Episode 8: Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Digital Entrepreneurship

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00:01:32: Today we are diving into the topics entrepreneurial, ecosystem, and digital

00:01:50: entrepreneurship with a focus on digital transformation, platform, and digital skill.

00:01:55: With a very special guest, Dr. Morris Steinhoff.

00:01:58: Welcome Morris.

00:01:59: Hello, Mike.

00:02:00: Morris is a co-founder and serves a managing director as HHL.

00:02:06: What is the meaning of HHL?

00:02:10: Well, HHL is the abbreviation for hundreds Hochschule Leipzig back in the days.

00:02:20: The correct name is actually HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management.

00:02:25: So it's a traditional university, I think.

00:02:29: Yeah, HHL has a long tradition.

00:02:31: Has been founded by entrepreneurs themselves in 1898.

00:02:37: Oh, wow.

00:02:38: So 120, 130 years almost.

00:02:42: And yeah, or was the first German business school or first faculty also when it comes to economics?

00:02:51: So it's opposite to our German University of Digital Science.

00:02:54: So it's interesting.

00:02:55: Yes, Morris is a co-founder and serves as a management director at the HHL Digital Space

00:03:02: with special focus on entrepreneurial economic systems, strategic management,

00:03:07: and digital entrepreneurship.

00:03:09: All the topics we will just discuss today.

00:03:12: So again, welcome Morris.

00:03:14: And before we delve into the topics, give us a brief overview about your professional career and the highlights.

00:03:20: Yes, so as you just pointed out, I'm responsible at HHL for all our entrepreneurship activities,

00:03:29: meaning head of entrepreneurial ecosystem is because we understand a university,

00:03:35: especially the ones with focus on management,

00:03:40: and also with our footprint.

00:03:42: I just mentioned we have been founded by entrepreneurs is that our entrepreneurial DNA is somehow always present.

00:03:48: Right.

00:03:49: And in the past, we never really fostered that as being special.

00:03:54: However, it's worth to be mentioned that even though we are very small university,

00:04:01: more than 530 startups have been founded by our alumni.

00:04:06: So maybe we'll come back to that later.

00:04:10: I'm responsible for the ecosystem, meaning I'm managing our early stage incubator,

00:04:14: which has a specific focus on early stage ideas that are incubated or validated within special programs.

00:04:24: Besides that, I'm a senior research fellow at HHL.

00:04:28: So also research is still a topic on my desk all the time.

00:04:34: Before HHL and before I started my dissertation also at HHL, I was working in consulting.

00:04:44: I had a strong focus on also working on developing or helping projects to develop

00:04:51: new platforms in the field of e-commerce.

00:04:54: I was always responsible for looking at also economic or business model sites

00:05:01: and further has some background in information systems.

00:05:05: So digitization has always been a topic and also I've found it a small company,

00:05:10: small startup with a friend of mine in the early stages when first iPads have been introduced.

00:05:15: And we are figuring out how to do business there back in the days.

00:05:20: And now today, I'm very happy to drive the whole HHL ecosystem further with the team that we have

00:05:30: across several initiatives and also happy to be here talking to you today.

00:05:35: Morris, beside all the topics, what is interesting for me, if you just talk about consulting,

00:05:40: very often there's a critical background that people say,

00:05:43: "Oh, we don't need any external consulting."

00:05:47: So can you explain why should the companies use external consultants?

00:05:55: To my point of view, it's often the value that externals bring into companies with their external

00:06:03: view and also experience in different topics. Of course, companies have strong traditions,

00:06:09: have strong capabilities in several areas. But of course, as you might know, times are changing

00:06:16: and often quite quickly. So established business models, for instance, may or may not work well

00:06:22: or not so well or may not continue to work well. And I think especially in that field,

00:06:28: in terms of strategy, thinking about how to maybe adjust or align a company to new realities,

00:06:33: there are some points where externals can actually bring some value into companies

00:06:41: and also partially solving critical problems. And I think therefore, it's always a good point

00:06:47: sometimes also for the management to just get an outside perspective on how industries

00:06:52: might develop and figuring out how companies can actually adjust.

