20 highly exclusive speakers, and 50 participants from 18 countries – from Ecuador and the Dominican Republic to Europe and Singapore, Indonesia and China – created a unique global community.
The 5-day “education adventure” took place in September and was hosted by the Courage Center of Global Family Firms and Munich Business School. 50 selected Next Generation Leaders from all over the world came together to learn, share experiences and create global friendships under the headline of “Innovating and Leading into the Future”.
„It’s astonishing from how many places people came and how they all resonate right away on a very personal level“ says Patrick Bohrer, Co-Founder of Flsk and speaker on the topic of Family Business and on becoming an entrepreneur of his own.
The Global Week was kicked-off by a warm welcome of Munich Business School’s president Dr. Alfred Gossner and Prof. Dr. Marc-Michael Bergfeld, Founder of the Courage Partners Group, which provided a great framing for the week and the topics of today’s global leadership and innovation challenges, the trends affecting each and every business, and the modern approaches to deal with increasingly complicated and dynamic environments.
(From top left to bottom right: MBS Prof. Dr. Heiko Seif, MBS Prof. Dr. Hans H. Jung, MBS Prof. Dr. Barbara Scheck, MBS President Dr. rer. pol. Alfred Gossner with MBS Prof. Dr. Marc-Michael H. Bergfeld.)
Following the goal of creating a fun, but yet academically rigorous setting, day one was laying the foundations for the week by Prof. Dr. Barbara Scheck speaking about growth as a business model. Prof. Scheck provided insights on how scaling works and which success factors need to be considered, especially in the context of digitization. The “tandem session” by Prof. Dr. Hans Jung and Prof. Dr. Heiko Seif, was a great example on how joined forces provide different perspectives on “The two sides of innovation – technology push and market pull”, leaving participants with many valuable aspects on how businesses face the constant challenge of reinventing their businesses.
Daniel Krauss, Co-Founder and CIO of Flixbus, finished off day one by giving an exclusive, two and a half hours deep dive into how to build such a “disruptive rocket ship” – Flix Mobility – and leaving us not only inspired but also with simple but true words such as “Don’t talk so much, just do it” and “If there is no reason to stop, don’t stop”. The success of Flix Mobility proves him right – he took of straight to the Elysee Palace after his speech.
(Daniel Krauss, Co-Founder and CIO of Flixbus)
“New goals require new actions” said Prof. Dr. Marc-Michael Bergfeld about the aspirations his team set for the week. Therefore, day two and day three of the Global Week were spent at a rather unusual but truly inspiring location – Munich’s Nightclub Heart House, where Costanza Carissimo from Cathay Innovation and Benedikt Schoeler, Managing Partner at Vito Ventures, helped the Global Week Community to understand the role of global venture capital in digital entrepreneurship and how empowering ambitious, cutting-edge start-ups will make a difference even beyond the own industry.
Having Eric Saint-Andre, Founder and Managing Director of ASA Advisory Services, a leading Innovation Consultancy based in Singapore, as a speaker absolutely blew the groups’ minds: Eric has worked with over 100 corporate innovation teams, accelerated multiple start-ups. He gave an exclusive insight into his „Innovation Toolbox” and what kind of personal mind-set it takes to truly be an innovation-driving leader. Voted as the best speaker of the week, we all are still running on his high level energy and fun.” reflects Katharina Rupprecht, who was heading the organization of the event.
Another highlight that day was Gregor Grandl, Senior Partner at Porsche Consulting, and his speech about flying cars, vertical mobility concepts and “How to create 10X Visions” – who would have thought you can learn a lot about leadership from Starship Enterprises’ Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk!? Global Week participants now do!
(Gregor Grandl, Senior Partner at Porsche Consulting)
Kicking-Off day three with an energizing morning run with ultra-runner Sonja von Opel gave the right kick-start to take a deep dive into innovation in the context of Family Businesses by hearing about participants’ individual challenges. Patrick Bohrer, Munich Business School Alumni, made his personal learnings memorable by using the imagery of cruise ships and speedboats in his speech, followed by a thrilling exchange of thoughts between him and the participants.
Volker Meinlschmidt, Managing Partner of Grupo Transoceanica from Ecuador, shared valuable insights on his leadership success factors in a personal interview with Micha Bergfeld and discussed family business issues with the group.
While family business participants were taking their break-out session taking deep dives, a second group was taking on the 32-Field Matrix Challenge to apply their innovation learnings from day one and two.
Having Dr. Stefan Niemand, Head of Integrated Planning/Steering Product at Audi share his experiences in a fantastic masterclass on innovation and leadership not only left the participants amazed, but the speaker too: “It’s inspiring, it’s innovative,…this is the next level” resumes Dr. Stefan Niemand, after having deep discussions with the Global Week community.
(Dr. Stefan Niemand, Head of Integrated Planning/Steering Product at Audi)
On day four everyone was ready for some hands-on exercise with Dr. Stefan Sambol and his team from OMMAX, a leading European digital strategy and transformation consultancy, headquartered in Munich. Providing a short masterclass on the key drivers of digital business, participants had to take up on a real business case to prove their digital strategy skills, “Super valuable, I will have to share my learnings with my team as soon as I am back home” says Josephine Dransfeld, Next Generation Family Business Leader from Germany and Luke Gerry, Next Generation Leader from Australia concluded: “Finally I understand how to leverage the power of Google, Instagram, Mobile etc!”
The afternoon was well spent at BMW, taking the shop floor assembly tour, followed by taking the evening off for connecting on a more personal level at a “family style” dinner and clearing the head after all that mind-work by hitting the dance floor at the Heart House Club.
Back at Munich Business School, the fifth and last day was all about learning more about the personal quest of being a Next Generation Leader and Entrepreneur.
Prof. Dr. Müllich’s class on “Leadership for the Future” and the role of different cultures – what a great session and discussion with the participants!
Prof. Dr. Schmidkonz’s teaching on “Happiness and Purpose for Leaders” taught the community how important it is to train open awareness vs. focused attention and how meditation can be a helpful tool to train our minds.
(Sonny Caberwal, Serial Entrepreneur of companies such as Union Member House)
Shlomi Selim Benbasat, Founder and CEO of Ennovation Group from Istanbul, and Sonny Caberwal, Serial Entrepreneur of companies such as Union Member House from the San Francisco, took a real leap of faith with the community by sharing their personal way of growth and becoming an entrepreneur – often driven by having to overcome great challenges. “Your intention dominates what you do” and “Find your meaning, then you will become a master and the money will follow” are just examples of the many valuable take-aways both speakers provided. Having Georg Bauer, Co-Founder and Chairman of Fair, close the week with his speech was the “icing on the cake” – Building a multi-unicorn in just 3 years, what a journey!
(Georg Bauer, Co-Founder and Chairman of Fair)
“We wanted to create a global community and leave a mark on everyone in it, so they go out there and create great things, in business and in their personal lives – that’s what drives us”, resumes the Courage team. This participant’s feedback is what we were aiming for: “The Courage team makes you discover your very own formula and what makes you special”.
Save the date and see you in 2020 from September 14th to 18th!
(Courage Team from left to right: Katharina Rupprecht, Head of Courage Institute; Alexander Bergfeld, General Manager Courage; Johannes Ritz, M.A., MIB, Director Courage Latin America; Prof. Dr. Marc-Michael Bergfeld, Founder and Managing Partner Courage)
Impressions of the week can be found here Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin.
