Urs Mueller

Urs joined SDA Bocconi as an Associate Professor of Practice in the Knowledge group “Strategy & Entrepreneurship” on April 1, 2019.

Before that he worked as a Lecturer at ESMT Berlin (Germany), which he joined in 2005. He has designed, directed and taught in numerous executive education programs for a wide range of customers and served as program director for ESMT Berlin’s flagship open enrollment program “Executive Transition Program” for more than 10 years.

His research activities focus on business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). In particular, he is interested in how managers in real life do and/or should take decisions with moral dimensions. His work focusses on aspects such as:

• social, organizational, and individual factors that lead normal people to carry out immoral behavior,
• the role of creativity for good decisions with moral components,
• the role of social interaction (moral consultation) before taking a decision,
• the concept of responsibility in business settings, and
• the ability of organizations to increase CSR within their supply chains.

Urs explores these topics through academic research, publications in managerial or public-interest media and through numerous award-winning and best-selling case studies that are available in Harvard, Ivey and The Case Centre.

During and after his Ph.D., Urs worked for slightly more than three years as a management consultant for A.T. Kearney, serving multiple international clients in several different projects.

Over the years, Urs has gained teaching experience in 5 continents, from bachelor students to top-executives, from groups of two to >100 participants, from keynotes to courses over full semesters.

He is or has been a visiting lecturer at ESMT Berlin (since 2019), Porto Business School (since 2008), ESCP Berlin (since 2016), SEED (Hungary; since 2017), and Berlin School of Economics and Law (2018-2019).

Urs is a passionate case study teacher and author – and became a tutor on how to teach with and how to write case studies for The Case Centre in 2013. He is currently writing a book (plus two workbooks) on case study teaching and writing.

Urs earned a first state exam (equivalent to Masters Degree) in German literature, Philosophy and Art history and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen (Germany).

Teaching domains

• Sustainable Supply Chain
• Corporate Sustainability
• Change Management
• Management of Creativity
• Managerial Ethics and Responsible Leadership

Companies

• Associate Professor of Practice SDA Bocconi (2019)
• Affiliate Program Director / Visiting Faculty ESMT Berlin (2019)
• Tutor for Case workshops The Case Centre (2013)
• Program Director "Executive Transition Program (ETP) ESMT Berlin (2008)
• Visiting Lecturer Porto Business School (2008)
• Lecturer (member of faculty), Program Director & Head of Practice Group "Consumer Goods and Retail" ESMT Berlin (2005 — 2019)
• Consultant A.T. Kearney (2003 — 2005)
• Summer Associate A.T. Kearney (2000 — 2001)

Latest publications

MUELLER U. P., HABEL J., STIERL M. Exerting Pressure or Leveraging Power: The conventional and extended chain of CSR Enforcement in B2B Supply Chains Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Fall, 2017, vol.36, no. 2, pp.331-347

MUELLER U. P., SCHAEFER U. The Dirty Dozen: how unethical behaviour creeps into your organisation The European Business Review, July, 2016, pp.37-41

MUELLER U. P., KUPP M. Combining Case Teaching and Case Writing Creatively in Case Studies as a Teaching Tool in Management Education Dominika Latusek (Eds),IGI Global, pp.121-140, 2016

MUELLER U. P., PANDIT S. Vodafone in Egypt: National crises and their implications for multinational corporations in International management: Managing across borders and cultures, text and cases Helen Deresky (Eds),Prentice Hall, 2016

MUELLER U. P., ETZOLD V. Minimal change can be best option: Why Berlin snack bar resisted change, (reprint of “Case study: Minimal change can be best.” Financial Times. April 30, 2012) in Managing Change, 6th ed. Bernard Burnes (Eds),Pearson, 2014

MUELLER U. P. Feldkontakte, Kulturtransfer, kulturelle Teilhabe: Winckelmanns Beitrag zur Etablierung des deutschen intellektuellen Felds durch den Transfer der Querelle des anciens et des modernes Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Germany, , 2005

Grants & Honors

• Top 50 Bestselling Case Authors - The Case Centre , 2021
• Outstanding Case Teacher 2020 - The Case Centre , 2020
• The Case Centre Case Award 2014 in the Case writing competition ‘Hot Topic’: Crisis as Opportunity for “Vodafone in Egypt: National crises and their implications for multi-national corporations” - The Case Centre , 2014
• The Case Centre Case Award 2014 in the Category Human Resource Management / Organizational Behaviour for “Anna Frisch at Aesch AG: Initiating lateral change” - The Case Centre , 2014
• ecch Case Award 2013 in the Case writing competition ‘Hot Topic’: The Business of Sports for “Defining the purpose for Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA” - ECCH - European Case Clearing House [Now The Case Centre] , 2013
• ecch Case Award 2013 in the Category Human Resource Management / Organizational Behaviour for “Do you really think we are so stupid? A letter to the CEO of Deutsche Telekom” - ECCH - European Case Clearing House [Now The Case Centre] , 2013
• 2011 EFMD Case Writing Competition (“Waltraud Ziervogel at Konnopke’s Imbiss”) - EFMD European Foundation for Management Development , 2011
• ecch Best Selling Case (“Do you really think we are so stupid? A letter to the CEO of Deutsche Telekom”) - ECCH - European Case Clearing House [Now The Case Centre] , 2011
• University of Porto EGP, EMBA Best Discipline Award - Porto Business School , 2010