00:06:55: Okay, I understand. Yes, it's interesting. So if we just talk about one of your main

00:07:03: competences, that means the entrepreneurial ecosystem. So can you explain what is an

00:07:11: entrepreneurial ecosystem? So it's right there. And why it's important?

00:07:18: Well, from our perspective, I mean, you might know other ecosystem research that has been done

00:07:25: or also cluster research that has been done. And usually, what we understand, or our view on that

00:07:31: is that many aspects come together that for especially for entrepreneurship, help ideas to

00:07:37: grow into companies, and then also helping startup companies or established companies

00:07:44: in their life cycle. So from the idea until maybe company succession, and this is where we as

00:07:51: business school with the focus on entrepreneurship and our entrepreneurial DNA

00:07:55: look, let's say maybe more holistically on that, and try to support entrepreneurs across all stages

00:08:03: and across from all backgrounds, basically. And at HL, we of course see in the beginning,

00:08:09: maybe the classroom as the point to discuss maybe next big things, new ideas, have some ideation

00:08:16: formats then that follow with the incubator, we installed something where for instance,

00:08:21: students but also non-HHL entrepreneurs can actually join our program because they are open to

00:08:27: validate their ideas in a structured program, for instance, in 12 weeks. And then they have access

00:08:35: to all what is needed actually to found the company, but also to grow it. We have not only an

00:08:43: incubator, but also an accelerator which helps companies to grow or startup companies to grow

00:08:48: quickly, also their in structured programs. And then also we have an institute for company

00:08:53: succession. And this is basically our understanding that a university has the opportunity to actually

00:09:00: also orchestrate several instances you need to build and to grow companies, bringing together

00:09:08: investors, founders, experts, industry experts, and basically also offering that openly as a

00:09:17: seeding bet maybe for new companies. So can you explain as a use case, how does it work?

00:09:26: If there is for example, the startup company and what is the main point of this process?

00:09:32: As well as the milestones. From our perspective, we start with ideas. Of course, this could be

00:09:43: an individual idea, could be an idea of a group, usually very early stage, meaning the first three

00:09:50: to six months within that life lifespan or life cycle. In our incubator, we have the

00:09:58: structured incubation program, which actually picks up founders at their specific point and

00:10:03: helps them in a structured way to first of all validate the concrete problem, maybe also the

00:10:09: target group. So learning more about the potential market. And then in the second step, developing

00:10:15: and validating the solution behind the idea, meaning this is the product solution fit,

00:10:22: that is to say the basis that we understand is necessary to actually build a product and

00:10:27: then find the product market fit. This is in the life cycle of companies, actually quite common

00:10:32: or startups to look at these different checkmarks. I mean, no one can really say once you achieve

00:10:38: it, but everybody knows you need it. And exactly this is where we are in the very early stages,

00:10:45: helping to identify the most critical hypothesis, have structured methods and

00:10:50: offer coaching, sparing, mentoring for these founders actually to do that critical step that

00:11:00: they need in the beginning, in the risking process. And then also to a certain degree,

00:11:05: follow the idea, maybe adapt it one, develop the product and then also to launch a company

00:11:12: and go into that proof of concept stage. This is basically where our job, at least for the incubator

00:11:17: ends. But then of course, I mentioned that many alumnae in our network have found it. Also many

00:11:24: of our alumni are actively investing venture capital. And this is also where we bring together

00:11:29: people, as you might know, some startups need some funds actually to found the company, pre-seed,

00:11:36: seed funding, also several series of fundings that follow. And also this is part of the

00:11:43: ecosystems actually to bring these people together. This is why for instance, we back in 2020 together

00:11:50: with RWTH Aachen, which is a technical university in Germany, flagship university for engineering,

00:11:57: we partnered up and built stage two. Stage two is a competition for university spin-offs. Actually

00:12:07: the largest one now in Europe, where all the important people and also cool startup ideas

00:12:16: actually come together to present themselves and actually to secure some funds. And we are

00:12:22: quite happy that we not only have an own ecosystem at HHL and only think in our

00:12:27: waltz internally, but also of course give something back to the whole and also give back and develop

00:12:34: the German ecosystem in that or also European ecosystem further in that sense.

