Stefan Michel

Stefan Michel is a Swiss professor of management at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he serves as Dean of Faculty and Research.

Early life and education Michel earned an MBA and a doctorate from the University of Zurich, both summa cum laude. He received the Best Dissertation Award from the Swiss Society for Market and Social Research in 1997. In 2008, he joined IMD as Professor of Marketing and Service Management. He is President of the Foundation Board of the GfM Gesellschaft für Marketing (Swiss Marketing Association). His Harvard Business Review article "Capture More Value" (October 2014) presented a framework of 15 value-capture strategies. In 2024, he discussed the topic on the HBR On Strategy podcast.

He co-authored "Bill It, Kill It, or Keep It Free?" with Wolfgang Ulaga in the MIT Sloan Management Review (2018), and "Service-Logic Innovations: How to Innovate Customers, Not Products" with Stephen W. Brown and Andrew S. Gallan in the California Management Review (2008).

Michel has authored 13 books, including Real Impact Marketing (3rd edition, 2022) with Lisa S. Duke, and edits the I by IMD Best Practice book series. He has written more than 40 case studies and has been ranked in The Case Centre's top 50 bestselling case authors from 2020/21 through 2024/25. In 2025, he won The Case Centre's Outstanding Case Writer competition for "AMAG: Creating Its Own Future in a Disrupted Automotive Industry."

Awards and honours Best Dissertation Award, Swiss Society for Market and Social Research, 1997. Outstanding Case Writer Prize, The Case Centre, 2025.