For those who find traditional entrepreneurship too old-fashioned and the VC financed startup scene too dubious: Günter Faltin describes in his German language book “Kopf schlägt Kapital” (brains beats capital) how you can nevertheless stay ahead of the game as a founder of an enterprise. He uses the term “Entrepreneur as Composer”: Entrepreneurs who keep their fixed costs low and build their businesses out of available components in order to protect their capital:
In his opening talk, "The Art of Entrepreneurship" at the Entrepreneurship Summit in Berlin, Günter Faltin addressed questions such as: is making money and the maximization of profit everything – or can (or should) entrepreneurs strive for something further? How do we define business-oriented thinking in a world which is in the midst of unprecedented change?
Many entrepreneurs and business leaders occupy themselves all too often on business models at the lowest level, that is – models focussing on basic human needs which draw success from the allure of consumption. He who does not consume becomes useless for the business. But where are the entrepreneurs who are developing meaningful business models which see people as more than just consumption machines and offer them more than just pure gratification of consumption?
"Update an Industry!" was one of the appeals at the Summit last week in Berlin. Many industries are holding on dearly to out-dated conventions. He who can recollect the original purpose of an industry would be able to find a way to revolutionize it. Faltin himself runs a socially responsible tea business.
Exciting Commerce has been trying to show both in print and at conferences that there are more sensible and cost efficient ways to connect an industry as opposed to what some traditionalists advocate.
This entrepreneurship model is always easier said than done. Some of the sessions at the Entrepreneurship Summit helped to make this point very clear. The challenge is of course to find the right components and partners and then with intensive contemplation to figure out the ideal combination.
Günter Faltin is not a fan of rushed business startups. A few good entrepreneurs are better than a thousand would-be founders who are actually on the way into bankruptcy. His plea is thus to experiment generously, start-up as a sideline and to let ideas ripen over time before going all-in to the concept.
Just to emphasize: This entrepreneurship model is one approach for a modern business. Another model is the “Professional Service Firm” as espoused by Tom Peters. Equally good ideas for entrepreneurial thinking come from Michael E. Gerber, as written in his book “The E-Myth Enterprise”. New on the US bestseller list is “The Lean Startup” from Eric Reis.
Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.
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