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Henning Piezunka

Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise

Biography

Henning Piezunka is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD and a Visiting Professor at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Henning’s teaching is focused on startups and entrepreneurship, with a particular emphasis on guiding entrepreneurs in building, scaling and growing their business ideas and ventures. He teaches this material to MBA students, executives and corporations, and coaches start-up CEOs and entrepreneurial leaders. He has received outstanding teaching ratings, been on the Dean’s list for excellence in MBA teaching, and won the INSEAD best teacher award multiple times.

Henning is an award-winning researcher. He studies how organisations can tap into the knowledge of their members to foster greater inclusion, innovation and diversity. He has also conducted research into the crowdsourcing of ideas and the wisdom of the crowds. In another stream of research, Henning studies collaboration and competition, such as the factors that escalate competition into dangerous conflict. He has further researched succession in family firms and how people can improve their ability to interact with others by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Through his research, Henning has also developed significant expertise across various domains, including start-ups, technology companies, family businesses and a range of sports. He has leveraged data from sports such as Formula One, soccer and chess to shed light on effective management practices. Henning’s work and expert opinions have been featured in leading business media including Time Magazine, The Economist and Harvard Business Review.

Henning obtained a PhD at Stanford University, a Master of Science at the London School of Economics, UK, and a Diploma Kaufmann from the University of Mannheim, Germany. Before starting his academic career, he co-founded a web design company in 1998 and acted as its founder-CEO until selling it in January 2016. By 2016, Henning’s company employed more than 30 people and served customers in more than 80 countries.

Latest posts

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Leadership & Organisations

Why You’re Missing Out on the Best Ideas

S.Park, H. Piezunka, L. Dahlander

Businesses and leaders influence the kinds of ideas they receive without even realising it.

Strategy

Mastering the Game: The Advantage of AI Training

Henning Piezunka

In the same way chess computers gave players a competitive edge, AI has the power to elevate skills and enhance performance.

Strategy

How AI Can Improve Human Performance

F. Gaessler, H. Piezunka

AI training enhances strategic skills, especially in lower-skilled individuals. But it isn’t a perfect substitute for human training partners.

Leadership & Organisations

Joint Strategic Decisions: Do We All Need to Agree?

H. Piezunka, O. Schilke

How organisations’ decision-making rules affect the way individual managers vote.

Career

Collaborations That Are Bad for Business but Benefit Employees

H. Piezunka, T. Grohsjean

Sharing a partner with competing companies hinders the success of firms but helps employees’ careers.

Entrepreneurship

What to Do With Contrarians?

H. Piezunka, V. Aggarwal, H. Posen

Even when they are wrong, those who think differently add value to an organisation.
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