The traditional manager career is outdated as it lacks interdisciplinarity. However, business studies rarely offer an interdisciplinary approach. That’s why students go for Business Informatics or dual degree programs, whose curricula mainly offer computer science and little business know-how. Not ideal either.
In this week´s WirtschaftsWoche, a well-known German Business magazine, Prof. Gunther Friedl, Dean of the TUM School of Management, explains the importance of business and its role in becoming more interdisciplinary.
Prof. Dr. Gunther Friedl, Dean of the TUM School of Management, Foto: Andreas Heddergott /TUM
The TUM School of Management teaches its students a “technology assessment competence” says Prof. Friedl. Friedl is professor of Business Administration at the Technical University of Munich and Dean of the TUM School of Management, one of the most renowned business administration faculties in Germany. As early as 2001, TUM developed a business degree program of its own, technology- and management-oriented, that promotes and facilitates communication between engineers and managers. “We equip business people with a basic understanding of technology”, Friedl comments.
The program consists of 70 percent business administration and 30 percent technology, for which students can choose a technical specialization such as computer science, electrical and information technology, or mechanical engineering. With this program, the TUM School of Management fulfills a demand that business experts have had for long time: good business administration education with an interdisciplinarity focus.
“We teach, which algorithmic method is suitable for problem-solving or where artificial intelligence is already being used in a meaningful way in business today,” explains Friedl. In a project with BMW, Friedl’s students were asked to assess whether it would be worth for the car company to develop its own operating system for its vehicle fleet, or rather go with other manufacturers.
- Read the full article of WirtschaftsWoche here (in German, available with subscription).
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