00:12:38: So if we talk about digital competences and the new forms of entrepreneurship, one keyword is

00:12:49: digital entrepreneurship. What does it mean? What are the key elements of digital entrepreneurship?

00:12:53: Well, technology has of course many, many potentials and levels. The startup companies leverage,

00:13:02: especially when we look at business models, I think if you compare maybe startups that have been

00:13:09: founded 30 or 40 years ago to them, which are founded these days, large components of their

00:13:15: business model. I mean, the basic understanding of a business model and their components is

00:13:20: reflected, for instance, in the business model canvas. Many, some people know about that. And

00:13:25: if you look at these components and how they interact, of course, digital technologies help to

00:13:29: actually create value for a potential customer, but also help to deliver this value to customers.

00:13:35: You can think in transaction terms, cost structures, revenues, dreams, in which of

00:13:43: course digital technologies have their benefit or just enable it and also therefore give a startup

00:13:49: idea the existence actually. And therefore, digital business models of course, not only have

00:13:57: digital products, but also of course everything related to digital processes and everything that

00:14:02: is driven and enabled by technology actually. Morris, we've learned a lot about strategic

00:14:08: management in the past. Of course, it's an interesting question for me. How can we take

00:14:14: conservative strategic management principles to this new world of digital entrepreneurship

00:14:22: and digital business models? Maybe I'll reflect back to what we do in our structured incubation

00:14:32: program because this is actually a little bit inspired by that approach. We say, okay,

00:14:37: we somehow can have great ideas and also maybe all the technologies, but I mentioned already,

00:14:43: we need to validate a concrete problem and also build a solution based on that. And if we look

00:14:50: at strategic management and the principles that have been developed by research and also have been

00:14:55: facilitated in many classrooms, but also applied in practice, then of course a strategic view is also

00:15:02: for instance, look on the market and to understand certain context factors, developments in the

00:15:11: environment, but also of course in certain industries, especially looking also at certain

00:15:16: players, understanding what they offer, what they do, and then also to understand where the potential

00:15:22: shortcomings in their offerings and their products are to better understand where there could be a

00:15:26: potential gap in the market. So there are some, let's say, practical techniques we can learn from

00:15:33: strategic management scholars, not only looking at resources, but also on market conditions and so

00:15:38: on, that we as startup entrepreneurs can use actually to have and work on, let's say,

00:15:46: competitive advantages potentially if we want to use this word. One point I think is important,

00:15:55: that's the point that we have fast development of technology and tools and so on. So if we

00:16:04: start with an entrepreneurship or with a startup now, how do we just plan for a longer term?

00:16:12: Is it possible? Are there some tools which might be helpful or is it necessary to change

00:16:20: the strategic options to say, don't think over two or four years because it's not serious?

00:16:27: I think at the end of the day it's a mixture of both and the mental model that has to be there,

00:16:35: in my point of view, is to combine these both worlds of pure strategic and maybe long-term

00:16:41: planning, if you want that view, and then also of course the ability of companies to react to

00:16:48: certain changes in the market. I mean, look at what the pandemic has driven into companies,

00:16:55: there was a discussion that digital transformation in companies is something that needs to be done

00:17:01: somehow and then you have an external shock and then from one day to the other tools such as Skype

00:17:09: or Zoom in the days have been implemented overnight if you want and companies reacted well, others

00:17:19: maybe took a month or a year longer to adapt. However, in my point of view, it's a mix of both

00:17:28: and if we look at tools you can use for instance also concepts that has partially been researched

00:17:37: and developed at HHL scenario planning, we have a specific center for that which actually offers

00:17:43: interesting insight into how the world might look like, and it's maybe not to have the concrete plan

00:17:49: and security how it will look like, but maybe to think more in potential ways it could look like

00:17:56: and to be prepared and to identify maybe the weaknesses or also the strengths a company in

00:18:02: that sense could have to adopt to that and how much risk evolves from being not so adoptable in

00:18:09: the business model and the existing business model or to also understand where potential

