Lisa von der Heydte is professor of management in the social economy at the Catholic University of Munich (KSH). She comes from the world of social entrepreneurship and received her appointment at the university two years ago. Since then, she has been trying to inspire students who have chosen social work, childhood education or care management to start a business and to introduce them to entrepreneurial thinking. Not an easy undertaking.
SZ: Professor von der Heydte, you deal with innovation and entrepreneurship in the social economy – isn’t that a contradiction?
Lisa von der Heydte: Many people actually think that’s a contradiction at first. You ask yourself: “Is it about something social or about entrepreneurship?” I am concerned with the question of how the two can be combined – for example through social entrepreneurship.
What do you mean with that?
The idea of social entrepreneurship is to solve social challenges with entrepreneurial approaches. Many people initially find this completely absurd.
How did you decide to make it your career?
My first job took me to Munich, to Ashoka, one of the world’s largest organizations that support social entrepreneurs. Later, I worked for a reinsurance group and advised international organizations on how they could deal with the risks of natural disasters. And as life sometimes happens, a social entrepreneurial opportunity presented itself here: With a few colleagues, we were able to found a social enterprise from an existing DAX company.
What was the goal of this spin-off?
We have set up a disaster and risk consultancy for humanitarian and development aid organizations. So that these institutions can better manage their risks and achieve more with their resources, we have provided them with risk data and the necessary knowledge. For example, we know quite well that the probability of a malaria outbreak around two weeks after a flood at a temperature of over 30 degrees Celsius is very high. This means that as an aid organization you can go into the area early on and send doctors, medicine and mosquito nets.
Why should non-profit organizations use the methods of for-profit companies more often?
There is the sober realization that the social benefit ratio has reached a record high of 34 percent and that welfare state resources are at their limit. At the same time, leaving the church means that less money is available for charitable purposes. At the same time, society is aging; This increases the need for assistance, for example. Donor behavior is also currently changing and is increasing the trend towards entrepreneurship.
Germans donate around five billion euros a year to charitable causes. What is supposed to be entrepreneurial about it?
Donors increasingly want to know exactly what is happening with their money and achieve a social return beyond a one-off “satisfaction of hunger”. Entrepreneurs in particular are less likely to give their money to traditional foundations these days, but rather invest in social enterprises in order to get a social return. This is exactly what my work at the university is about.
Professor Bernd Reuschenbach teaches nursing science and gerontology at the KSH – an area in which there is already a lack of skilled workers.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Aren’t two worlds colliding – here the Catholic foundation university, which specializes in social, nursing, health and educational professions – and there the start-up thinking?
They are two completely different cultures, yes, but when combined they can have a lot of positive effects. I was in a kind of social entrepreneurship bubble for years. Social start-ups inspire and fascinate at the same time – which leads some people to ignore the fact that a large part of social services in Germany are provided by traditional welfare organizations that have existed for 100 or more years.
You mean workers’ welfare, Caritas, Diakonie and the like?
Yes. These leading welfare associations do a large part of the social work for society – for example in child and youth work and care for the elderly. I ask myself: How can we promote social entrepreneurial approaches in the traditional welfare sector even more, for example to find solutions to the shortage of personnel and resources? This is exactly where we are trying to start with the development of the Social Innovation Campus at our university.
Why does KSH want to awaken the entrepreneurial spirit of its students?
In 2040, the social sector will be the largest employer in Germany with over seven million employees. Everyone feels – often first-hand – how the supply of social services and demand in this area no longer match. At the same time, there is no sector in Germany that is so structurally and culturally complex and so digitally behind. The challenges are enormous. For example, we want to network welfare organizations and social entrepreneurs and enable our students to start new businesses.
Should aspiring midwives, nurses or social workers learn to write a business plan?
Yes, exactly. Or at least we would like to offer students a basic understanding of economic relationships and a tool kit with which they can solve future problems in a social entrepreneurial way. When I got the call to the KSH two years ago, I thought the students would knock the doors down for me. But it wasn’t like that: most people viewed social entrepreneurial ideas with skepticism.
Have you been able to convince the students of your approach?
Working on specific tasks and collaborating with partner organizations help students to think about issues. You will learn how to design a business model based on a practical case.
For example?
A team has dealt with mass accidents and natural disasters in which there are large numbers of minor and serious injuries. So far, emergency responders have used tags to prioritize these patients so doctors know who needs to be helped first. So pen and paper, which is cumbersome. The students have developed a digital geotag into which the data of those affected are entered. This technology enables smooth assignment of people and a good overview of the operational situation.
What other ideas did the students have?
One group developed a recruitment strategy for staff in social institutions that uses artificial intelligence and neuromarketing. Another team wrote a chatbot that gives people access to information that is often missing or difficult to find for legal support of relatives and other people.
But in the end it all comes down to changing the big charities from within?
These changes are already happening. If you take the Red Cross or Caritas – they know that social entrepreneurship definitely makes sense. They have all already launched innovative approaches. But due to the organizational culture and structure mentioned above, change processes occur much more slowly than in other areas of the economy.
That’s why the Maltese company created the “Greenhouse M”, a kind of accelerator that advances employees’ social innovation projects. An exception?
There is something comparable at the German Red Cross with the Social Innovation Community or at Caritas in Vienna with Magdas, a social enterprise that offers people meaningful training and jobs that don’t get a chance at many other employers. But these organizations are very complex systems that take time to change.