Prof. Dr. Birgit Felden

Scientific background

1986 - 1993 Business Administration at the University of Cologne, Germany, elective: marketing, financing, business psychology

1991 Study abroad in Barcelona, Spain Escuela Superior de Administración y Direccion de Empresas (ESADE), Erasmus scholarship of the Community of European Management Schools (CEMS)

1988 - 1993 Law, University of Cologne, elective: Family Law

1993 - 1997 Doctoral studies at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn
Doctoral thesis: Business valuation of SMEs

since 2006 Professor of SME Management and Corporate Succession at the HWR Berlin, Course Director of the Bachelor Program Entrepreneurship and Business Succession

since 2008 Initiator and Director of the EMF Institute of the HWR Berlin (www.emf-institut.org), research projects e.g. www.nachfolge-in-deutschland.de

since 2017 certified mediator (HU Berlin)

Professional background

1992 - 1995 Business management consulting in consulting company

since 1995 Founder, board of directors and supervisory board (until 2017) of TMS Unternehmensberatung GmbH (today shareholder); successful development and management of a nationwide family-owned company, transformation of the GmbH into an AG, implementation of an employee participation model (www.tms.de)

1998 - 2000 Chairman of the Supervisory Board of MEGALAB AG, Cologne

since 2005 Member and Chairmen of the Supervisory Board of TEAMPLAN Holding AG, Erftstadt

2013-2020 Member of the Advisory Board of B&K Vermögen GmbH

since 2016 Member of the Advisory Board of Carl Knauber Holding GmbH & Co KG

2019 Member of the Advisory Board of A. Bäumer GmbH & Co KG

since 2020 Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Renzel Group

Family business and Medium-sized companies/SMEs

Entrepreneurship and Management SME

Company succession and Company sale

Company valuation

Financing and Investment

Company valuation

Business Succession

IMMOFAM-completed:
Empirical survey on real estate management in SMEs
Financing: Company
Duration: 6 months
Staff: 1 research assistent, 1 student
Cooperation: FAMOS Immobilien GmbH
Publications:
Presentation of results at the G-Forum 2009 (double blind-reviewed).
Publication e.g. in BiB

EVA- completed:
Scientific evaluation of a management training of the Landesbank Berlin for commercial customer advisors.
Financing: Company
Duration 1 year
Staff: 1 research assistent, 1 student
Cooperation: Landesbank Berlin
Publications:

DEMOGEN - completed:
Public project on business succession in demographic change.
Funding: Federal Ministry for economic affairs
Duration: 1 year
Staff: 1 research assistent, 1 student
Cooperation:
In cooperation with the Institute for SME Research in Bonn, the University of Siegen and the Institute for CraftmenshipResearch in Göppingen.
EMF-Institute-Collaboration with Prof. Susanne Meyer
Publications monograph in 2011

COFIFAM - completed:
The interdisciplinary project "Family Businesses" investigated the strategic and operational controlling and financial management of medium-sized and large family businesses. (Research semester at the HWR)
Financing: Company
Duration 1 year
Staff: 1 research assistent, 1 student
Cooperation: University of Linz
Publications:
Presentation of results at the G-Forum 2009 (double blind-reviewed).
Publication e.g. in FiM

MINA - completed:
Potential analysis of migrants to solve the succession gap in small and medium-sized enterprises
Funding: Berlin Senate, IfaF
Duration 2 years
Staff: 2 research assistents, 2 students
Cooperation: ASH, Prof. Dr. Darius Zifonun
Publications:
Presentation of results in the context of the G-Forum 2009 (double blind-reviewed).
Presentation in the context of a nationwide event at the HWR together with the magazine impulse
Publication e.g. in impulse-wissen

NEXXT - completed:
Project to evaluate success factors and barriers for transferors and successors in the succession matching platform Nexxt-Change.
Funding: Fed. Min. for economic affairs
Duration 6 months
Cooperation: RAMBOL management
Publications: published report for the Fed. Min. for economic affairs

LUKU - completed:
Innovative learning and communication concepts for business succession in Berlin
Funding: Berlin Senate/ESF
Duration: 18 months
Staff: 2 research assistents, 2 students
Cooperation: design akademie berlin (dab)
Publications: www.nachfolge-in-deutschland.de; www.nachfolgewiki.de; www.nachfolg-o-mat.org as well as various references, links and reports nationwide
Follow-up project due to the special success: ICON (see below)

ZIZ - completed:
Development of an analysis tool for recording the value orientation of SMEs and deriving recommendations for personnel work
Financing: ZiZ GmbH Berlin in the context of the project Job-Motion
Duration: 6 months
Staff: 2 female students
Publications: as a final report and as a consulting tool for the ZiZ

ZUFO - completed:
Future study on family businesses in Berlin in 2030
Funding: internal funds and research grant
Duration 6 months
Collaborators: 1 student
Cooperation: Free University of Berlin, Master's program in Futurology in the context of an internship of three students
Publications: Contribution in ZCG 1/15 as well as EMF publication series volume 6.

