Grawe brings industry experience, academic expertise to College of Business helm
Scott Grawe couldn’t say no to Mississippi State twice.
Before he became the 11th dean of the MSU College of Business in 2023, the Iowa native was a sought-after high school pitcher on the radar of many college baseball coaches, including legendary Diamond Dawgs skipper Ron Polk.
Although Iowa State University eventually beat MSU and other schools to the young hurler’s signature, Polk’s personal recruiting style—and a lingering “What if?”—stayed with Grawe beyond his collegiate baseball career.
“I was getting letters and phone calls from all across the country, and then I committed in the early signing period. Once that happened, everyone stopped—except Coach Polk,” Grawe recalled. “He’s the only one in the country that reached out to congratulate me and said he was looking forward to seeing me accomplish great things.
“Because of that, Mississippi State was always the school in the back of my mind,” he continued. “Years later, I’d still flip the channel over to an MSU game and root for the Bulldogs once I was done watching Iowa State play.”
When a search firm contacted Grawe to gauge his interest in taking over for retiring Dean Sharon Oswald, whom he previously met through academic conferences, it seemed serendipitous.
“I always had a ton of respect for the people I knew at MSU, so it warranted a look. Having one of the best baseball programs in the nation didn’t hurt, either,” he joked.
That one look was all it took for him to sign on the dotted line this time.
Besides a 90-mph fastball—its velocity might have dropped a bit since his playing days, he admits—Grawe brings years of real-world experience and academic research in supply chain management to MSU. Entering into that specific field, however, wasn’t his original plan. Grawe earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from ISU and took a job with Principal Financial Group, a global investment management and insurance company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, before moving to Colorado with his wife Michelle.
There, fate—reputation, specifically—led him into his eventual area of expertise.
“I interviewed with Target for a human resources job, but an administrator asked if I would be interested in a transportation manager position that would open up later. That offer was purely based on his association of Iowa State and transportation excellence. I haven’t looked back since,” Grawe said.
“That’s an important lesson, and one I want to implement here at Mississippi State: Where you go to school—its reputation matters,” he continued. “We have faculty here in the College of Business who are at the very top of their field, doing outstanding research and truly care about their students. I want us to be known for that excellence.”
After almost a decade in the corporate world, which included a stint as an inventory control manager with Polaris Industries in Minnesota, Grawe re-entered academia and earned a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and a doctoral degree from the University of Oklahoma’s Price College of Business. He then spent almost 15 years at ISU, working his way up to a full professorship and serving as chair of its supply chain management department, among other roles and responsibilities.
“The pandemic taught us all how important supply chains are to how we live,” said Frank Adams, MSU College of Business’ Mary Jo and Paul Karre Faculty Fellow and professor of supply chain logistics and marketing. “Dean Grawe learned those lessons 20 year ago at Target and Polaris. He explored how supply chains impact all of us as a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma and as a professor at Iowa State. Now, his experience and scholarship guides the College of Business as we prepare our students and industry partners for the future.”
Grawe’s goal at MSU is to bring to the classroom more hands-on learning opportunities to better prepare students for rapidly evolving industry needs. In addition to this type of learning, he has many other assets under the College of Business’ umbrella to leverage toward success, including the MSU Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach, Center of Family Enterprise Research, Family Business Education Initiative, Small Business Development Center and Idea Shop, among others.
“My academic career has always been about doing good research and taking care of students. It’s all about getting them excited about the careers they’re embarking on and having them take ownership of their learning,” Grawe said. “Last year, we had 73 courses that had an experiential learning component to them, which is remarkable. I’m passionate about what I call live learning because students often get caught up with an answer key—wanting to just know what the answer to a question is. If we bring in real-world problems, they can get creative. That’s when they come up with solutions that nobody may have thought about before.
“Experiential learning empowers students to put their brains to work,” he continued. “It gives them ownership of their ideas and progress, and that satisfaction primes them for additional success.”
