Günter Faltin (born 25 November 1944) is a German

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

Early life and education

Gunter Faltin was born on 25 November 1944 in

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main (river), Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in ...

, Germany. He graduated with a Dr. rer.soc. from the

University of Konstanz The University of Konstanz () is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's southernmost university and is ...

in 1972.

Career

Academia

In 1977 he became Professor of Economics at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

, where he established the

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

department. Since 2013 he has been teaching as visiting professor at

Chiang Mai University Chiang Mai University (CMU; ) is a national public research university in northern Thailand founded in 1964. It has a strong emphasis on engineering, science, agriculture, and medicine. Its instructional mission includes undergraduate, graduate, ...

. He was appointed for several years visiting professor to Asia by the

German Academic Exchange Service The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD; ), founded in 1925, is a joint organization of German universities and student bodies to foster their international relations. Since 1 January 2020, the president has been Joybrato Mukherjee. Organisa ...

. He gave lectures and workshops on

in many countries, among them the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Georgia, South Korea, and Japan. From 1984 to 1988 he was deputy president of the German Society for Education, Invention and Innovation,(DABEI) Berlin Section. In 1999 he founded the Entrepreneurship Lab at

, which was adopted by

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

's "Innovationscampus Wolfsburg" in 2000. From 2000 - 2003 he served as an expert for the project "Entrepreneurship in Education and Training in Russia and Ukraine", he conducted a series of workshops for the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

's European Training Foundation in St. Petersburg and Kyiv from 2000 to 2003. In 2010 he followed an invitation of the government of Bhutan for a keynote to the conference on “High Tech and Entrepreneurship".

Business

In 1985, he founded the Projektwerkstatt GmbH, based on the " Teekampagne" ("tea campaign"). The " Teekampagne" is the world's largest importer of Darjeeling leaf tea, according to the

Tea Board of India The Tea Board of India is a state agency of the Government of India under the control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, established to promote the cultivation, processing, and domestic trade as well as export of tea from India. It was e ...

. In 1992 Faltin launched and sponsored the reforestation project S.E.R.V.E. ("Save the Environment & Regenerate Vital Employment"); the WWF is taking charge of the project on location in

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

, India. Faltin is business angel and coach of

startup companies A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...

such as eBuero AG (2001), RatioDrink AG (2006), and Waschkampagne. In 2001 he established the Stiftung Entrepreneurship, a foundation aimed at furthering

and hosting the yearly "Entrepreneurship Summit".

Teachings

Central to Faltin's teachings is that entrepreneurship today is available to everybody, not just for those with capital and patents. He dissociates clearly

from

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

. In a

postindustrial society In sociology, the post-industrial society is the stage of society's development when the service sector generates more wealth than the manufacturing sector of the economy. The term was originated by Alain Touraine and is closely related t ...

a well thought out entrepreneurial design is more decisive for the success of a

start-up company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to ...

than having much capital.

Recognition

Faltin has earned the following awards and honours: * 1997: Award by Price-Babson-Foundation, Boston, "For Bringing Entrepreneurial Vitality to Academe" * 2007: Vision Award for Entrepreneurship * 2009:

Deutscher Gründerpreis Deutscher is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alma Deutscher, British musician and composer *Drafi Deutscher, German singer and composer *Guy Deutscher (linguist) *Guy Deutscher (physicist) *Isaac Deutscher, British jou ...

: Special Award for "Teekampagne" * 2010: Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, for his pioneer work on entrepreneurship in Germany * 2018: Dr. h. c. of the State University of Tiflis

Publications

In his best-selling book ''Brain Versus Capital'' (English translation 2013, original title ''Kopf schlägt Kapital''), he proposes a radically new approach to generating entrepreneurial ventures with an emphasis on

ecological Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

ly and

culturally sensitive Cultural sensitivity, also referred to as cross-cultural sensitivity or cultural awareness, is the knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of other cultures and others' cultural identities. It is related to cultural competence (the skills needed fo ...

issues. * ''Bildung und Einkommenserzielung: Das Defizit: Unternehmerische Qualifikationen''. In: Axt/Karcher/Schleich: Ausbildungs-oder Beschäftigungskrise in der Dritten Welt? Frankfurt o. M. (1987) *''The University and Entrepreneurship'' In: Education in Transition. Wiesbaden (1992) * ''Reichtum von unten'', (G. Faltin und J. Zimmer, Berlin 2. Ed 1996). Greek Ed. 2004 * ''Das Netz weiter werfen - Für eine neue Kultur unternehmerischen Handelns'' In: Faltin/Ripsas/Zimmer (Ed.) "Entrepreneurship. Wie aus Ideen Unternehmen werden". Munich (1998) * ''Competencies for Innovative Entrepreneurship'', In Adult Learning and the Future of Work, Unesco Institute for Education, Hamburg,(1999) * ''Creating a Culture of Innovative Entrepreneurship'' In: Journal of International Business and Economy, Vol. 2, No. 1, (2001) * ''Für eine Kultur des Unternehmerischen – Entrepreneurship als Qualifikation der Zukunft'' In: Leistung – Lust & Last Bucher/Lauermann/Walcher (Ed..). Vienna (2005) * Erfolgreich gründen. Der Unternehmer als Künstler und Komponist. DIHK, Berlin (2007) * ''Kopf schlägt Kapital. Die ganz andere Art, ein Unternehmen zu gründen. Von der Lust, ein Entrepreneur zu sein.'' Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich, 2008 * ''Kopf schlägt Kapital.'' Audio Book (7 compact discs), spoken by Stephan Reimertz, 2009 * ''Brain versus Capital'' Stiftung Entrepreneurship, Berlin, 2013 * ''Entrepreneurship als innovativer Prozess – von Anfangsideen, konzept-kreativen Gründern und der Entrepreneurial Society'' In: Peter Drucker - der Mann, der das Management geprägt hat: Erinnerungen und Ausblick zum 100. Geburtstag; Hermann Doppler, Markus Eurich, Günter Faltin, et al., Winfried W. Weber (Herausgeber); Sordon Verlag, 2009 * ''Wir sind das Kapital. Erkenne den Entrepreneur in dir. Aufbruch in eine intelligente Ökonomie.'' () Murmann Verlag, Hamburg, 2015 * Handbuch Entrepreneurship. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden 2018.

Notes

External links

Teekampagne

Entrepreneurship Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faltin, Gunter 1944 births People from Bamberg Living people German economists Businesspeople from Bavaria Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Gunter Faltin