MBA: Johannes Ludwig - "I have become a better manager"

2022-02-07 The business administration graduate completed the part-time "Manufacturing Management" degree programme at Leuphana Professional School in 2019. Since then, he has taken on more responsibility at his long-time employer Miele - both for personnel and for strategies and programme at group level. Business economists and engineers can still apply for the part-time degree programme until 28 February.

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"I got to know a lot of different people and their perspectives during the seminars. That helps me today to better understand and solve complex tasks."

Johannes Ludwig had already been successfully employed at the household appliance manufacturer Miele for over ten years when he decided to take another degree. "It is ideal to start with the MBA when you already have some professional years behind you. You can reflect on your experience during your studies and bring yourself up to date professionally," says the 38-year-old. After graduating from high school, he studied technical business administration at the University of Applied Sciences for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in Bielefeld and wrote his diploma thesis at Miele. When he decided to study part-time at Leuphana Professional School, he was already leading his own team at Miele.

For Johannes Ludwig, the MBA is profitable in many ways: "I have expanded my professional expertise, especially in production processes. The processes in a manufacturing company were illuminated in their entirety, for example through the learning factory, where processes are recreated in a playful way." Three years ago, Johannes Ludwig completed the programme with a grade of 1.2. Since then, he has continued to advance at Miele. Today he is Manager Production Control & Operational Excellence and heads two teams.

The part-time MBA, which today as the study programme "Digital Production Management" considers the requirements of Industry 4.0, is aimed at engineers and business economists in the field of digital production and supply chain management and conveys the entire spectrum of specialist knowledge that is important for the management of modern industrial companies against the background of global trends such as digitalisation. Topics such as Industry 4.0, Smart Factory, Logistics, Digital Factory, Supply Chain Management, Sustainable Production or Lean Production are covered and linked with current business knowledge.

The curriculum at Leuphana also includes complementary studies. For Johannes Ludwig, this is another point to recommend studying at Leuphana Professional School. In the interdisciplinary modules, students deal with ethics, communication, and leadership, among other things: "I personally believe that I have become a better leader through my studies. I can motivate and support the people in my team better today.” Empathy is an important topic for him as a leader: "I don't only want to better understand the positions of the employees, but also mediate between different perspectives." During his studies, he built up a network and, for example, is still in contact with the programme leader Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Schmidt, Professor of Production Management: "I got to know a lot of different people and their perspectives during the seminars. That helps me today to better understand and solve complex tasks," says Johannes Ludwig.

The graduate in business administration still has more steps to take on his career path: "I would like to develop as a manager and take on more operational responsibility, for example for a complete process line. That would then mean not only being a team leader, but also leading other managers. An exciting challenge for me."