MAKOFAM - completed:
Development of a professional brand analysis and brand management system for family businesses.
Funding: IfaF
Duration: 2 years
Staff: 2 research assistents
Cooperation: Beuth University
Publications: www.markencloud.org as well as EMF publication series volume 7 and contribution assessed as double blind in "complexity in entrepreneurship, innovation and technologie research"

BEFAM - completed:
Analysis of key figures of family businesses from the metropolitan region of Berlin and comparison with non-family businesses as well as across regions.
Funding: Donations and internal funds
Duration: 5 months
Staff: 1 student
Cooperation: HIF - Hamburg Institute for Family Businesses
Publications: EMF publication series volume 8 as well as scientific publications

ZuFoII - completed:
Identification and evaluation of societal factors affecting large family businesses in Germany and development of possible future scenarios
Funding: Personal grants from the EQUA Foundation
Duration: 2 years
Staff: 1 research assistent, 1 student
Publications: EMF publication series volume 10 in press and wiss. Publications planned

ICON - Innovative content for business succession - completed
Evaluation and development of the content and instruments developed in the LUKU project.
Financing: Fed. Min. for economic affairs
Duration: 3 years
Staff: 2 research assistents, 3 students

STOB-Regions - ongoing:
Scientific partner of an Interreg project with the objective of sharing experiences on business succession from eight European countries and thus learning from each other.
Funding: EU
Duration: 5 years
Staff: 2 research assistents

STARTS - ongoing: Start to Succeed: Successfully implement business succession!
Complementation, optimization and scientific of the contents and instruments developed within the framework of the ICON project.
Financing: Fed. Min. for economic affairs
Duration: 3 years
Staff: 5 research assistents, 3 students

Consulting on strategic issues such as succession planning, family business governance

Mediation in conflicts in family businesses and entrepreneurial families

Strategic concepts, expert opinions and seminars/workshops for banks, associations and ministries

Supervisory and advisory board mandates in larger family businesses

„Unternehmensnachfolge“, Oldenbourg Verlag (2008)

„RatingCheck: Markt-Management-Produkt-Wertschöpfung“ Deutscher Sparkassenverlag (2006)

„Mitarbeiterführung in Familienunternehmen – Zwischen Patriarchat und Mitarbeiterbeteiligung“ in: Christian Böllhoff / Wolfgang Krüger (Hrsg.): Dynamische Balance – Erfolgstreiber mittelständischer Familienunternehmen, Schäffer Poeschel Verlag (2006)

„Unternehmensverkauf – Marketing in eigener Sache“ in: Krüger / Klippstein / Merk / Wittberg (Hrsg.): Praxishandbuch des Mittelstands, Gabler Verlag (2006)

„Geregelte Nachfolge im Ratingprozess – eine Standortbestimmung aus der Beratungspraxis“ in: Achleitner / Everling / Klemm (Hrsg.): Nachfolgerating, Gabler Verlag (2006)

„Strategien für Nachfolger“ in von Windau u.a. (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Unternehmensberatung, Erich Schmidt Verlag (2005)

„Unternehmensbewertung und -finanzierung im Rahmen einer Übernahme: Ein Praxisfall“ in: Heike Brost / Martin Faust (Hrsg.): Unternehmensnachfolge im Mittelstand, Bankakademie Verlag GmbH, (2005)

„Mittelstandsinitiativen“ in: Bernhard Keller / Stephan Duttenhöfer (Hrsg.): Handbuch Vertriebsmanagement Finanzdienstleistungen, Fritz Knapp Verlag (2004)

„Geschäftserfolg durch Controlling“ Deutscher Sparkassenverlag (2004)

Beurteilung einer Existenzgründung durch Übernahme, in: Schönfeldt & Partner Verlags GmbH (Hrsg.): „Generation G – Die neuen Chefs im Westen“ (2003)

European Commission (e.g. expert of company succession / SMEs)

Federal, state and local authorities (e.g. Science Ambassador of the State of Berlin, Business Ambassador of the City of Cologne)

Chambers and associations (e.g. deputy chairman of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce SME committee, member of the executive committee of a science Community FGF e.V. board member of ArMiD e.V.)

Financial institutions (e.g. advisory board of the KfW advisory board for small and medium-sized enterprises)