WWU Entrepreneurship Summer School 2014

Antragsteller: Stephan von Delft, Carsten Gelhard

Projektbeteiligte: WWU, Technologieförderung Münster, WUM e.V., JCF Münster, ISPIM PhD Community, ALTANA AG, Evonik Industries AG, NRW.Bank

Projekttitel: WWU Entrepreneurship Summer School 2014

Fachbereich, Studienrichtung: Fachbereich 12 – Chemie und Pharmazie, Wirtschaftschemie

Höhe der geförderten Summe: 4949,98 Euro

Kurze Zusammenfassung des Projekts:
As numerous best practices indicate, many successful startup companies have been founded by young people that came up with valuable business plans shortly after their graduation. But how did these young entrepreneurs manage the underlying barriers and obstacles of founding their own business?
To assist students in getting some more insights into this fundamental question, the WWU Entrepreneurship Summer School 2014 intended to connect outstanding students from all over the world with entrepreneurs that have already succeeded in establishing their own business. We welcomed 25 students and 16 guest speakers from around the globe (e.g., China, Germany, Nigeria, Russia, USA) to this one week event.

Part of this summer school were interactive plenary sessions on topics such as recognizing global business opportunities and sources of innovation, business model design, competitive strategy, corporate venturing and intrapreneurship, as well as talks with entrepreneurs, key note speeches from business practitioners and academics, networking social events and fireside chats with senior executives. Thus, the students have learned about the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, received tools for designing their own sustainable business plan, and built a network of international and entrepreneurial students. Moreover, students visited a family company in the Münsterland region to see how business transition between family members is achieved, learned valuable insights on life balance and corporate management in two fireside chats, and enjoyed two evening events in the city of Münster.

Overall, participating students learned to hone their knowledge on entrepreneurship as well as intrapreneurship, developed skills necessary to assess and shape an opportunity for a successful business foundation and skills for presenting their business ideas to a panel of investors, built an international network with entrepreneurial students from different disciplines (e.g., natural sciences and business studies), and got in contact with successful entrepreneurs and academic researchers.

More information are available at: www.uni-muenster.de/GESS

Besondere Hinweise:
This project would not have been possible without support by many individuals and organizations. We would especially like to thank Gabriele Felder (Technologieförderung Münster), Christiane Thieleke (WWU Marketing), Karl-Heinz and Peter Schimmelpfennig for their insightful company presentation, all our guest and key note speakers, and Prof. Dr. Cornelia Denz (Vice-Rector for International Affairs and Young Researchers, WWU) for giving the welcome speech. We acknowledge financial support by ALTANA AG, Evonik Industries AG, and NRW.Bank. Furthermore, we thank our partners Technologieförderung Münster, WUM e.V., JCF Münster, ISPIM’s PhD Community, and overall the University of Münster for enabling this project.