Lessons For Managing Directors – Life, Knowledge, Computer Science and Ethics
„Innovative Entrepreneurs“ / Summer Semester 2010
Leadership in growth-oriented enterprises
Isabelle Kurth, who organized the lecture series, sent me the feedback she received after my lecture. Since most of it was positive, I was, first and foremost, truly delighted.
Let me reply to some of the important comments right away:
“The lecture was a little on the short side, there was not enough content”
It seems like I made a mistake! Assuming the audience would thank me for not keeping them in the lecture room too long at the current temperature, I thought it a good idea to make it short. Consequently, I cut down from the initially planned 60 minutes to a little less than 45 minutes. If I ever talk about the subject again, I promise to be more extensive.
“The speaker did not tell us enough about InterFace”
Correct! After the poor example of some lectures (I heard) that were overflowing with self-promotion, I hardly mentioned the InterFace AG in my presentation. However, the history of InterFace is described at great length in the IF blog. You can read the entire story from the foundation until today in three parts:
Part 1:: Die ersten 12 Jahre
Part 2: The Wind of Change
Part 3: Aufbruch zu neuen Ufern
“We would have liked to hear more about the foundation phase”
See to the aforesaid. You can read about the foundation of InterFace in three parts as I wrote it down in a personalized way:
Part 1: Wie ich Dr. Peter Schnupp entdeckte
Part 2: Wie ich zu Softlab kam
Part 3: Die Gründung 1983 – 1984
If you want to know more about the history of InterFace and how it was founded, search the IF-Blog by typing “InterFace history” (InterFace-Geschichte) in the search field or by clicking “If history” on the categories. You will find many more anecdotes and true stories, always related to the foundation.
Reading the articles, you will get the impression that the history of InterFace is basically the sum of many special events, situations and happenings. I also know the stories of many other successful enterprises – and they are all a lot like ours. Conversely, I cannot think of a single successful “synthetic foundation”.
“The questions asked online by students before the lecture were not answered adequately”
Yes, many good questions reached me before the lecture through Isabella Kurth. I refrained from answering them, because they did not really fit with what I was talking about. To make up for it, I will now start replying to the most important questions by writing the answers here in irregular intervals.
If you want some backup and arguments for my “heretic opinion” that “growth must not be the highest priority for an enterprise” and that “being the market leader also has lots of risks and disadvantages”, read my entrepreneur’s diary. You will find it in the IF blog. Just click on the Drehscheibe.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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