“We work in yesterday’s structures with today’s methods on strategies for tomorrow, primarily with people who created the structures of yesterday and will not live to see the day after tomorrow in the company” Knut Bleicher

Prof. (emer.) Dr. Dres. h.c. Knut Bleicher †

Born on 22.4.1929

Died on 13.1.2017

Studied business administration at the Free University of Berlin. Assistant at the Institute for Industrial Research under Prof. Dr. Dr.hc mult. Erich Kosiol.

1955 Promotion to Dr. rer. pol. 1956/57 as Faculty Associate at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia/USA. Took on tasks in the international business of the pharmaceutical industry. 1964 Habilitation in business administration at the Free University of Berlin, followed by work as a private lecturer.

1966-1984 Professor of business administration at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen: Areas of expertise: corporate management – organization – human resources. In addition, from 1970-1985, editor-in-chief of the “zfo” magazine Leadership + Organization. Visiting professor for international management at various American universities (Indiana University, Carnegie Mellon University). Since 1982, director of the International Business Forum at Indiana University.

Moving to St.Gallen

In 1984, he moved to Switzerland to succeed Prof. Dr. Dres.hc Hans Ulrich, whose system theory ideas had already had a significant influence on Knut’s work in Giessen. Here, Knut also became president of the executive committees of the Institutes for Business Administration (IfB), for Human Resources Management (IFPM) and of the newly founded Institute for Technology Management (ITEM), which he supported in its founding phase, conceptually and in its implementation, with the support of Ferdinand Ruesch and Werner Gächter, even in political committees, despite some resistance from the HSG ( University St. Gallen). During this time, based on Ulrich’s ideas, a design model for integration was developed, the St. Gallen Concept of Integrated Management. Colleagues Hans Siegwart, Robert Staerkle, Emil Brauchlin and Cuno Pümpin were involved, as well as younger colleagues who were preparing to do their habilitation, Gilbert Probst, Peter Gomez and Markus Schwaninger and Günther Pipp, who as Cuno Pümpin’s assistant introduced the St. Gallen Management Model to practitioners and later, as founder of the private St. Gallen Group of Business Schools, brought it closer to thousands of managers. During the 10 years in St. Gallen Knut made a significant contribution to the further development of the St. Gallen system, with a focus on practical usability. He quickly realized that the best way to do this would be to combine newer approaches emerging from American management theory with practical experience, using a new concept that would incorporate Ulrich’s guiding principles and systemic principles. Before the topic became the trend it is today, Knut also dealt with corporate governance and carried out a broad empirical study of corporate governance structures in the USA and Europe (DFG project).

Retirement and continued work

After his retirement in 1994, Knut continued to support the boards of various companies and accompanied numerous change processes in large international companies. Honors in 1995 from one of the “Top Ten Business Schools” in the USA, Indiana University, with the award of a Doctor of Laws hc, in 1997 from the University of GH Siegen with a Doctor of Economics hc. Guest lectures at the University of Stuttgart, the Technical University of Munich, the Universitad Alcala de Henares in Spain, the Management Academy of St. Petersburg and the Academy of Economics at the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

Through lectures, courses and presentations at renowned universities or well-known corporate universities, he continued to spread the ideas of the St. Gallen management concept and intensively cultivated his contacts with practitioners, scientists, doctoral students and students.

Looking back, he counted the highly constructive, friendly and collegial time at the University of St. Gallen as one of the best times in his professional career. This had a lasting effect. Up until the end of his life, he maintained close contact with current and former HSG employees, and his involvement with the St. Gallen Business School was a great benefit for all parties.

St. Gallen Business School

AAt the privately organized St. Gallen Business School (SGBS), Knut was chairman of the advisory board and academic director. He took on these roles on the one hand because of his friendly relationship with Dr. Christian Abegglen. As a former assistant to Günther Pipp, Abegglen was commissioned by the latter to develop the St. Gallen Business School into an important institution for executive education with a focus on St. Gallen thinking. After an initial successful start-up phase, Pipp entrusted him with the management of the school. He succeeded in recruiting Knut as Chairman of the Advisory Board of St. Gallen Business School. This offered Knut new and fruitful opportunities. In this privately oriented and highly constructive, results-oriented environment, he was able to continue to develop the concept he had created with colleagues even after his retirement, make it accessible to a new, young generation of scientists and managers, pass on his knowledge and thus provide a counterbalance to the often prevailing, rather one-dimensional and contradictory developments in management theory.

Accordingly, Knut concentrated on the further development of the St. Gallen management concept to meet the special requirements of the quaternary sector in an emerging knowledge society. The diverse, so to speak universal application possibilities of the concept from the St. Gallen Management Valley should be increasingly recognized internationally.

Numerous seminars, events, advisory board meetings and the annual management congress of the St. Gallen Business School as well as numerous internal company events contributed to this.