Prof. Dr. Ulrich Anders

Research

Organization

Management contains two significant and central tasks: organization and decision taking. In this context, my research deals with the questions of the compatibility of interests and organizational efficiency. In the scientific world there does not seem to exist a commonly agreed measure for organizational efficiency. In order to describe organizational efficiency I developed the language of Company Physics.

The question of organizational efficiency is extremely important, because an inefficient organization always and inevitably leads to a waste of the company’s resources. A company facing the increasingly competitive pressure and the demand for sustainability can simply not accept such a situation. To describe the causes of organizational inefficiency I developed the 7 Organizational Mudas in analogy to the Mudas known from the area of operations.

Furthermore, in my research I pose the question what could be an appropriate organizational form for the entrepreneurial challenges in the 21st century with its (digital) business models. As one potential organizational form I have conceptionalized the organizational model of a Harmonic Organisation^©, which can be considered as a certain form of an agile organization. One of my core ideas in this context rotates around the topic of ↬ Ownership.

Business Models and Business Planning

In addition, I work systematically and scientifically on (traditional, new, digital, and innovative) business models. As an advancement or supplement to existing business model concepts, I have developed the Business Model Components Map. One of the central elements in any business model is the product. Therefore, I devised a process for the systematic conceptionalizing of products. This process should also generate and facilitate possibilities for (digital) marketing. I have termed this process Concept Thinking — and it can potentially supplement Design Thinking.

Project Control and Path Dependency

In the area of Project Management exist a vast number of textbooks, training and educational courses, seminars, or certifications. Nevertheless, project failures, reduced scopes, time and budget overruns can still be frequently observed. Even prominent projects that get a lot of public scrutiny often seem to fail.

One reason why projects fail may certainly be the ever increasing complexity of projects. In contrast, I have the hypothesis that the used project control instruments often are simply not good enough. In fact, I assume that project control may too a large degree be a forgotten or ill-defined discipline. Text books do not even seem to cover the area of project control or only in a very subordinate way.

A lot of people get educated to be project managers, but only a few become project controllers even though the skill set may be as demanding. As a result a project may lack the rigorous project control, the necessary issue transparency and an overview of the performed quality assurance.

As a result of this realisation, I have developed the 10 Commandments of Project Control.

In addition, I have made the following observation: a reason why projects are continued even though the project is in trouble seems to be Path Dependency. Path dependency is a well recognized phenomena in the area of social sciences, but has not been properly applied to project management yet.

Knowledge Transfer and Teaching Methods

Finally, more recently I have become scientifically interested in the subject of teaching methods. Teaching in university and business schools is going to change over time. But modern teaching methods may not only help to make the learning experience of students better, it may also help to solve some societal challenges in the context of schooling and language acquisition. The underlying assumption of my research is that the transfer of knowledge can be split into two parts: (1) the knowledge preparation and (2) the knowledge transfer. The more the knowledge itself is available in form of digital content, the more lies the future of teaching in ensuring the knowledge transfer and the knowledge application. The lecturer or teacher will most likely not prepare the presentation of the knowledge any longer but will become a coach and tutor who helps with the application of the knowledge and who provides individual support.

Recent Publications

Work In Progress

At the moment I am working on the following articles:

»Advancing Business Model Concepts — The Busines Model Components Map«.
»Innovative Business Models — What is new and how business planning can tell?«
»How Leadership Shows in Strained Projects — a Reality Test«.