00:18:16: future potentials actually are to benefit from and therefore I always like scenario planning,

00:18:24: the scenario planning ideas because it really facilitates the understanding and then also encourages

00:18:31: people to think of what could be and to combine not only best and worst case scenarios because

00:18:38: this is the classical association with scenarios but rather the combination of several factors

00:18:43: could lead to completely different worlds, right? And I think this is a little bit a mix of rigor

00:18:48: analysis but also of creativity and if I look in the literature especially in outlets

00:18:56: of what we have published there at the center of scenario planning it's always interesting to

00:19:03: look at the blind spots where people potentially agree on something or disagree on something but

00:19:08: not so much have different views and exactly these blind spots are somehow interesting to look at

00:19:15: how certain factors can maybe evolve develop and how the combination of these factors actually

00:19:20: work in critical uncertainties or is what what are some key facts for success in a digital business

00:19:30: I mean I don't know whether there's a generic right answer to this

00:19:42: of course success factors the biggest success factor is actually for at least for me to understand

00:19:50: the right understand and define the right problem and to understand the right customer because

00:19:55: ultimately of course the value of a company is somehow built by the interaction with the customer

00:20:02: because you create value for someone right and I think this is a great starting point to understand

00:20:08: where a digital business model with its products maybe also with its processes can add value to

00:20:15: a customer so that it is somehow successful and maybe also this is what we have seen in the past

00:20:21: that with digital business models and the offerings that these new startups have created,

00:20:26: they have somehow gained a competitive edge towards established companies, large companies,

00:20:32: because they were flexible, more innovative.

00:20:34: They adopted and understood the flow of the customer a little bit better, how the customer

00:20:39: journey looked like, and where exactly, for instance, also with the use of all the mobile

00:20:44: devices that we have around, can really have a different approach to whatever kind of task

00:20:50: is at hand or whatever kind of problem is at hand that a certain customer faces.

00:20:55: And I think this is the point of view that I would always like to facilitate, is to think

00:21:00: from the customer's perspective more than from a technology perspective.

00:21:06: Yeah, of course, using technology is not the successful part you needed for the success,

00:21:13: but you always have, we just talked about that in one of the last episodes, you need

00:21:20: the educational system behind it and the people can use it and so on.

00:21:24: So on the other side, we have for existing companies, one most important challenge is

00:21:33: the digital transformation.

00:21:35: And I know that you just work on a digital transformation platform, so can you just give

00:21:39: us a shout out of you, what is it, and how does it support business?

00:21:44: Yes, so the idea with digital space as being a digital transformation platform is also

00:21:51: that new business models are not only created in startups, but also in established companies.

00:21:56: And our view was that, okay, maybe it is a vital way for established companies to maybe

00:22:02: create new business models or enhance the existing business models using digital technologies.

00:22:09: And the platform idea was or is pointed more towards the aspect that of course also the

00:22:15: collaboration between established companies and maybe startup companies is very critical,

00:22:20: maybe also in the early stages.

00:22:23: If you think about the venture-clienting concept, where a new startup creates, for instance,

00:22:27: a B2B product or solution, of course, in the early days, it's quite hard for teams

00:22:35: partially to get access to established companies and to test and develop their product.

00:22:42: And here we see great potential for both worlds that of course on the one hand side, new startups

00:22:48: have the room to explore and validate and construct a new product and then also establish companies

00:22:55: or for established companies to benefit from developing, co-developing that maybe also co-venturing

00:23:02: that if that's possible.

00:23:06: And on a platform, we just bring together the right people and where we see great potential

00:23:13: that because these people met maybe also by serendipity, it is value in itself also in

00:23:22: the ideation process, maybe in the process of realization or go-to-market strategies,

00:23:28: for instance, and this is how we constructed this platform approach, actually.

00:23:33: So working at the university and thinking about the study programs on the skills of

00:23:39: students, so what do you think are the main skills students need to be well prepared for

00:23:46: digital transformation processes?

00:23:50: You can argue from various angles and I think every university would argue from their best

00:23:57: perspective.

