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Wolfgang Messner - University of South Carolina. Columbia, SC, US

Wolfgang Messner

Clinical Professor of International Business | University of South Carolina

Columbia, SC, UNITED STATES

International Business, Marketing, and Management | Management Consulting | Data Analysis

Social

Biography

Wolfgang Messner is a clinical professor at the Darla Moore School of Business. He earned his Ph.D. in economics and social sciences from the University of Kassel (Germany), MBA in financial management from the University of Wales (UK), and B.Sc. and M.Sc. in informatics and economics after studying at the Technical University Munich (Germany), University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), and Università per Stranieri di Perugia (Italy).

Prior to coming to the University of South Carolina in 2016, Messner was a professor of international management at the MYRA School of Business in Mysore (India). As an adjunct faculty, he also taught at the Indian Institutes of Management Bangalore, Indore and Kozhikode (India), Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (Germany), Royal Docks Business School at the University of East London (UK), and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany). During that time, he co-founded GloBus Research in the UK and India as a niche consulting and training company with the objective of helping resolve international business and leadership challenges. Messner provided trainings in big multinationals like Capgemini, Ericsson, Hitachi, Infosys, McKinsey, Microsoft, Siemens, and selected mid-caps across industry verticals.

Before joining academia, Messner worked for 18 years as a business analyst, project manager, and management consultant with Capgemini (2006-11), BMW Group (2003-05), The Information Management Group IMG (1999-2002), and Deutsche Bank (1995-99).

Industry Expertise (12)

Market Research

IT Services/Consulting

Hospitality

Banking

Advertising/Marketing

Information Technology and Services

Professional Training and Coaching

Outsourcing/Offshoring

Airlines/Aviation

Education/Learning

Human Resources

Management Consulting

Areas of Expertise (10)

Data Analysis

Statistics

Marketing

Managing Global Teams

Selling & Marketing

Offshoring

Intercultural Communication

India

Strategy

Data & Analytics

Accomplishments (3)

Globalization of Professional Services (professional)

Book co-editor Springer, 2012

Intelligent IT Offshoring to India. Roadmpas for Emerging Business Landscapes (professional)

Book author Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

Working with India. The Softer Aspects of a Successful Collaboration with the Indian IT & BPO Industry (professional)

Book author Springer, 2009

Education (4)

University of Kassel, Germany: Ph.D., Marketing 2005

Harvard Business School, U.S.: (Exec. Education), Strategic Marketing Management

Technical University Munich, Germany & University of Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.: Dipl.-Inform. (~ M.Sc.), Computing Science 1995

University of Wales, U.K. with Open University Hagen, Germany & Allfinanz Akademie, Germany: M.B.A., Financial Management 1989

Testimonials (10)

Ignaz Vinzenz, Director | IGS GmbH, St. Gallen, Switzerland

Wolfgang Messner manages to convey images in his workshops that adequately reflect the reality and thereby help our employees to safely, respectfully and thus successfully collaborate with their Indian colleagues

Venkata Jayaraman, Country Head Payments CMS Ops | ING Vysya Bank, Mumbai, India

I appreciate the efforts taken to explain and narrow the divide between different cultures and business communities.

Ravi Tirumalaraju, Head Mobile Solutions | Corpus Mobile Labs, Hyderabad, India

Great content and fantastic delivery. Lots of learning about Western countries. Thanks!

Shantanu Patil, Project Manageer | Capgemini, Mumbai, India

The intercultural workshop helped bridge the cultural gap by creating more aware-ness. It added the essence of the people factor to the project and should be conducted with every client who runs an offshore delivery component!

Somok Ghosh, Head of Offshore Management | Deutsche Post, Bonn, Germany

A very impressive seminar and certainly unique in its form. The seminar offers hands-on yet in-depth information enabling our teams to successfully collaborate with our providers.

Dr Marion Kremer, Head of CSD Research | Capgemini, Frankfurt, Germany

Good examples, one could really sense the real-world experience.

Andreas Philipp, Development Director Central Europe | Torex, Berlin, Germany

Many thanks for the excellent training! It has been very well received by my team and myself; I am sure it is going to be helpful to master our upcoming challenges

Antonino Gargano, Delivery Manager | Capgemini, Italy

Great training, showing the cultural differences and how to bridge them. Thanks. Was a great time!

