrial Engineering, University of Karlsruhe (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT)
Practical experience
- Board member, Wissen + Können Foundation
- Managing partner, Gründerspinnerei, Ettlingen
- Independent consultant, coach and speaker — personnel management, leadership, strategy and organisational development
- Member of the Management Board, CAS Software AG — Finance, Human Resources and Organization
- Head of Sales Support Systems, CAS Software GmbH
Publications
- Widmayer, F. (2011). CRM – mehr als nur Software. In Becker, Gora & Uhrig (eds.), Informationsmanagement: Neue Geschäftsmodelle und Strategien für die Herausforderungen der digitalen Zukunft. Symposion.
- Widmayer, F. (2011). Talent Management – mehr als eine Recruiting-Strategie. In Wollert & Knauth (eds.), Digitale Fachbibliothek Human Resource Management. Symposion.
- Widmayer, F. (2010). Unsere Latte liegt hoch. RATIO, RKW Baden-Württemberg, 7/2010.
- Widmayer, F. & Kleinhans, D. (2009). Mitarbeiter als Menschen. PERSONAL – Zeitschrift für Human Resource Management, 3/2009.
Want to study with Frank?
He teaches the Resources module and the fundamentals of strategic management. Come to an info day, sit in on a session, or write to him directly.