A wake-up call for universities und students: Go entrepreneurial!

Stefan Baumgartner, Managing Shareholder, KapHag Beteiligungen GmbH, Berlin

On 14 January 2013, as part of the MCI Alumni & Friends lecture series, Stefan Baumgartner, managing shareholder of KapHag Beteiligungen GmbH, was invited by Management Center Innsbruck to speak on the subject, “Go entrepreneurial! A wake-up call for universities and students.”

KapHag Beteiligungen GmbH is a Berlin-based company that stands for innovation in the handling of real estate and represents a total investment volume of 3 billion euros.

In his introductory remarks Baumgartner talked about his own educational career; drawing on his own experiences he developed suggestions and recommendations for universities and students. Collaborations between universities and business enterprises are of vital importance according to Baumgartner as they promote a practice-oriented approach and facilitate the creation of networks, two factors which may prove valuable assets in the students’ further careers. Additionally, some basic psychological knowledge and the “tools of the trade” of a salesman should be part of every education, given that all of us are faced with the need to “market” ourselves in our day-to-day professional lives.

Mr. Baumgartner emphasized the importance of entrepreneurial thinking and suggested two approaches that might provide an opportunity also for young entrepreneurs in need of financial backing: first, to market ideas that contribute towards solving others’ problems, as a way to procure financing given that the partners would certainly be willing to make an investment in return for the solution of their problems; and secondly, to continue the ideas or life’s work of an entrepreneur who has no successor and would therefore be glad to find someone to “follow in his footsteps.”

The lecture was chaired by Univ.Prof. DDr. Jürgen Huber, Head of the Department of Banking and Finance at Innsbruck University.