A recent Charles Sturt University (CSU) business graduate’s doctoral thesis has been praised by one of his supervisors as ‘sensational’.

 

Graduate Dr Marc K Peter completed his dissertation, Future Screening - a framework for advancing strategic corporate foresight, for a Doctor of Business Administration in 2011 and graduated from the CSU Faculty of Business in Bathurst on Friday 14 December 2012.

 

“Future Screening fosters the building of foresight knowledge and innovation capabilities which will help companies to stay flexible in terms of strategies, discontinuous change, opportunities and threats,” Dr Peter said.

 

“The research enabled and validated the development of a practice-oriented framework for corporate foresight which includes the management of market signals, scenario development, strategic conversations, stress tests, response strategies, and the building of a future-orientated culture and organisational readiness for change.”

 

Dr Peter’s two doctoral supervisors, Professor Alexander Jungmeister and Professor Denise Jarratt, supported him over the six-year period of research through a combination of one-to-one sessions, seminars and workshops in both Australia and Switzerland. Professor Jungmeister, who holds appointments at CSU and is CEO of the Business Law Institute of the University of Lucern, Switzerland, said, “Marc wrote a sensational dissertation about corporate foresight which fulfils the highest academic standards and provides a high level of practice relevance”.

 

Dr Peter’s journey to his doctorate started when CSU established a successful relationship with the Berne University of Applied Sciences to collaborate across the Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programs.

 

Originally from Switzerland, Dr Peter successfully completed his Executive MBA there before applying for CSU’s Doctor of Business Administration program as the first student from the Australian-Swiss strategic collaboration. He completed the first two subjects via distance education while working for eBay International as their Head of Marketing. He then moved to Australia in 2006 to study on a full-time basis.

 

He spent time at CSU in Bathurst to complete the third and fourth subjects, and conducted field research in Switzerland before accepting a role at E*TRADE Australia (ANZ banking group) when he moved back to part-time study mode.

 

Dr Peter said, “Charles Sturt University not only provided a stimulating and supportive learning and research community, but also provided the flexibility I was looking for to combine academia and my career”.