00:24:00: If I speak for HHL, I believe one of the major aspects that we always look at is entrepreneurial

00:24:08: thinking and acting is the basic foundation, I guess, which we facilitate in almost all

00:24:15: the classes because of course you can have all the technologies but if you don't have

00:24:21: maybe the minds who can translate it into business models, this is maybe a problem then.

00:24:26: This is also what we often see that technology is partially looking for a problem, oftentimes,

00:24:34: that can be solved and the idea and coming back to your question for a digital skill

00:24:38: or for that skill set is to understand both worlds, I guess, understanding technology and

00:24:44: the potentials it has but also understanding the economic foundations behind it and maybe

00:24:50: also the way on how to construct a business model in that sense using technology.

00:24:56: So if you just have a view on the international context, I think you have a lot of experiences

00:25:01: here too and what is the main difference in entrepreneurship between different countries,

00:25:10: for example, if you just compare Germany to the United States or other European countries?

00:25:16: If we look at the differences, I mean, many research has been done on this as well, of

00:25:20: course we always come to the conclusion that it is a cultural difference, risk awareness

00:25:28: that is a main differentiator between maybe the German ecosystem, maybe also other, specifically

00:25:37: the US ecosystem when it comes to startups and also this risk awareness is partially

00:25:44: reflected in venture capital investments, we see that in the statistics, I mean, right

00:25:48: now generally or globally on a fall, critical conditions for some startups to generate new

00:25:58: rounds or find, let's say, follow up investments but I think the major difference is also the

00:26:07: way on how the world could look like.

00:26:09: Partially I have the feeling that we in Germany are somehow self-contrained with the view

00:26:15: on how the world could look like being enhanced by technology, for instance.

00:26:21: And partially if you look at startups that have been found in the US, there is less of

00:26:31: a boundary thinking, I guess, it's more like, okay, what's possible, let's do it.

00:26:37: We see that in many, many ideas that have been ultimately become very successful and

00:26:45: multinational companies in that sense that have been just founded by the openness to

00:26:51: technology and also by the openness of creating something new that in the existing system

00:26:57: maybe does not really work but is really open for a system in the new world, so to speak.

00:27:04: And I think this is the major difference, the world view is a difference and also the

00:27:10: way of, I think another constraint that we have, potentially maybe also especially in

00:27:15: Germany is that of course we often are too perfectionistic driven that we always want

00:27:22: to have the perfectionistic view on things that always has to be a 100% solution and

00:27:28: where we just spend a lot of time, I mean, applying Pareto principle here as well, is

00:27:33: that oftentimes also maybe 50% is totally enough but what counts is speed and I think

00:27:41: this is a major difference here as well.

00:27:43: What are the main challenges for entrepreneurs starting a new business?

00:27:50: You mean in Germany?

00:27:51: Yes, let's talk about Germany.

00:27:54: Maybe also about Dubai.

00:27:55: I mean, of course, the given context or the given conditions, I think it has already been

00:28:04: improved over the past 10 years but of course in other countries it might be easier and

00:28:10: faster to just found a company, you don't necessarily have to have a physical document

00:28:16: somewhere or notary signing physical documents that are being sending around also especially

00:28:22: when you raise your first investment rounds.

00:28:25: So the complexity that is associated with the bureaucracy around the process of founding

00:28:30: a company might be a challenge.

00:28:34: A second challenge is to find maybe the right people to do it because of course what we

00:28:40: also observe is that talent is quite mobile these days.

00:28:44: You mentioned already Dubai, we know many other, let's say, startup friendly countries

00:28:50: and we know that actually talent is not maybe attracted to rainy and cold weather in most

00:28:59: of the year but rather looking for nicer conditions and I think also enabled by technology we

00:29:04: can actually benefit from that and many talented entrepreneurs or minds do that and therefore

00:29:11: also leave the country and found their company somewhere else and I think this is where we

00:29:18: should be aware of that of course that it is a competitive edge that we lose.

00:29:24: Maybe a third challenge is partially venture capital or was in the past, I mean there has

00:29:30: been a lot of funds that have been created and that are raised again and again and that

00:29:36: are actively investing in many teams.

