WHU in Wacken: Rethinking Leadership from the Mosh Pit

What can a business school learn from one of the most globally known heavy metal concert festivals? A lot, as one rainy weekend this year proved. At Wacken Open Air, which takes place annually in the small Schleswig-Holstein town of the same name, home to only 2,000 people, WHU – Otto Beisheim School Management invited guests to attend WHU Executives, Alumni, Family & Friends × W:O:A. The idea to rethink leadership among some 85,000 metal and hard-rock fans came from the WHU Center for Non-Profit Management and Social Impact and the CIO Stiftung.

Born of a collaboration with game – The German Games Industry Association, Koelnmesse, and other organizations such as FusionCampus and the Foundation for Digital Games Culture, WHU’s presence at gamescom, one of the world’s largest events for computer and video game enthusiasts, had already shown that one can gain new knowledge even in the most unexpected of places. With its various activities and panel discussions, the event allows for regular exchange between companies, foundations, non-profits, as well as the school’s alumni.

“New locations allow for new perspectives. And our network at WHU grants us access to exciting and unusual places and a way to learn in a walled environment,” said Dr. Peter Kreutter, Managing Director Foundations at WHU. 

“Wacken Open Air has always been about more than just the world’s biggest bands like Guns N’ Roses. It’s about a global community, a passion that transcends borders, and the impact that that generates,” noted Manouchehr Shamsrizi, lecturer at WHU and volunteer ambassador for the Wacken Open Air festival. “Over the years, Wacken has become something of a social, technological, and organizational science lab.” 

What can we learn from Wacken? Those words set the tone for the day, with participants on the ground tackling matters relevant to corporate transformation, including, for example, how identity can remain scalable despite growth and professionalization. Or how leadership works in highly dynamic and physical contexts, how impact is born of communities with strong bonds, and how foundations can support talent. 

Event-goers gained new perspectives and learned quite a bit from all sides—including from the musicians, such as Frank Heim, who, as part of the band Saltatio Mortis, headlined the festival that previous evening. Participants also heard directly from technology directors, social impact experts, entrepreneurs, and volunteer workers, for example, Stephan Greiner (former COO of d&B audiotechnik), patent law expert Dr. Rolf Claessen, Arne Blaschke of the Wacken Foundation, as well as representatives from DKMS, Rotary International, and select deep-tech start-ups.

With all the innovative ideas, spirited discussion, and new insights, the participants’ first experiences in Wacken were, as noted by WHU Senior Fellow Matthias Hartmann, a roaring success. “WHU’s goal, and mine as well, is to always remain open and inquisitive. And that makes everything we learned during the first WHU Executives, Alumni, Family & Friends × W:O:A so invaluable. Our thanks go to everyone who actively supported us in our efforts.”