Prof. Dr. Henrik Sattler is the new dean of the Faculty of Business Administration (Hamburg Business School)“The greatest challenge is the internationalization of our faculty.”

17 January 2023, by Linda Lämke

Photo: Lichtliebe, Volksdorf

Since 1 December 2022, Prof. Dr. Henrik Sattler has been the new dean of the Faculty of Business Administration (Hamburg Business School). In the interview below, he talks about his goals, responsibilities, and the advantages of his long-standing experience.

The Faculty of Business Administration (Hamburg Business School) is facing exciting times. At the moment, it is undergoing an international accreditation process as a business school (EQUIS). What is your role in this, as the new dean?

Prof. Dr. Henrik Sattler: The topic of governance plays a central role in the imminent EQUIS accreditation process. It is vital to the success of the accreditation to have long-term leadership, in which the dean is always available and steers the diverse strategic processes of change in the long term.

What would you like to achieve with your new office? What do you want to change?

Successful EQUIS accreditation is the central goal of my tenure. The greatest challenge is the internationalization of our faculty. While in the area of research we have a very well-established network of leading international universities and also substantial cooperation with many international corporations, our teaching has thus far been limited with regard to internationalism. But that will change. For example, starting in Summer Semester 2024, we are converting much of the main master’s program to English. We are also establishing international summer school programs and there are double degree programs currently running, for example, with Kyoto and Buenos Aires.

We would also like to make communication processes within and outside the faculty more transparent and to motivate as many people as possible, based on their individual talents and interests, to constructively guide the faculty across the board.

To what extent can you integrate your previous professional duties into your new role?

The leadership tasks that I had, for example, as spokesperson for the German Research Foundation research group Marketing of Hedonic Media Products in the Age of Digital Social Media: How Social Media Changes Marketing, certainly help me perform my duties as dean. And my diverse responsibilities in academic self-governance as well as teaching and research help me keep in touch with the daily business of being a professor or administrator.

What will happen with your previous jobs, for example, as the head of the Institute of Marketing?

I will continue to head the Institute of Marketing but due to time constraints, I will also delegate many responsibilities. My job as spokesperson for the above-mentioned German Research Foundation research group ends this year. That fits well with the start of my job as dean. To continue with the research group, we are currently preparing a grant application for a German Research Foundation collaborative research center that would be centrally connected to the University’s profile initiative Marketing and Communication. The dean’s job prevents me from continuing as spokesperson for this, but I will continue to actively follow the initiative.