IMD Professor Switzerland fischer@imd.ch

His principal teaching and research interests involve the management of technology, including the management of the creative processes within R&D; the creation and coordination of an international technology presence; and technology transfer. Bill Fischer has been actively involved in technology-related activities, in one form or another, for all of his professional career. He was a development engineer in the American Steel industry; was an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers; and has also worked as a consultant on R&D/technology issues in such industries as: pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, textiles and apparel, and packaging. Additionally, he has served as a consultant to a number of government and international-aid agencies on issues relating to the management of science and technology. For more than 15 years, he worked with the World Health Organization in strengthening Research and Development institutes in developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

During 1998 & 1999, he was the Executive President and Dean of the leading business school in China - China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), in Shanghai, a joint venture supported by the European Union. Between 1976 and 1996, Professor Fischer was on the faculty at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, where he was the Dalton L. McMichael Sr. Professor of Business Administration.

In 1980, Bill participated in a joint US government-Chinese government venture, in Dalian, which provided managerial training to senior-level Chinese officials. Since that time, he has remained consistently involved in the Chinese reform experience, including consulting for a variety of multinational corporations, government agencies (both U.S. and Chinese), and international aid agencies. He has visited China professionally yearly since 1980, and has written extensively on the Chinese economic reforms.

Bill has written extensively on manufacturing, R&D, and technology transfer. He has authored several books and has won several awards for teaching excellence from the American Institute of Decision Sciences, and in case-writing from the European Foundation for Management Development.
Publications:

15/04/2002 WTO and the Chinese “Corporate” Response – Evian Group (Policy brief)

21/09/1997 China, the WTO, & the Interests of the Foreign Business Community – Evian Group (Readings)