The ESCP professor is recognised among 30 emerging management thinkers shaping the future of business.
Christoph Seckler, Professor of Entrepreneurial Strategy at ESCP’s Berlin Campus, has been named to the Thinkers50 Radar List 2026, which highlights 30 emerging management thinkers whose ideas are expected to shape the future of business.
Founded in 2001, Thinkers50 is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on management thought leadership. Since 2016, its annual Radar List has spotlighted emerging voices whose research and perspectives are gaining international influence.
Being recognised on the Thinkers50 Radar List is a great honour and a humbling one. Thinkers50 highlights people who are expected to shape the future of business and management, and seeing myself through this lens prompted a moment of reflection — not so much about the recognition itself, but about how to use it well.
Christoph SecklerProfessor of Entrepreneurial Strategy
A strong voice in entrepreneurship thought leadership
Christoph Seckler holds the Chair of Entrepreneurial Strategy at ESCP Business School and serves as Academic Director of the Executive Master in Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurial Leadership (EMDIEL). He is also Director of the Center for Design Science in Entrepreneurship (DS:E) and INSPIRE, two research centres dedicated to advancing actionable, impact-oriented scholarship.
His research focuses on leveraging adversity to foster learning, innovation, and resilience. His work has been published in leading international journals, including Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Management Studies, and Accounting, Organizations and Society, and has earned three Best Paper Awards from the Academy of Management.
What’s on his radar?
A central theme in Prof. Seckler’s work is the role of error culture in enabling sustainable organisational transformation . Contrary to dominant narratives around speed and constant change, he argues that stability is a key driver of organisational agility.
“One counterintuitive idea on my radar is that organisational agility and transformation are not driven by constant change, but by stability — specifically, stability at the level of mindset.”
As technological and geopolitical dynamics accelerate, organisations often push for greater flexibility and speed.
“What actually enables fast experimentation and learning is error intelligence: the shared capability to anticipate errors, surface them early, communicate them openly, and systematically learn from them. Paradoxically, it is this stable mindset of error intelligence that makes continuous change possible.”
Joining celebrated thinkers at ESCP
Prof. Seckler’s work has positioned him as a leading voice on error culture, with contributions featured in outlets such as the Financial Times, World Economic Forum, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, DIE ZEIT, and Harvard Business Manager. He also co-published the Error Culture Report for Germany in collaboration with EY Germany.
His inclusion in the Thinkers50 Radar 2026 reflects ESCP’s commitment to research and teaching that combine academic rigour with real-world relevance. As an educator, he focuses on empowering individuals to grow in thinking, doing, and being—an approach recognised with a Best Teacher Award from ESCP. He joins fellow ESCP Professors Alisa Sydow and Philip Meissner, who were named to the 2025 Thinkers50 Radar List.
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