Matthias Hartmann Explained

Matthias Herbert Hartmann (21 March 1965 – 26 August 2020) was a German Professor of Business Administration and the Dean of the Department of Economics and Law at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW – University of Applied Sciences). As an expert for innovation and technology management, he worked as a business consultant. In his function as staff officer of the reserves, he was a consultant in Germany's Federal Ministry of Defense.

Life

Matthias H. Hartmann grew up in Berlin's Wilmersdorf district. He attended college-prep high school in Bavaria: from 1975 to 1984 at the Dominicus von Linprun Gymnasium in Viechtach.In 1984, he became a reserve officer in Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr; trained as a combat and airborne engineer, later became a consultant for strategy and operations in the Federal Ministry of Defense; and finally, as Colonel of the Reserves, he served until his death as Department Head of the Bundeswehr's Operations Command in Potsdam.

From 1986 to 1991, he studied Business Administration at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, majoring in Business Informatics, Industrial Management, and Accounting and graduated with a Diploma in Business Administration. As Business Manager at the chair for Industrial Management of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg from 1992 to 1997, he was a doctoral candidate under Werner Pfeiffer, completing his doctorate with the title of Dr. rer. pol.

Hartmann realized early that all successful activity requires both an adequate theoretical foundation and an understanding of practical implementation. This combination of theory and practice was the basis of his activity in all areas, whether academic instruction, company management, or the athletic challenges of volleyball, underwater rugby, skydiving, or triathlon, in which he repeatedly completed an Ironman. He displayed his particular way of thinking and acting especially as an officer of the Bundeswehr, most recently as a staff officer holding the rank of Colonel of the Reserve within the Military engineers

He steadily continued developing his principles of operation in practical activities, for example from 1997 to 2000 in the management consulting firm A.T. Kearney as Senior Manager, until 2020 as Business Manager of the management consulting firm Takticum Consulting GmbH, and in the course of his military service. Precisely implementing the principles of military leadership doctrine in combination with his practical experience as a leader of soldiers and with aspects of employee motivation and successful company strategies shaped his way of thinking and operating.

Academic work

Matthias H. Hartmann was appointed Professor of Production & Logistics at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW – University of Applied Sciences) in October 2000 and held the position until 2020.[1] His emphases – digitalization and Industry 4.0 – lay within the fields of production and logistics management, information management, and innovation and technology management.[2] From 2015 to 2017, he was Dean of the Department of Economics and Law at the HTW Berlin, whose orientation he decisively shaped by appointing nine professors. From 2018 to 2020, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the HTW Berlin. In this function, he was responsible for supervising the university. Beyond that, since 2016, he headed the Digital Value[3] [4] Application Center,[5] which is supported by the European Fund for Regional Development and in which he fostered small and mid-sized companies from Berlin in their efforts to digitalize.[6] Especially such companies without research capacities of their own profit from the center's knowledge resources and interdisciplinary research teams, as Prof. Hartmann's support project Digital Entrepreneurship shows.[7] What digitalization can mean for Berlin as a site for startups, for the people who live and work there, and for its visitors from all over the world was discussed at, for example, the event MittendrIn Berlin! (in the middle of Berlin).[6]

His academic work was characterized by research guided by theory and strongly oriented toward practice and by system-theoretical influences like those of Niklas Luhmann and the epistemological and theory-of-science considerations of Karl Popper. In the studies under Werner Pfeiffer, Professor for Industrial and Retail Management, that shaped him, he consistently applied these ideas to business management issues like system rationalization and system economic efficiency, which ultimately provided the canon of his work in technology and innovation management. As a result, Matthias H. Hartmann worked out a form of technological accounting with which he earned his doctorate in 1996.

In the following years, he published articles on technological accounting, company management, determining technological potential, and technological cost-analysis. He also wrote articles on the reporting systems of technological companies. He thereby answered questions on how financial control systems can be used for reporting systems, how new digital technologies can influence reporting systems, and how new digital technologies affect the company system.[8] His focus thereby was on the effect of technologies on the managing system or governance of companies. He published systems-theoretical articles on business models, IT security, and sustainability. Beyond that, he published empirical articles on the factors of success in the digital transformation of small and mid-sized companies.

Select publications

Monographs

Editorship

Journal articles (selection)

Contributions to anthologies (selection)

External links

References

  1. Web site: BWL Einführungsveranstaltung (1/4) - Begrüßung Prof. Dr. Matthias Hartmann - Medien - Mediathek . 2023-01-03 . mediathek.htw-berlin.de . de.
  2. Web site: Matthias . Hartmann . Kompetenzen für zukunftsfähiges Wirtschaften . 2023-01-03 . www.htw-berlin.de.
  3. Book: Wittenberg, Stefan . Das Forschungsprojekt "Digital Value". In: DIGITAL VALUE Zentrale Erkenntnisse & Handlungsempfehlungen der Digital Value Plattform zur Digitalisierung von KMU. . Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag . 2021 . 978-3-8305-5089-1 . Berlin . 4–43 . de.
  4. https://digital-value-berlin.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Bodung-et.-al.-2021_Digital-Value.pdf
  5. Web site: Wir trauern um Prof. Dr. Matthias Hartmann . 2023-01-03 . Digital Value Berlin . de-DE.
  6. Web site: Erdle . Katharina . 2020-08-20 . Digitalisierung muss sein – aber wie? Die HTW Berlin fördert kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen im Rahmen eines Projekts . 2023-01-03 . www.htw-berlin.de.
  7. Web site: Krimse . Sabrina . 2019-08-09 . Feierliche Scheckübergabe durch das Bezirksamt Treptow-Köpenick, dem Regionalmanagement Berlin Südost und der Vattenfall Wärme Berlin AG an die HTW Berlin – Förderprojekt "Digital Entrepreneurship" von Prof. Dr. M. Hartmann . 2023-01-03 . www.berlin.de . de.
  8. News: Prof. Dr. Matthias Hartmann: Digitale Revolution im Management . de-DE . Der Tagesspiegel Online . 2023-01-03 . 1865-2263.