Frank Piller

Professor of Management at Vlerick Business School Executive Education

Biography

Vlerick Business School Executive Education

Frank Piller is a professor of management and a Co-Director of the Institute for Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) at RWTH Aachen University, Germany's leading university of technology. He is also the Academic Director of the Institute for Management Cybernetics (ifu e.V.), an independent research institute associated with RWTH Aachen with a focus on applied research on data-driven decision making and change in organizations.

Before entering his recent position in Aachen, he worked at the MIT Sloan School of Management (2004-2007) and TUM School of Management, TU Muenchen. He held visiting professorships at HKUST, Chalmers University, and IE Business School.

Prof. Piller is known as a leading expert on strategies for customer-centric value creation, like mass customization, personalization, and innovation co-creation. His group at RWTH became one of the globally leading research centers for open and distributed innovation, supported by competitive research grants of about US$1million annually. As indicated by an h-Score of 56, 16,500 citations of his publications (Google Scholar), and more than 300 general press articles about his studies (and listed as the only German professor on LDRLB's "Top50 Profs on Twitter" list), his work has attracted broad attention and reception in academia and the management community.

Prof. Piller’s current research focuses on the need of established corporations to deal with disruptive business model innovation and supporting organizational structures and cultures. Leadership for Industry 4.0 and Managing a Digital Transformation are core topics in this field. He also is currently building a research program on the role of AI&ML in the innovation process: AI&ML-augmented innovation management.

At RWTH Aachen, he is a principle investigator of the Cluster of Excellence "Internet of Production", focusing on decision making in the age of AI/ML and industrial business ecosystems. He is the Chairman of a cross-industry group hosted by VDI (Verein Deutsche Ingenieure) to develop standards for platform-based digital business models ("Fachausschuss Geschäftsmodelle für Industrie 4.0"), a member of the Academic Advisory Board of Germany’s National “Platform Industrie 4.0” by Acatech, and a member of the Advisory Council of Germany's main AI/ML stakeholder platform, "Lernende Systeme" by BMBF & BMWi.

Frank Piller is an acclaimed speaker at management conferences and in executive education programs around the world. He has consulted and delivered executive workshops for most Dax30 and many Fortune500 companies and contributed teaching modules as a guest professor at a number of leading business schools like HKUST, IE Business School, Vlerick, St Gallen, or MIT. At RWTH, he is a recipient of the RWTH Teaching Award. Frank also received an award for teaching innovation within the German Exzellenzinitiative for introducing the first European MOOC with ECTS points, a potentially disruptive innovation to the business model of established universities.

In addition to his academic endeavors, Frank is engaged as an investor or advisor in several companies. In the moment, his largest focus is on Doob Group, a pioneer in 3D printing & human avatars, where he serves as a non-executive board member and active investor.

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