00:29:39: We work in on more of ecosystem or more ecosystem approaches across Germany.

00:29:44: I think universities have understood that not only teaching and research is their main

00:29:48: responsibility but also the aspect of transfer enabling maybe also scientists which have

00:29:55: great ideas and great laboratories around where the potentials for new startup ideas

00:30:02: products are created, they just need to be leveraged in a way and so from our perspective

00:30:09: often times we see that also the collaboration between universities but also specifically

00:30:15: the focus on transfer is so important and could even be more and more and could be improved.

00:30:21: I know that the government is facilitating new incentives also for universities to tap

00:30:26: into that.

00:30:28: Currently a project is startup factories which is luckily something where HHL also is creating

00:30:34: the startup factory.

00:30:35: For example, we bring together more universities to facilitate new programs and find synergies

00:30:43: between all the types of universities.

00:30:46: Different faculties that work together but especially also think and act entrepreneurially

00:30:53: within these universities and then ultimately to create more ideas, more companies that

00:30:58: come from that that also have a competitive edge globally.

00:31:02: I mentioned stage two already we really address and try to give early stage scientists and

00:31:10: startup teams from university this stage that they need to get visibility and this limited

00:31:16: visibility sometimes can be a challenge.

00:31:20: Can you point out the typical three mistakes in the beginning of entrepreneurs, can we

00:31:29: just point out that?

00:31:31: Well if I look at the cohorts that we had in our past 10 programs that we did in the

00:31:35: past four years then typically the first problem is that teams or founders are very

00:31:43: of course convinced with the idea and have a concrete idea of a product that they have

00:31:52: to or want to create neglecting a little bit realities of customers and so on.

00:31:58: So falling in love with the idea and so we always say kill your darling is very, very

00:32:03: important in the beginning.

00:32:04: Work database, work hypothesis based also to get this early stage reality check in order

00:32:11: of course maybe not to lose the vision but to have it backed up by data and then also

00:32:17: to de-risk a little bit earlier.

00:32:19: So this is the first problem, second problem is of course in my view often times a little

00:32:25: bit could be the professionalism in which way they work of course it's very creative,

00:32:30: it's very open, very dynamic partially.

00:32:33: Also however we often see that okay the systematic approach partially is what is missing, good

00:32:40: organization, good communications, all the let's say good manners that you need even

00:32:45: though I know that not many want to hear that but I strongly believe that this is also something

00:32:50: where young teams and young talent and young talent can actually improve in the way they

00:32:56: work and thereby we also be more efficient in parts and could be even faster.

00:33:04: And the third point is yeah maybe also the appreciation of the chaos of the journey that

00:33:14: you jump in, I often times see that there are nice stories that are told about entrepreneurs

00:33:22: right and often times it's a little bit the challenge that we of course tell more about

00:33:26: the success stories than we tell about the failures actually and what it took also on

00:33:32: personal depth maybe for some founders to be so successful.

00:33:36: The hours that they spend on just the hard work that they do and also I think I mean you're

00:33:43: right now here in the same setting I guess to start up a new digital university especially

00:33:48: in Germany is a major challenge and I can imagine how many different challenges you

00:33:53: have to face and that is maybe also what could be a challenge is that as a founder they at

00:34:01: the beginning maybe not know what they agree upon and also the huge and variety of topics

00:34:08: that they actually have to handle.

00:34:10: I think a good quote that I heard recently was founding a company's jumping off a cliff

00:34:17: and figuring out the airplane or building the airplane while falling and partially especially

00:34:24: for early stage teams and also for non experienced founders this is maybe the thing where they

00:34:31: even more could maybe learn from experienced founders.

00:34:34: Maurice what does holistic learning management mean and what is the meaning in the education

00:34:46: of management.

00:34:48: You mean a holistic learning experience?

00:34:50: Yeah.

00:34:51: Sorry.

00:34:52: Oh good.