Peter Schmid, Senior Software Engineer | Elektrobit Automotive, Erlangen, Germany

Very vivid training on how to get involved with India – lots of helpful examples from practical experience for practical use.

Srini Subramanian, Principal Consultant | Infosys, Bangalore, India

Doing business and meeting cultural differences is a given. But when you understand why people behave the way they do, things become far simpler. I thought I knew the nuances of how to do busi-ness – but this session helped me to look beyond the obvious.

Event Appearances (17)

Title

NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2010  Mumbai, India [Feb 2010]

Meeting Local Requirements in a Global Market. How to Sustain the Firm's Talent Base?

9th Indo-German NASSCOM/BITKOM ICT Conference  Cologne, Germany

2012-06-13

Title

BITKOM ICT Conference  Cologne, Germany [Apr 2009]

The World is Flat - or is it still Round?

IT Outsourcing to India. Management Circle Seminar  Munich, Germany

2012-07-11

Title

Verizon Business Networking Event   Munich, Germany [Dec 2009]

Title

Roundtable Marketing Performance  Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India [Jun 2008]

Title

Marcus Evans Conferences  Mumbai, India [Oct 2007]

Title

IBC Global Conferences  Amsterdam, Netherlands [Dec 2000]

Title

IBC Global Conferences  London, U.K. [Dec 2000]

Title

Emerge Conference 2010  University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

Title

GI-Conference EMISA  University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, St. Augustin, Germany [Feb 2005]

Title

Research Seminar @ Henley School of Management  Henley, Reading, U.K.

2011-03-15

Title

KMCI Knowledge Management Consortium International  Annual Convention, Frankfurt, Germany [Mar 2000]

Title

BICCNet Roundtable Internationalisation  gate Garching, Germany [Jan 2011]

Intercultural peculiarities and consequences for daily work

Oversight of the Indian Management Team. Management Circle Seminar  Frankfurt am Main

2012-05-14

Title

Indo-German Business Forum  Cologne, Germany [Jun 2010]

Negotiating with Indians - Intercultural Peculiarities

Legal Aspects of the India Business. VDMA  Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2012-05-20

Sample Talks (1)

The Current State and Future Perspectives of India's IT & BPO Industry

What started as a labor-arbitrage body shop, is now not only the topic of Presidential debates, but has become a fear for joblosses in the developed world. What is really behind the headlines of India's IT & BPO Industry? What can one expect out of an India project? How mature is it? And how good are the people? Where is the industry going to be in 2020

Style

Availability

  • Keynote
  • Moderator
  • Panelist
  • Workshop Leader
  • Author Appearance
  • Corporate Training

Fees

2500 to 10000 *Will consider certain engagements for no fee

Research Focus (1)

International Business, Marketing, and Management

In his research, Messner attempts to advance methods for measuring cultural differences and diversity. He develops novel approaches that include the use of machine learning and other advanced data analytics methods. His findings are published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Journal of International Management, Journal of International Marketing and Journal of World Business. In a second stream of research, he aims to better understand how consumer behavior differs across countries and cultures. He pursues this program by examining how culture influences customer engagement and postings on online opinion platforms. The results are published in the Journal of Air Transport Management, Journal of Strategic Marketing and Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing. More recently, he has also looked at cultural differences in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are published in Health Science Reports, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, PloS ONE and Public Health. Taken together, Messner has published 27 peer-reviewed articles, 11 book chapters, and 27 articles in practitioner magazines and periodicals. Additionally, he has authored five books and edited three handbooks, which are published by Palgrave Macmillan and Springer. He has designed five teaching cases on aspects of global marketing and business, which are published by Ivey Publications and SAGE Business Cases Originals. His research was featured in the 2021 Breakthrough magazine by the University of South Carolina. Messner was awarded the 2020 Moore School professional track faculty research award. Additionally, he has also received a number of external recognitions, such as the Emerald Literati Network Awards of Excellence (highly commended, 2016 and 2014) and being a best-paper finalist at conferences (AIB US SE 2020, AIB 2018, and AIB US SE 2017).