Business Process Manager (University)

Managing processes in a world that does not stand still.

Processes that worked well three years ago may no longer be fit for today. Supply chains are more complex. Customer expectations shift faster. Regulatory requirements keep expanding. And artificial intelligence is beginning to change not just what processes can do, but what they need to look like entirely.

For professionals operating in this environment, the ability to understand, design and continuously adapt operational processes is no longer a specialized skill. It is becoming a core leadership competency.

The two-semester university certificate program at Hochschule Schmalkalden, developed and taught in partnership with change2target, was built precisely for this reality. It trains professionals to manage processes with the depth and adaptability that today's organizations actually require.

Complexity is not a problem to eliminate. It is a condition to manage.

Organizations today cannot just simplify their way to operational excellence. The complexity is real and largely non-negotiable. What changes is the capability of the people navigating it.

The program builds that capability systematically. It covers total value management and operations fundamentals in the first semester, giving participants a rigorous framework for understanding how processes create value across the entire chain. The second semester moves into supply chain strategy, digitalization and AI, quality management systems and change management — connecting the foundational thinking to the technologies and organizational dynamics that define process management today.

The AI and digitalization module is not a survey of trends. It addresses how intelligent automation, workflow systems and data-driven decision-making are reshaping what processes can and should do. Participants learn to evaluate and position these capabilities in real operational contexts rather than in isolation from the systems they are meant to improve.

Stefan Fischer came to the program with years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He graduated and is now Managing Director at System Air, a global ventilation technology specialist. What he took from the program was not a set of tools but a way of seeing. "I can now observe processes much more effectively and, above all, holistically," he says. "I keep the entire value creation chain in view."

That capacity — to hold the whole system in view while working within it — is what separates process managers who create lasting organizational capability from those who address one problem at a time.

Studied alongside your career. Applied the next morning.

The program runs over two semesters with no interruption to your professional life. Self-study phases alternate with online and in-person block sessions held on campus in Schmalkalden. Small study groups keep contact with lecturers close and allow participants to bring real problems from their own organizations into the room.

Prof. Hubert Dechant, academic head of the Centre for Continuing Education at Hochschule Schmalkalden, frames the underlying conviction clearly: "In order for companies to survive in the long term, they need competitive products. Usually this only succeeds if they constantly work on their potentials and processes."

Stefan Fischer remembers the format as one of the program's defining strengths. "The block teaching approach enabled me to combine work and study very effectively. We did a lot of work in small groups. That created real cohesion, both during and outside the on-campus periods."

The program starts each winter semester. Places are limited.