The business school graduate had dropped a banking career and enrolled on an MBA program in the Swiss town of Saint Gallen. He launched GreenBuzz, a sustainability community start-up, four years later.
“[The] high relative wealth gives comfort to start something, [and] substantial funds and grants are available to take the first step,” said Falko, who has seen GreenBuzz (GB) swell over the past four years.
Today the challenge facing him is maintaining momentum from his Zurich base. Yet he can take confidence in the organizations location. “[There is a] strong culture of collaboration that helped – as GB is exactly about that: sustainability professionals,” he said.
Switzerland is not just renowned for banking. Start-ups in the country have been launching in huge numbers and the death rate is lower than the European average. Technology-based industries have seen an entrepreneurial surge and the rate of perceived opportunities for start-ups is at an above-average level.
Start-up rates in 2010, when 12,500 new businesses launched, followed a period of constant increases, and just 3.5% of active companies closed, compared to the 8.3% average across Europe.
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs reports that the economy has slowed, but unemployment is low at 2.9%. Yet Switzerland is considered the second most competitive economy in the world, according to an IMD World Competitiveness Center report released this week.
Professor Arturo Bris, director of the Center, said competitiveness was driven by partial recovery across Europe.
Yet while many business opportunities are available, too few are exploited. Part of the problem is a need for better start-up support in the country, suggests a 2013 Swiss Start-up Monitor report.
A large amount of programs to support entrepreneurial ventures have since cropped up. There are thought to be more than 150 – 120 of which grant awards to fresh companies.
At the head of this support are the country’s leading business schools. The University of St. Gallen, ETH Zurich (ETHZ) and the University of Basel set-up the Start-Up Monitor to help boost the Swiss start-up scene. The organization is backed by the Commission of Technology and Innovation.
The organization’s report says there is a high added-value for the decision of start-ups to stay in or move close to their universities. “To be based near the ETHZ means to have one’s finger on the pulse of progress,” said Alexander Illic.
He founded Dacuda, a start-up software company offering a unique content capturing technology based on real-time image processing, in 2008. Dacuda is a spinoff company from ETH Zurich but was created by students from other business schools – including St. Gallen HSG.
Yet others are not convinced. Falko said being located near his business school had “little impact”. But he added: “HSG did regularly inform students about GB and many came to events, enriching the discussion, and some valuable connections [were] established and jobs brokered.”
Before he had even finished his b-school program, Peter Fröhlich banded together with Daniel Markward. Peter and Daniel, both Swiss citizens, were part of the full-time MBA class at St. Gallen. They graduated in 2012.
The pair run Agricircle, a start-up which simplifies the process of connecting farmers with their colleagues and contractors. They used the MBA project phase to write and verify their business plan, and prepare for their first investment round. The company was established immediately after graduation.
They have ambitious plans to be the leading network for farmers and their partners in Europe and North America by 2017, connecting more than 500,000 farmers with each other.
“Many of the students coming through the doors of the St.Gallen MBA have a deep-rooted entrepreneurial spirit," said Thorsten Klein, Careers Services Manager at St. Gallen. “Many enrol on the MBA with the intention of setting up their own businesses at some point in their careers,” added Thorsten.
Others on the Swiss entrepreneurial bandwagon launch start-ups later in life. Tiffany Hopkins, also from St. Gallen's full-time MBA, worked as a strategy consultant after graduation. After joining Rocket Internet, an e-commerce business, she was inspired to launch her own company, The Found.
The start-up provides support that a consultant would dish-out – but in a format that works for businesses without huge budgets.
“Given that computers large and small are a part of pretty much all aspects of life these days… and we need to be able to think and act differently to make things happen, I offer myself and The Found to help craft practical, exciting and successful businesses,” said Tiffany, who set-up the company with Daniel Rekshan, who previously worked in web and app development.
Thorsten reckons that Swiss MBAs are well served by the elective courses designed for entrepreneurs. Business Plan Writing, High Tech Venturing and the Entrepreneurship courses – all at St. Gallen – may create the perfect start-up specimen.
If alumni want to set-up shop further down the line, “they can always use the opportunity to come back to the MBA school to participate alongside current students in one elective course each year – for free”.
On the world stage, Switzerland has a reputation for banking, rather than start-up grinding.
But if the thousands of small businesses launched in Switzerland aren’t enough to confirm an entrepreneurial spirit, MBAs entering already-established SMEs may provide further proof.
Thorsten says St. Gallen students need not enter corporate giants on their internships.
Trudi Haemmerli, who graduated in 2013, helped write a business plan for a life sciences start-up. “Thanks to the feedback from the professors and my colleagues in the start-up team, the final business plan was a huge success,” said Trudi.
Since then, she has landed an MBA job in a start-up company. She credits the MBA for giving her the confidence to break away from the corporate mould. “I gained the necessary experience and confidence to take the plunge into the world of entrepreneurship, far away from the corporate world I have ‘grown-up’ in,” she quipped.
There are a bevy of other entrepreneurial bonuses to be had in Switzerland for MBAs. St. Gallen launched Gründergarage, a business incubator that supports new and potential start-ups, said Thorsten.
Last month, the annual HSG Gründergarage combined various entrepreneurial activities at the school in an entrepreneurial celebration.
While many students are entering the country’s start-up scene, entrepreneurship is valuable in corporate careers too – “which is nowadays sought-after by most employees, even the large multinationals,” said Thorsten.
It is not Silicon Valley – yet. But Switzerland’s start-up scene is abuzz with growth. For the country’s budding entrepreneurs, an MBA may be best platform to launch.
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