Entrepreneurship Insights from Munich, Germany experiential learning, Sana Hamdan

GEE Germany, Sana Hamdan

This journal comprises my experiences throughout our trip to Munich, Germany, a very insightful, and fun opportunity to explore entrepreneurship in the German ecosystem. This trip provided us a new way to look at how entrepreneurship is practiced around the world, specifically through the interconnected factors of cultural context, geography, regional integration, and globalization.

Throughout the trip, we visited many different types of places to gain insight into car manufacturing such as at Audi and BMW, learned about open innovation at Siemens, explored local sites to learn about the German culture such as different museums, sports stadium, exploring local culture; part of Germany termed Franconia, and eating local food.

A major part of the experience that was very valuable, was the opportunity to meet with students from diverse backgrounds studying in Germany, and collaborate with them to solve problems using one language: entrepreneurship. I found that our diversity created interested outlooks in our project and activities, we were able to all communicate using the same language of entrepreneurship through our passion to solve problems and find solutions. This collaboration consisted of going from ideation to creating a prototype model, gaining user feedback, pitching within 3 minutes, all with the theme of creating a brighter future for 2054. This activity allowed us to transform the future with our team. We then learned about local German startups in Ingolstadt and their startup economy, allowing us to see diversity of entrepreneurship within Germany itself. Throughout my trip, the hands-on experience I had being able to live the German culture for one week was a very enjoyable opportunity.

It allowed me to see the power of collaboration in teams, work with diverse minds with the same passion, understand how an entrepreneurial ecosystem functions with many different types of influences, and understand how culture plays a large role in entrepreneurial mindsets and function in society.

Furthermore, one main theme highlighted within this journal is the collectivist approach of Germany towards entrepreneurship, where the public as consumers are put at the center of attention for companies, and at the same level as the innovators. For example, at BMW where “made by people for people” is one of their mottos displayed. And at Siemens where open innovation leverages the talent of the public to bring innovation into their company. I also noticed the large theme of how specific details are important in making the overall product, as seen in BMW and Audi, including specific details of the product itself, but also detailed teams that collaborate to ideate and work together. Overall, it was one of the best experiences traveling I have ever had, and am very thankful for the amazing group and opportunity we were given.

Pre-departure learning

Session 1: 10/13/23

In the first session, we were introduced to the expectations of the course, including an overview of what we can expect to gain out of this experiential learning travel opportunity.

<aside> 💡 Our course roadmap has highlighted the different aspects of German culture that will be learned about through hands-on experience, such as:

I provide here some reflections on the topics that were provided to us:

  1. National and Regional Entrepeneurial Ecosystem Insights: I believe it will be beneficial to look at how German entrepreneurship has a distinct culture nationally, as well as in the region of Europe. It would be interesting to compare Germany’s different entrepeneurial ecosystem components (such as accessible markets, funding and finance, etc.) with other countries, that are very different in relation also to Hofstede dimensions
  2. German History, Culture, and Values: I believe that using this as a roadmap is a vital way to ensure that one understands how the business and entrepreneurial culture in Germany has emerged and grown, as it puts forth perspectives through a German cultural tradition that is different from other countries. It is essential to understand the German way of thinking, and culture, and how that impacts their work and overall economy.
  3. Interaction with some of the key stakeholders in Munich’s entrepeneurial ecosystem: I am excited to take part in a hands-on learning experience and cultural immersion that allows me to explore German entrepreneurship, by visiting Munich. I am excited to prepare for the trip through the pre-preparation sessions, and then use my knowledge in Germany to further explore in the actual country.

Discussions

We had two discussions this first class to be introduced into research of German entrepreneurship:

  1. At Winn auditorium, we compared the entrepreneurial ecosystems of South Africa and Germany, and how this will be relevant for our upcoming trip. This activity showed us that Germany had a larger focus on long term sustainability, and a less hierarchical structure than Germany. This activity allows me to anticipate or look for certain things while in our trip, such as to what extent Germany is in terms of entrepreneurship.
  2. A class activity where we compared and discussed 3 framework conditions of government policy, physical infrastructure, and social and cultural norms between Germany and the US. We found that Germany had physical infrastructure score decreasing slowly over time, motivation to “earn a living because jobs are scarce,” and increased quality of their government entrepeneurial programs. These are insights to keep in mind while exploring the culture hands-on, to see if they match these types of descriptions, or if they possibly an over or under generalization.