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Wolfgang Grassl
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Spring 2008
Faculty Highlight
Name: Wolfgang Grassl
Discipline: Business Administration
How long have you taught at St. Norbert College? What drew you to the campus?
I have taught at St. Norbert since 2004. I was well-liked and tenured at my previous position, but I wanted to transfer to a Catholic institution. The environment of a Catholic college means a lot to me.
Can you give a brief background of your pre-St. Norbert career.
Having obtained my doctorate in economics and philosophy, I started my first position in teaching and research at Queen’s College, Oxford University, in 1979. In 1982, I left academics, returned to my native Austria, added a master’s degree in business, and first worked in the diplomatic service of my country. In 1985, I took up a position as the CEO of the Austrian Hotel Association, an employers’ association and business lobby in the tourism sector, and after six years, moved into management consulting, as managing director of a company with offices in Vienna, Salzburg, Budapest and Zagreb. I also built up my own small consulting firm. Much of the work at the time—project feasibility studies, operational reviews, market research and marketing support—was in Eastern European countries, though my work also took me to Belgium, Italy, Israel and elsewhere. Throughout these years I also taught courses on economics and business, especially marketing, in MBA and other graduate programs on a part-time basis. In 1995, I re-entered academics full-time, first briefly at a university in Germany, then at the Graduate School of Business of the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, and from 1998 to 2004 at Hillsdale College in Michigan.
What is your favorite part of your of teaching?
Seeing students grow intellectually and personally is what is most rewarding. I do try to keep in touch with students after graduation, and it is wonderful to see that one may have made a small contribution to the paths they take.
What would you most like students to learn from your classes?
The best we can teach students is sharpening their thinking skills. We try to make students understand how we think in business, which language we use and how we go about solving problems. Also, appreciation of immutable principles of success such as straightforward reasoning, efficiency, focus and honesty.
What would you most like students to gain through their years at St. Norbert?
College should be a platform to find out, and faculty and staff can, at best, provide support in this process. I want students to gain orientation in their years on our campus—in an intellectual, moral and spiritual sense.
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