Working & Discussion Papers

Publications

Anders, U. (2004): »An Integrated Framework for the Governance of Companies«, Operational Risk, März 2004, 24–28.
Anders, U. / Trimborn-Ley, S. (2004): »Woran Projekte scheitern«, Zeitschrift für das gesamte Kreditwesen, Ausgabe Technik 1/2004, 19–23.
Anders, U. / van den Brink, G-J. (2004): »Implementing a Basel II Scenario-based AMA for Operational Risk«. In Ong M.K. (Ed.): The Basel Handbook«, Risk Books, 343–368.
Anders, U. / van den Brink G-J. (2003): »Betrachtung operativer Risiken in Transaktionsbanken. 2 In Lamberti H. J., Marliere A, Pöhler A. (Hrsg.): Management von Transaktionsbanken«, Springer, 241–262.
Anders, U. / Platz, J. (2003): »Creating an OpRisk Loss Collection Framework«, Operational Risk, September 2003, 24–27.
Anders, U. / Sandstedt, M. (2003): »Self-Assessments zur Bewertung operativer Risiken«, Deutsches Risk, Juli 2003, 27–31.
Anders, U. (2003): »Implementing a Scenario-based AMA, Operational Risk«, June 2003, 24–27.
Anders, U. / Sandstedt, M. (2003): »Self-Assessments for Scorecards«, Risk, February 2003, 39–42.
Anders, U. / Sandstedt, M. (2003): »An Operational Risk Scorecard Approach«, Risk, January 2003, 48–51.
Anders, U. (2003): »The Path to Operational Risk Economic Capital. In Carol Alexander (Ed.): »Mastering Operational Risk«, Prentice Hall, 215–226.
Anders, U. (2001): »Qualitative Anforderungen an das Management operativer Risiken«, Die Bank, 6/2001, 442–446.
Anders, U. / Overbeck, L. (2000): »Spezifisches Risiko für Unternehmensanleihen«, Handbuch für das Risikomanagement, Uhlenbruch, 245–268.
Anders, U. (2000): »RaRoC — ein Begriff, viel Verwirrung«, Die Bank, 5/2000, 314–317.
Anders, U. / Korn, O. (1999): »Model Selection in Neural Networks«, Neural Networks, 12, 309–323.
Anders, U. / Korn O. / Schmitt, C. (1998): »Improving the Pricing of Options — A Neural Network Approach«, Journal of Forecasting, 17, 369–388.
Anders, U. / Szczesny A. (1998): »Prognose von Insolvenzwahrscheinlichkeiten mit Hilfe logistischer neuronaler Netzwerke«, Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaftslehre und Forschung, 10, 892–915.
König H. / Körting T. / Anders, U. (1998): »Zur Bildung von Wechselkurserwartungen — Eine Untersuchung auf der Grundlage des ZEW–Finanzmarkttests«. In Galler, H. P. / Wagner, G.: »Empirische Forschung und wirtschaftspolitische Beratung«, Campus, 150–166.
Anders, U. (1997): »Statistische neuronale Netze«. Vahlen Verlag.
Anders, U. / Hann, T.-H. / Nakhaeizadeh, G. (1997): »Testing for Nonlinearity with Neural Networks — A Study for Daily $/DEM Exchange Rates«. In Weigend, A. S. / Abu-Mostafa, Y. S. / Refenes, A.-P. N (Eds.): »Decision Technologies for Financial Engineering«, Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Neural Networks in the Capital Markets (NNCM-96).
Anders, U. (1997): »Die statistische Verteilung der Gewichte von neuronalen Netzen in finiten Datenmengen«. In Nakhaeizadeh, G. (Hrsg.): »Data Mining — Theoretische Aspekte und Anwendungen«. Physica, 279–288.
Anders, U. (1997): »Neural Network Pruning and Statistical Hypotheses Tests«, Proceedings of the ICONIP ’97.
Anders, U. / Korn O. (1997): »Modelling Neural Networks with Sequential Hypotheses Tests«, Proceedings of the ICONIP ’97.
Anders, U. / Korn O. (1997): »Sequential Hypotheses Tests for Neural Networks«, Proceedings of the ESANN ’97 conference.
Anders, U. (1996): »Statistische Grundlagen neuronaler Netzwerke«. In: Schröder, M. (ed.): »Quantitative Verfahren im Finanzbereich: Methoden und Anwendungen«. ZEW Wirtschaftsanalysen Bd. 5, Nomos Verlag.
Anders, U. (1996): »Was neuronale Netze wirklich leisten«. Die Bank, 03/1996, 162–165.
Anders, U. (1996): »Statistical Model Building for Neural Networks«. In Albrecht P. (Hrsg.): »Aktuarielle Ansätze für Finanz-Risiken«. Verlag Versicherungswirtschaft Karlsruhe, 963–980.
Anders, U. (1995): »Neuronale Netzwerke in der Ökonometrie«. ZEW Discussion Paper 95–26.