StartUps: Fear of failure prevents innovation

Germany has a corporate and anti-founding mentality. And straight Pleitiers are always the bad guys. This is also reflected in the handling of errors. Unfortunately, this also avoids innovations.

The startup mentality of the series founders

Although Germany would like to have more founders, start-ups are always a hot topic, especially in the self-proclaimed start-up capital of Berlin. At the same time is Business start in Germany it is at least as difficult a topic. Why is that and what would have to be done differently so that more disruptive start-ups are created here too?

I read one a while ago Article in the FAZ about the start-up mentality in general and the Samwer brothers in particular. The heading “No time for late bloomers” actually sums up what author Bettina Weiguny wants to tell us:

How is business start-up in Germany normally?

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People with a start-up mentality like the Samwers found companies like on an assembly line. It's called serial founders, and they start Online-Marketplaces, Apps or others ideas. The sponsors – and with them the infrastructure – are already ready.

That contradicts pretty much every idea that people in Germany have of starting a business, because things are usually more “decent” there: It’s mostly about business plans, Financing, legal forms, Taxes and insurances.

Avoiding innovation on installments

All in all, the complete opposite of innovative Behavior, much more innovation prevention with System, like Johann Fuller in the Blog of the Harvard Businessmanager so aptly criticized:

"In the Implementation new ideas, many managers are still surprisingly conservative. They rely on traditional instruments such as the stage-gate process, which determined the innovation process steps divided into portfolio management approaches and strictly hierarchical decision-making and reporting structures. However, this hardly does justice to the changed framework conditions. Many Executives modern approaches ignore that Background outside of Company to use."

Open to the outside

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According to Füller, companies need to open up much more internally and externally, and at the same time share the ideas and experiences of customers and involve employees. Because research results show that different knowledge and perspectives produce the best ideas.

So did an experiment by Scott E. Page, Professor at the University of Michigan, clear, that not a homogeneous group of excellent experts, but a group of randomly selected and rather average people achieved the best results. Above all, companies should also allow experiments and not punish mistakes.

The death sentence of many companies

If that doesn't happen, it could mean the death sentence for many companies in the long term - as the media industry is currently impressively demonstrating: the new medium Internet was ridiculed and despised for years.

There has been no thought about serious business models. Now that it is clear that more and more readers are switching from printed paper to the Internet, financing ideas are being discussed hectically. The train may have long since left, because players like Google or Facebook have the rudder on the internet already firmly in the Hand.

Is there a perfect business idea?

But of course everyone needs as a founder successfully wants to be, first of all a really good business idea. And the demands on a business idea are often high in Germany: it should be successful on the market, a Income pay off, which is at least as high as a comparable permanent position and also similar for sure.

After all, it should ideally also offer the founder personal freedom for their own self-realization. Apart perhaps from all those who would rather risk this step than claim Hartz IV: They often don't have any Choicethan just trying.

Less pondering would be sensible

Even if founders are generally considered less successful than convincing doers, who are going to work on schedule: Sometimes a little less pondering about success or failure might be quite good for many wannabe entrepreneurs.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a study that examines the start-up conditions in 42 countries around the world every year, shows that only 22 percent of the 18 to 24 year olds surveyed have good Business- Take chances at all. On the other hand, a full 37 percent have Anxiety before failure.

Distrust of entrepreneurs

How these figures work out in practice can be admired again and again in the news: Risk avoidance instead Innovation. Damage limitation instead of dealing with mistakes constructively. There is not much to remember about real “entrepreneurship” – academic entrepreneurship training does not even have its own name in German.

The result is a fundamental mistrust of entrepreneurs. They are considered evil, greedy and ruthless when they make a profit - a shot of envy swings it certainly always with.

The worst are the Pleitiers

However, they are even worse when they go bankrupt: Because then everyone thinks that it could only happen because the company was closed fast wanted to make too much profit. Or because the entrepreneur is not involved Money could handle. And that he is now up Costs his debtor files for bankruptcy. The failed entrepreneur is quickly stigmatized.

Unfortunately, it is not that simple after all: there are such black sheep, but mostly management errors are not the cause of insolvency, especially in smaller companies. It lies much more often Debt in the case of external factors such as the entrepreneur's personal and health problems, poor payment practices on the part of customers - or bureaucracy.

The tax office can also initiate insolvency proceedings

Because what many do not know: Also tax or health insurance can initiate a bankruptcy - and sometimes do that, if the company owes them only a few thousand euros.

the bitter one message is: it can happen to anyone. Even the one who can't do anything about it. Because sometimes you just have bad luck! Many don't want to hear that, bankruptcy is a taboo subject, it's scary. This results in all sorts of absurd defensive measures that make life difficult for future bankrupts.

The opposite of innovation

Unfortunately, many executives, afraid of failure, do the opposite of innovative thinking: They cover up the situation, get even more into debt and hope that the Crisis will pass at some point - also for fear of admitting one's own failure.

Or they isolate themselves out of shame because they can no longer compete financially with their circle of friends and acquaintances.

Dangerous devil's circle

A devil's circle, for instance, which results from the combination of a lack of corporate culture, the resulting fear of failure, and exaggerated perfectionism as a compensation strategy.

This is not only fatal for the company itself, but for the entire company Economy: Because it is precisely the innovative start-ups that are considered to be the great hope. However, if the innovations are curtailed at such an early stage, that's a thing Problem for Germany as a business location. It is not easy to escape from this – but it is possible, and there are already initial approaches.

Training as an entrepreneur

In Germany, too, the need for an entrepreneurshipVocational Training which could lead to a change in the image of entrepreneurs in the medium term. And entrepreneurial failure is also increasingly being discussed:

Germany's flagship bankrupt Anne Koark has written a book on the subject and regularly reports in the media about her bankruptcy. In Cologne, Attila von Unruh, himself an insolvent entrepreneur, founded the anonymous bankruptcy group, a discussion group in which People exchange their experiences regularly and, of course, anonymously, which sometimes even gives rise to new business ideas.

Away from the perfect business idea

So maybe we need more of the typical thinking of serial entrepreneurs, who do some things fundamentally different here and which Bettina Weiguny also describes in her article:

Each of these Startups is a bet on that Future, whether dog food sales or gamesDeveloper, whether cleaning help or medical technology portal. Some ideas work, others don't.

That also means turning away from the claim of developing the perfect business idea towards the trial and error process. What's up with that in Germany ways and how can this be changed? One thing is certain: If you want to be successful, you have to dare something crazy. Founders must spin!

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