Dominik
Walcher
is professor for marketing and innovation management
at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences / School for Design and Product
Management. He studied architecture and management at the University
of Stuttgart, the Technical University Munich (TUM) and the University
of California at Berkeley. After some years of gaining work experience
he joined Prof. Reichwald's chair for management at TUM in 2001, where
he was part of Frank Piller's newly founded "Center for Mass Customization".
His doctoral thesis about mass customization and open innovation at
Adidas was awarded with several prizes. In the last years he has extended
his field of research to brand management, business creation and sustainability
marketing. He was founder of a startup company in the field of customizable
and eco-intelligent products. Results from his practical experience
and academic research are numerously published and part of his teaching
and consultancy. Dominik Walcher is member of the Board of Directors
of a sustainability company and visiting professor at universities in
Munich, Stuttgart, Salzburg, Bozen, St. Gallen and Helsinki. Since May
2010 he has been a research associate at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) directing the MIT Smart Customization Group's "The
Customization 500" initiative.
Prof. Dr. Dominik
Walcher
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences |
School
of Design and Product Management |
Markt
136a |
5431
Kuchl |
Austria
E: walcher@mc-500.com
|
T:
+43 680 122 1379
Frank
Piller
is a chair professor of management and the director
of the Technology & Innovation Management Group at RWTH Aachen University.
He also is a founding faculty member and the co-director of the MIT
Smart Customization Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
USA. Frequently quoted in The New York Times, The Economist, and Business
Week, amongst others, Frank is regarded as one of the leading experts
on mass customization, personalization, and open innovation. His blog,
mass-customization. blogs.com, is the premier source of information
on mass customization and customer driven value creation. In 1997, his
article in the German edition of the Harvard Business Review and his
first book on mass customization (1998) brought this topic on the management
agenda in Europe. Frank's recent research focuses on innovation interfaces:
How can organizations increase innovation success by designing and managing
better interfaces within their organization and with external actors.
Together with Mitchell Tseng, Frank Piller initiated and co-chaired
the MCPC conference series, the largest professional event on mass customization
& personalization. Before entering his recent position in Aachen,
he worked at TUM Business School and at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
As an investor, member of the Board of Directors or as a scientific
adviser of several technology companies, he transfers his research into
practice.
Prof. Dr. Frank
Piller
RWTH Aachen University |
Technology
& Innovation Management Group
|
Kackertstr.
7, 3rd Floor
|
52072
Aachen |
Germany
E: piller@mass-customization.de
|
T:
+49 241 809 3577 and +1 617 326 3748
Frank
Piller (left) and Dominik Walcher, the authors of the Customization
500 Study
Acknowledgements
This study was positively
influenced by different people we want to thank. First of all we want
to thank Dr. Christoph Ihl for his very helpful input to develop
an appropriate evaluation process. Likewise, we thank Thorsten Harzer
for tracing many new and promising MC companies we could include in
our study, and for coordinating the research associates at the RWTH
Aachen. We are grateful for the input and support of Prof. Fabrizio
Salvador at IE Business School who will become a main contributor
to the academic evaluation of the data gathered in this study. At MIT,
we thank Betty Lou McClanahan for her support and coordination
with the MIT Smart Customization Group. At this point we want to stress
the special dedication of Barbara Birke (Aachen), Lisa Werger
(Salzburg) and Hendrik Verges (Aachen). These three great graduate
research students helped a lot. For his endurance when preparing data
and for his perpetual creativity when laying out this study we strongly
thank Christoph Eichberger. Moreover, we thank Peter Walcher
for thoroughly proofreading this study. Last but not least we thank
all our evaluators for their accuracy and patience!
