Masterclass | Thomas Zellweger

On the 3rd of March, at 2 pm, the Masterclass will take place with the theme “Scientific entrepreneurship – How to create value under uncertainty”.

“Entrepreneurship is one of the most intriguing ways of economic and social value creation. Part of the fascination has to do with the rise of entrepreneurial superstars across the world who started from humble beginnings and yet have been able to create significant value within a short period of time. From a scholarly point of view, the entrepreneurship phenomenon is intriguing as it leads us to ask: “How to create something from nothing”. It leads us to study processes of value creation under fundamental uncertainty, which differ from managerial approaches that are functional when products have known demand in the market or when one operates in an established firm. In the fuzzy front end of the entrepreneurial process, hence when very little is known, traditional managerial approaches to value creation fall short of providing a handle to deal with the uncertainty that characterizes the entrepreneurship context.”

On March 4th, at 9:30 am, the Masterclass will have the theme “Growth and value creation – How to scale the entrepreneurial firm”.

“In this class we will explore some traditional theories of firm growth to then focus on the changes that entrepreneurs need to embrace, both at a personal and organizational level, to create a firm “that is bigger than themselves”. The irony of this process is that the entrepreneur may come to realize that he / she has been the guarantor of success in the startup phase but may not be the right person for the next phase of the firm, for which different skillsets and a different organizational structure may be needed, which may not fit the entrepreneur well. Building on a case study of a high growth firm, we will study the change processes that entrepreneurs need to manage and how they need to redefine their roles to scale their firms.”

This event is open to current and former MBA students, upon registration.

Thomas Zellweger

Full Professor of Business Administration with specialisation in Family Business at the University of St.Gallen, Managing Director KMU-HSG, Managing Director CFB-HSG, Vice-President (University of St.Gallen), Research & Faculty.

Thomas Zellweger holds the Chair in Family Business at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, where he is also the Director of the Swiss Research Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (KMU-HSG). He currently serves as the vice president for faculty and research at the University. After two years as a marketing director in a fintech startup in Brussels, he completed his PhD at the University of St.Gallen. He was a research fellow at Babson College, USA, a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and is a permanent visiting professor at the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany. His research has been published in the leading academic journals, such as the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal and Organization Science, amongst others. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung counts him with his research amongst the most influential economists in the German speaking world. His research also received several international awards and has been discussed in the international media such in The Economist, Bloomberg, Forbes, and the New York Times. Thomas is a member of supervisory boards of family firms and advises family firm owners on governance and strategic questions.