Only two decades ago, entrepreneurship played hardly any role at WU Vienna and in Austria in general. The Austrian mentality seemed to have lost sight of its once impressive entrepreneurial tradition incarnated by iconic figures such as Joseph Schumpeter or Peter Drucker. Values and norms such as opportunity-seeking, risk-taking, and the need for independence only played a minor role in education, media, and generally in society. Thus, when I started as a Professor here, I faced a prototypical start-up situation. I saw the potential and had a vision, but resources were scarce, scepticism was strong, and the challenge appeared unsurmountable.
However, having experienced the almost miraculous effects of unleashed entrepreneurial power during my guest professorship at MIT, I started my own entrepreneurial journey with a small and highly motivated team here at WU. Key to the success was our applied problem-solving approach in teaching, where we collaborate with start-ups and innovative companies. Through highly attractive courses and successful projects, we have attracted talent among students and created a strong momentum as also more and more partners would collaborate with us. We launched many additional initiatives and innovated wildly. This allowed us to grow fast and foster entrepreneurship at our university into “the” hot topic. Our fantastic entrepreneurial students and alumni have helped creating a lively and fast growing entrepreneurship ecosystem in Vienna and Austria in general. My role is to keep this entrepreneurial spirit in order to recognize and exploit further opportunities!