Radical in its origins but pragmatic in its management
2025-01-31 The economy is going through difficult times. Ideas are needed that will contribute to the longed-for upturn. ‘We have all the important building blocks in Lüneburg,’ explains Dr Steffen Farny. The professor of business administration with a focus on social & sustainable entrepreneurship at Leuphana is researching how social innovations can help the German economy and what makes Lüneburg a good location for sustainable start-ups. In the interview, he also shares his experience of how young people can successfully set up their own social innovations. He advocates a radical and visionary approach when founding a company, but managing it pragmatically.
Can social innovations open up new perspectives for the German economy?
Researchers understand social innovations to mean new behaviours and organisational forms that contribute to solving societal problems. The focus here is on creating added value for society, even though these innovations should of course make money in the process. Indeed, social innovations such as citizens' energy cooperatives and crowdfunding are increasingly seen as drivers of collective change. It is absolutely clear that major challenges such as climate change or demographic change cannot be overcome by technological innovations alone.
What makes Lüneburg a good ecosystem for social innovations and sustainable start-ups?
Research shows that collaboration and the exchange of relevant organisations and stakeholders play a central role in entrepreneurial ecosystems. They tend to form an innovation community rather than focusing primarily on competition. Equally important are inviting meeting places and positive role models. We have all these important building blocks in Lüneburg, for example, the Utopia and Mosaique as open meeting places, social enterprises like Heyho as role models, and a university that continuously brings young, creative, and innovative people into the ecosystem. At Leuphana, we are therefore also working on setting up several local innovation communities, the Leuphana Innovation Communiti. If the appropriate financing models were provided and more impact investors were attracted, it could work.
How can the culture of sustainable start-ups, social entrepreneurship and innovative approaches be integrated into larger companies?
Sustainable start-ups see themselves as part of a community and try to take on social responsibility, including for nature, and even to change it in a positive way. Such companies with a social or regenerative mindset put people first, not the activity. Larger companies can also learn from this and ask themselves more often what conditions could enable a particular person with a very unique biography and life story to work for them. A regenerative mindset can also be cultivated, for example, by strengthening the psychological security of employees.
What advice would you give to young people who are currently considering setting up their own sustainable business?
Be radical in your sustainable visions, but pragmatic in their implementation! Think big, but focus on a small, regional problem that you can solve. Gain experience as early as possible in projects for the common good, social enterprises and political work. This sharpens the social and regenerative mindset and promotes important start-up and sustainability skills. I would like to encourage more young people to realise that they have nothing to lose: even if the specific start-up idea ‘fails’, they will have learned an incredible amount from the experience.