23 May 2022 | Münster
On the 23rd of May a Future Days event took place at the Münster School of Business, which was attended by 26 students, 5 lecturers and 2 entrepreneurs. The Future Days are an initiative from the Erasmus+ project Value and Future and were organized as part of the lecture series in the module international marketing.
The event with a more than 30 attendants was organized to spark interaction between students, lecturers and entrepreneurs to discuss ethics in entrepreneurship. After a short ice-breaker activity, the two entrepreneurs presented about their business. Timothy Wareman, an entrepreneur from the Netherlands, founder of K.E.G.S explained how his vocational training and education sparked his interest in doing work that is hands-on rather than theoretical. He explained how he has gained additional skills in bartending, cooking and brewing, as well as how he had to create a market for his business model to work. Tim created a market for craft beers and beer pairings with food which he now benefits from as the founder of K.E.G.S. Julian Sanchez is an entrepreneur and academic from Spain. He combined his didactical, research and entrepreneurial competence to get the students and lecturers to think differently about ethics. Julian used examples from the Titanic to explain the differences between rules and ethics. His presentation was focused on the role of people in businesses. He concluded with 4 rules of thumb for business to be ethical and successful, which he also applies in his activities within the business.
The presentations were followed by a world café setting, in which students, lecturers and entrepreneurs worked together on 4 questions on ethical entrepreneurship. Julian Sanchez challenged the students with the question on 'the role of money'. Timothy discussed pros and cons of temporary labour contracts both from an entrepreneurial as employee perspective. Judith Helmer, a lecturer from the S2BMRC, took the role of ethics to daily life and let the students think about the role of ethics outside the classroom for example when they buy products or services themselves. Iulia Stroila, another lecturer from the S2BMRC conceptualized how ethical entrepreneurship can be described. The other three S2BMRC lecturers, Sue Rossano, Katrin Uude and Eva Sormani joined different entrepreneurs and students to drive conversations and streamline the switches between topics. After all students had a chance to look at all four questions with the entrepreneurs and lecturers, the students presented their collective insights. With the presentation we concluded the event.
We look back at a great event with more than 30 participants from more than 10 nationalities. An event in which there was room for learning from each other and to reflect on ethical decision making in entrepreneurship. We thank all participants for their contributions.
