At Siemens Business Services, Michael worked in Strategy Consultancy and conducted digitization projects from the late 1990s onwards. Back then, the buzz words commonly used were IT Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, and E-Commerce. He was involved in numerous projects in the automotive industry, insurance companies, banks, public utility companies and machine manufacturing.
From 2006 to 2009, Michael took on a management position at adidas AG where he set up and managed the department for Innovations & Research. Michael’s team supported and conducted projects involving tasks such as the digitization of product development, digital services for retail, e-commerce, digital marketing or mass customization.
Following his career in the industry, Durst founded ITONICS GmbH in 2009 because he was always looking for a software solution that holistically and collaboratively maps all innovation management processes. In the meantime, they have grown to a team of over 60 employees on three continents who supply customers like Audi, Benteler, BMW, Brose, Cisco, Evonik, Intel, Osram, PepsiCo, Siemens or Total Oil&Gas with integrated innovation management solutions.
After gaining PhD and working several years in the industry, Michael holds a professorship for Business Information Systems at the FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economy and Management in Nuremberg from 2010 to 2016. Furthermore, he works as a visiting lecturer at various universities such as the European Business School, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Steinbeis University Berlin or at the Technical University Braunschweig.