I was born and raised in the wonderful city of Munich. I started an academic career with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Westminster London, a Dipl.-Kfm. from the University of Munich (LMU) and a Ph.D. from the Otto Beisheim Graduate School (WHU) in Vallendar on the topic of co-creation, open innovation and new media. Following were four really great years working for the carmaker Audi in the R&D department. With the Virtual Lab initiated in 2001 I had the chance to set up the first Open Innovation programme at Audi allowing thousands of customers to be part of the development of the new generation automotive infotainment system. Then, since 2004 I run my own business as CEO together with my two partners Michael Schmidt and Dr. Johann Füller. HYVE is a leading innovation agency realizing co-creation solutions in order to design successful innovation. We merged the competencies of industrial design, innovation research and community software development in order to create a unique set of knowhow and tools to face the innovation challenge of the future and create successful products and services for our clients … and sometimes also for ourselves. Following www.hyve.de you find numerous examples and offerings on subjects such as Open Innovation, Netnography, Ideamanagement, User Design, Co-Creation and likely future developments in innovation research and management.
With end of May 2011 I will dedicate a part of my time to the German Association of Market and Social Research (Berufsverband Deutscher Markt- und Sozialforscher – BVM) as an elected member of the national executive committee (Bundesvorstand) for the next three years.
Following some pictures and impressons of my work …
>> Impressions of the InnovationCampus09
>> Impressions of the Netnography08
>> Prof. Kozinets on the Netnography08
