Jan Michael Ross

Summary

Jan-Michael Ross is Assistant Professor in the Management Department at Imperial College Business School in London. His research is at the intersection of strategy and entrepreneurship, analyzing the role of uncertainty for competitive interactions, imitation strategies, entry and resource-allocation decisions. He currently focuses on how market uncertainty (e.g., due to unpredictability of input cost, demand, or competitive rivalry) shapes strategic decisions and performance outcomes. The research insights provide solutions for business leaders on how to successfully manage the link between a firm’s current actions and its uncertain futures, how to capitalize on new opportunities and outperform rivals. Jan''s work has been published in Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Research and Management, Research Evaluation, and in Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. He has teaching experience in General Management, Global Business Management, Innovation Management and Strategic Product Management, and is currently preparing a new MBA elective on Managing Uncertainty.

Providing insights for today''s problems:
Managing uncertainty

Today’s business leaders are facing dynamic environments that are often unpredictable, complex, and highly competitive. For example, the Brexit decision, political shifts, shifts in customer preferences, and technological change currently put huge pressures on decision makers to (re-)evaluate their choices. Decision makers seek to capture opportunities arising in dynamic environments with an entrepreneurial mindset but simultaneously face the problem that new initiatives can also be quite risky endeavors for the company. When facing different type of endogenous and exogenous uncertainties (e.g., demand uncertainty, competitive uncertainty, input cost uncertainty, technological uncertainty, political uncertainty), managers will have to find answers to challenging questions, such as

• Given the dynamic environments, when to adopt a new technology and replace existing ones? Should we introduce new products now or later?
• How to make effective use of learning investments when facing uncertainty?
• Should we follow others into new markets? (whom to compete with?)
• How to catch up with rivals in frequently changing environments? (vice versa: how to avoid getting dethroned by laggards?)
• What does uncertainty mean for the individual in an organization? Should I start a side business and hedge my bets? (what are the trade-offs of doing so?)

In one of Jan''s current research projects he explores what managers can learning from sailing races ( see video below ). Facing uncertain opportunities and the threat of competitive action (or response) are typical problems in a sailing but also in business. Imperial''s "IB Knowledge" has published a short article on the parallels between Strategy & Leadership in sailing and in business.

Play video

_ Brief vita: _
Jan studied Business Administration at the University of Kiel and University of Hohenheim (both in Germany). After graduating, he worked at Daimler AG in Van Development, Truck Product Creation, Procurement & Logistics, as well as Quality Management at the Mercedes Car Group. Jan received his PhD in 2011 from the University of Augsburg (Germany) and then joined as research associate the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Department of Imperial College Business School in London. He is Assistant Professor in the Business School''s Management Department since September 2013.