This is the story of a man who took up the challenge of business entrepreneurship at a time when others were more risk-averse. He devoted himself to this challenge and his innovative approach encouraged and motivated others. Finally he placed this now flourishing private business, one of Germany’s hidden champions, in the safe hands a newly formed mutual trust.

The key factor for economic growth is the business entrepreneur. Proof of this is found by comparing the economic dynamism of the Industrial Revolution, the post-WWII economic boom, and the high-tech clusters of Silicon Valley. However, world-class enterprises are also found in many rural areas such as the Altmühltal, Bavaria, where Thomas Hirsch founded one of Germany’s hidden champions.

This Lesson tells the story of an entrepreneur who turned a mid-size craft business into a highly innovative, major international business group. Like many family business owners, Helmut Schreiner learned his trade from the ground up. Along the way he acquired a trove of skills and expert knowledge on the manufacturing of specialist labelling and adhesive technology. Decades later Helmut Schreiner achieved what many entrepreneurs often fail to do, he successfully passed on his life's work to the next generation of the family.

"Good corporate governance" begins and ends with the entrepreneur. Our series on Ethical Business Leadership now features Hans Lindner, the founder and head of the Lindner Group. In 2020, the business newspaper Handelsblatt named Lindner a Pioneer of Business Enterprise and with KPMG elected Lindner Group to the Hall of Fame of Family Enterprises.

Principles – Practice – Achievements: "Arrogance can be deadly for a business enterprise", said Reinhold Würth, reflecting on the future of his life's work. Read how he turned a small firm selling industrial screws into the Würth Group – a global champion for industrial assembly materials and fasteners. How he succeeded and what business lessons can be learned

The series of entrepreneur profiles continues with Claus Hipp, longstanding head of HiPP, the market leader in organic babyfood. Learn how Claus Hipp's personal values — perseverance, modesty and versatility — have contributed to the entrepreneurial success of HiPP.

Read in his own words the ethical spirit of Robert Bosch. Learn how his ideas live on in the private worldwide company he founded, wholly-owned by the Robert Bosch trust, and his contribution to the common good.

The 50th Lesson of the Managerism series is dedicated to Werner von Siemens: a great entrepreneur of the industrial revolution in Germany. This essay makes the case for studying some of the great entrepreneurs of the past: men like Robert Bosch, Reinhard Mohn and Berthold Leibinger, to name a few outstanding German business entrepreneurs. That is a good way to discover the true essence of business leadership and bypass the fashion trends of management teaching and consulting.