In this series, I will comment on the written feedback I received after my presentation. Also, I will answer the online questions asked by students I had no time to amply reply to during said presentation
Lehren für Unternehmensführer – das Leben, das Wissen, die Informatik und die Ethik
(Lessons For Managing Directors – Life, Knowledge, Computer Science and Ethics)
„Innovative Entrepreneurs“/ Summer Semester 2010
Leadership in growth-oriented enterprises
Today: Personal Matters
Question:
Did you benefit from the knowledge you acquired during your mathematics studies when you founded your enterprise? If so, what aspects were particularly helpful?
Answer:
Yes!!! In my opinion, mathematics is a glorious subject. Mathematics will help you to practice logical thinking and to formally deduce correct conclusions. Mathematics is also helpful if you want to practice thinking autonomously. Studying mathematics requires discipline, the ability to concentrate and diligence. All these aspects are extremely useful.
Question:
In your personal internet page, you write that you are the father of seven children. How is it possible to combine a successful foundation both with family and entrepreneurship, especially if you also want “growth”? What is your personal experience? What were your milestones?
Answer:
Children and entrepreneurship do not exclude each other. Entrepreneurship means responsibility, responsibility offers potential for free space. Moreover, “experience in life” is an important criterion for “successful leadership”. For me (and I think the same is true for all parents), the children were the greatest “emotional adventure” of my entire life. They put things into perspective and often change priorities – which is also very helpful if you are in a leadership position. Especially small children probably teach us grown-ups a certain amount of wisdom. If you are professionally successful, you can afford to have more children. To be sure, this might go without saying, still it is the truth. For us, the important thing was to have plenty of space and to make it possible for our children to grow up close to nature with green scenery all around. Equally important for me (especially because of the children): having to cover only a short distance between home and work. Consequently, a huge house near the city of Munich was one of the important requirements for me. I could not have afforded it without a relatively high income. And here is another phenomenon: if you have seven children, you are often considered anti-social by others. However, if you are a “successful entrepreneur” with seven children, nobody seems to dream of not accepting you. …
There were no “milestones”. I think it is irrelevant when you have your children: during your studies, while you are in the foundation process, or afterwards… It is all just a question of attitude and organization.
Question:
If you had a second chance, would you make the same decision and establish the enterprise? How long did it take you to put your ideas into practice?
Answer:
I would absolutely again try to found an enterprise, or at least work freelance. With the knowledge I have today, however, I would not make it a capital company with limited liability (GmbH or AG). Instead, I would want a non-incorporated firm in the sense of a partnership. Today, I consider partnerships, such as for instance in chambers (auditing firms, law firms,…) or advising companies the better and fairer alternative, whereas I think capital companies are a little outdated for many modern business ideas. Incidentally, I am not at all in favour of some ideas that enjoy popularity these days, such as Limited GB or EU-GmbH. Mostly, they smell. As to how long it took: the hardest part was finding a partner (I did not want to do it by myself). That took more than two years.
Question:
What was the hardest obstacle to overcome so far after starting the enterprise?
Answer:
A very profound and absurdly incorrect personnel decision almost ruined the enterprise (and myself). Fortunately, though, that was more than a decade ago.
Question:
When you founded your company, did you have a role model or mentor without whom you probably would have managed only with difficulty?
Answer:
From the beginning to this day, I had and still have mentors who accompanied me. Firstly, there was a teacher at high school of the Augsburg “Jacob-Fugger-Gymnasium”, then my professor at TUM, wonderful bosses at Siemens and Softlab, my teacher and friend Rupert Lay, whose seminars I frequently attended and other entrepreneurs among my friends. Even when I was older in my managerial career, I always had a “personal coach”. The last of them is a Siemens AG ex-manager who now also is a friend and counsellor. Currently, I go to St. Gallen four times a year with a number of other entrepreneurs and attend a HYPERLINK “http://www.rise.ch” o “Website von RiSE, St. Gallen” t “_blank” RISE workshop. These are all people I owe a lot to. Without meeting those people, my life would have been totally different and probably considerably poorer. However, I never had a special role model, let alone idol.
Question:
What triggered you to change from being an employee with a secure and fixed income to self-employment in 1984? How did your family, in particular your parents, react to this decision?
Answer:
Basically, there was no trigger, just a reason. For several reasons, I was not very happy with my (not only financial) situation as an employee, even though I had already changed positions several times. Besides, I thought I could do better in some ways than some of what I saw in the enterprises I had been working for. Yet, I did not wish to start by myself. So I looked for a partner. It was not easy, but after I had found him, I went ahead. Basically, meeting Dr. Peter Schnupp and Wolf Geldmacher were what triggered the foundation. As to the family: Even earlier, when I changed from Siemens to the then unknown software house “softlab”, the four brothers of my mother-in-law (they were all state employed in rather high positions) were scandalized. How could I do such a thing? After all, a Siemens job was almost as good as being state employed! My parents never meddled with my professional decisions, yet they always looked upon them with (a huge amount of) scepticism.
Question:
How do you see the current economic and political responsibility of the elite in this country?
Answer:
Very diverse. I have more confidence in the directors of medium-sized companies than in huge concerns. In former times, the elites who preserved values were probable found in other social segments than today. I find more and more people who fascinate me in this respect among the media and NGOs, rather than among politicians. But I also found people of various races, origins and professions in the internet who I later personally met and whose attitude I have the highest respect and trust for
Question:
Do you see a demoralization process?
Answer:
No. Even Socrates complained about the demoralization of the young people. There has been, however, a huge change. I seem to perceive more morals in the public sector, especially if it is only weakly controlled. Also, I think the intelligence and potential for sound judgement of the masses has undergone remarkable development. As they say: the people are wiser than its politicians. The brazen ones are still brazen, but it was the same in former times. However, I am disappointed with the traditional keepers of morals, such as churches and similar social institutions.
Question:
What was your first programming language and what is your favourite one today?
Answer:
The first one was ALGOL 60. My favourite one is: C. Perhaps because C was the “last” programming language. From then on, all we had was “programming systems”. Around the turn of the millennium, I gave up programming.
🙂 Now I prefer writing posts in my blog to programming.
For more questions and answers (Fragen und Antworten), see my next post on the InterFace AG.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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