In addition to developing the hard skills needed to tackle future problems, Grawe wants students to be equipped with the soft skills required to advance their careers. Networking, team building and communication abilities translate across all lines of work and are invaluable assets job recruiters look for, he said.
“This is what I always tells students in one of my last lectures every semester: ‘If you take nothing else from this class, please understand that one of the most important skills you can learn in business is how to build relationships,’” Grawe said. “No matter how big an organization is, they all rely on other business partners to help them out, and that means you, as an employer, must have people who can connect with others. A student’s ability to do that will open up so many doors for them throughout their career, just like it did for me.”
These relationship-building opportunities offered by the College of Business include numerous outreach efforts focused on serving Magnolia State communities and linking students with industry professionals. For example, COFER produces the Family Business Bulletin, a quarterly report providing insight, relevant research and resources tailored to family owned businesses, while industry-specific conferences including Supply Chain Connect Day and Insurance Day feature experts discussing the latest issues in their fields. The college also uses its growing Rolodex of Bulldog industry leaders who want to invest their knowledge—and sometimes capital—into the next generation of MSU graduates through a variety of mentorships.
“I want our students and alumni to know we’re not done with you once you earn your degree. The four years or so they spend on campus—that’s just the beginning of their Bulldog business journey,” Grawe said. “We want them coming back to us for seminars and programming; to share their expertise; to allow Bulldogs to help other Bulldogs in and out of the workplace.
“We’re also here for those who didn’t go to MSU,” he continued. “The university is an important cog in Mississippi’s economic engine, and we’re here for businesses. Even if you graduated from that school up north—if you have a business challenge, we want to help you. We want people to build their businesses here in Mississippi and continue to provide jobs and support our communities.
“From our PGA Golf Management program to the MBA program, the College of Business is growing stronger and stronger each year,” he added. “I’m very proud of what we have to offer students, alumni and business leaders throughout the state.”
By Carl Smith, Photos by Emily Grace McCall
You’ve Got Mail
Polk stays in touch with baseball acquaintances with thousands of letters through the years
Not only did Ron Polk, the Godfather of Southeastern Conference Baseball, write the book on successfully coaching the sport, he’s also penned thousands of cards, letters and other correspondence to many of the people he’s crossed paths with during his 60-plus years as a coach.
The 2009 College Baseball Hall of Fame inductee has affixed his signature to simple missives ranging from birthday cards to well wishes for former players, coaches and others. Even some past recruits who chose not to join the Bulldogs received letters of congratulations for signing with other colleges and heart-felt good-lucks from Polk.
In all, Polk estimates more than 2,500 individual pieces of correspondence were delivered to former contacts the height of his outreach.
“These people wanted to be part of my life in some way, so I want to be part of theirs. It’s all about staying in touch with them because it’s the right thing to do,” Polk said. “People say they’re too busy to do things like this, that they don’t have time. It all boils down to this: I’m busy, too, but I’m doing things that others would like to do. That’s just how I was raised—disciplined and structured.”
Polk’s efforts are impressive because the self-described “old-school” coach eschews technology, opting instead for self-compiled, hand-written lists. He also completes much of his work by typewriter.
“I don’t have distractions. People think I’m crazy, but I get it done without all these smartphones,” he said. “My first cellphone came in 2001 when I was at Georgia. I still use a flip phone, and I don’t put a lot of names in my phone book.
“Sometimes, I’ll get a call from someone saying, ‘Happy birthday, coach, it’s Bobby,’” Polk continued, “and I’ll say, ‘Bobby who?’”
The legendary Diamond Dawgs coach’s personal touch at communication is well known throughout the baseball world, and the interest in reaching out to Polk is mutual.
“One time, a sports information director let everyone know it was my birthday and put my phone number out on the internet so folks would call,” he said. “The phone started ringing at 6 a.m., and it went through midnight. Over the next few weeks, I had some people reaching back out and asking why I didn’t call them back that day. I said, ‘I couldn’t because of all the ringing!’”
By Carl Smith
