Wolfgang Messner 
Clinical Professor of International Business | University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC, UNITED STATES
International Business, Marketing, and Management | Management Consulting | Data Analysis
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)
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
University of Kassel, Germany: Ph.D., Marketing 2005
Harvard Business School, U.S.: (Exec. Education), Strategic Marketing Management
Testimonials (10)
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.
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.
Ravi Tirumalaraju, Head Mobile Solutions | Corpus Mobile Labs, Hyderabad, India
Great content and fantastic delivery. Lots of learning about Western countries. Thanks!
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.
Dr Marion Kremer, Head of CSD Research | Capgemini, Frankfurt, Germany
Good examples, one could really sense the real-world experience.
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.
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!
Event Appearances (17)
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
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
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
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).
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