00:34:53: This is the experience starts so from a perspective entrepreneurship is always of course also

00:35:04: you don't only want to create new ideas and maybe write them on slide decks but you really

00:35:08: want to work on them and really figure them out test them as a laboratory setting and

00:35:15: I think this is what universities can even or have to give more room to is really not

00:35:23: to think about ideas maybe also developments and everything universities are very strong

00:35:28: in also using a lot of research and making use of that but is also pretty much the way

00:35:35: on how this actually can be carried out can be implied in parts.

00:35:40: Often we see of course very talented students not having any practical experience in any

00:35:47: field and I strongly believe that partially you have to just get hands on something to

00:35:51: figure out how it really looks feels like and also that would help students to maybe

00:35:55: figure out what their real passion is what they are passionate about what they want to

00:36:00: work on later what kind of roles they actually want to work in and therefore I think the

00:36:05: combination of being a classroom being in a laboratory but also being an outside world

00:36:10: just to gather some experiences in maybe different roles or in the start-up setting is something

00:36:17: where learning experience is coming also from challenges understanding the challenges understanding

00:36:23: what kind of tools there are but then also learning and applying these tools and figuring

00:36:28: out solutions to a given problem is what is of value.

00:36:32: So what is in at least the benefit for the students for their personal development?

00:36:40: I think look in an understanding where their current point of knowledge is maybe of experience

00:36:47: is and then also after maybe 12 weeks after 24 weeks 6 months to look back on their semester

00:36:58: trimester whatever setting they study in is to okay what have they know before what have

00:37:03: they challenged and what are they now capable of looking more on a competence focus maybe

00:37:10: also learning journeys actually built up on each other for instance you can do that with

00:37:16: integrated case studies that actually focus on several topics where actually concepts

00:37:21: and solutions and constraints are really much pretty much interlinked and were also several

00:37:27: different faculties actually work on each other together and where students actually

00:37:32: learn for instance the holistic view you actually need to manage accompanying all these aspects

00:37:37: or a project in these various actions not only from ideation but also from integration

00:37:44: reality and everything that is related to that and I think this whole learning experience

00:37:48: should reflect on this.

00:37:51: Morris now the challenge for you can you give an entrepreneur an advice in one sentence

00:38:01: for his start of his new business model?

00:38:06: Yes I always believe in three aspects that young teams young startups have as their

00:38:12: competitive advantage is speed, creativity and flexibility I think these three pillars

00:38:21: if you want to call them pillars is what is a major differentiator and where teams which

00:38:26: make use of all these three to a very good extent can be quite successful and so using

00:38:35: the time wisely being quick in their moves but also maybe a little bit strategic in their

00:38:41: moves and then also being quite flexible in order to adapt to changes in markets conditions

00:38:48: and everything that is necessary actually to diverge from the initial concept maybe

00:38:54: also to a new concept that they found find along the way this is what I would advise.

00:39:02: Morris what a great pleasure talking to you about this I think very exciting topic and

00:39:08: so did I miss something with the topic you miss or is there something you want to add

00:39:15: last?

00:39:16: I think we covered a huge variety of topics I think we already talked more than 30 or

00:39:22: 40 minutes or so even though it feels like 10 minutes and we could sit here for more

00:39:27: hours first of all I'm very happy to be your guest here very interesting also to see what

00:39:32: you built with German UDS and all the concept is pretty new to the German market at least

00:39:38: and also internationally has huge potential so I'm very curious to see where this journey

00:39:44: will take you and also where it takes us with all the courses and what potentially also

00:39:50: students that are part of the courses will ultimately be and maybe also where entrepreneur

00:39:56: endeavors from digital technologies or with the digital technologies will end up so thank

00:40:01: you again for having me Mike.

00:40:03: Yes, I was looking for that we will continue this.

00:40:06: Thank you very much.

00:40:07: Looking forward to so have a great day.

00:40:10: Thanks.

00:40:11: We hope you found today's discussion insightful and inspiring as we continue to explore the

00:40:17: frontiers of digital education.

00:40:20: Until next time let's keep pushing the boundaries of knowledge and innovation.

00:40:24: Stay curious, stay connected and we'll see you soon on From Campus to Cyber.

00:40:29: [MUSIC]

00:40:39: (crowd cheering)

00:40:41: You