Entrepreneurship an der WHU

This course equips students with a practical understanding of how startups manage financial resources and attract funding. Through case studies, guest insights, and site visits to Berlin-based startups and VC firms, students learn key CFO functions, business model analysis, valuation techniques, and investor negotiations. The program combines theory with real-world exposure to Germany’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.

This course equips aspiring entrepreneurs with the financial literacy and analytical tools to build, manage, and grow successful ventures. Students learn to navigate regulatory reporting, assess financial statements, and understand the strategic impact of key business decisions. Through case studies, modeling exercises, simulations, and guest speakers, they gain hands-on experience with forecasting, valuation, and scenario planning—essential skills for raising capital and making sound financial decisions.

As start-ups scale, complexity grows. This course focuses on the operational challenges founders face when evolving from a lean team to a structured organization. Delivered by WHU alumni with experience leading high-growth companies (>€100M revenue), the course explores real-world solutions across key functions like finance, HR, and operations. Students gain in-depth insight into managing rapid growth and learn how to tackle risks, lead with agility, and build scalable systems for long-term success.

This course introduces tools and methods to turn data into strategic insights for start-ups. Students learn how to automate data preparation, build dashboards for business intelligence, generate competitor insights, and apply natural language processing to identify potential partners. Using tools like Python and Power BI, participants work hands-on with real entrepreneurial data in group and individual assignments.

This course explores how leading e-commerce companies boost operational performance through digital technologies. Students examine six key areas shaping omni-channel success: employee engagement, forward and backward supply chains, demand forecasting and generation, and customer interaction strategies. Grounded in practical cases and analytical methods—including machine learning, heuristics, and the Newsvendor model—the course prepares students to design and manage digital supply chains in competitive retail environments.

Every entrepreneur is selling all the time: to customers, employees, and investors. Selling is a skill that can be learnt. Only few people are born as a selling ace. Some investors only invest if the founders themselves are the first sales people. The course content was designed based on interviews with WHU entrepreneurs and WHU investors:

• fit between go-to-market model and the business model (understanding sales cycles, decision processes)
• targeting consumers vs. small business vs. big enterprise
• defining and communicating the value proposition for your target audience
• face-to-face selling techniques: need identification, maneuvering the sales process
• hiring your first sales people (selecting the right sales professionals, designing their compensation)
• the typical GTM model: inbound marketing + tele sales / inside sales
• international market entry.

This course explores the growing field of Entrepreneurship through Acquisition, with a focus on Traditional Search Funds. Students gain in-depth knowledge of the search fund model, including how to develop a Private Placement Memorandum (PPM), structure a fund, identify acquisition targets, and manage the transition post-acquisition. Legal considerations and organizational integration are also covered, providing a full picture of the search-to-scale journey.

This course covers the key legal and tax topics founders need to navigate when launching and scaling a startup—from setting up a company to managing financing rounds. Students gain practical insights into equity splits, convertible loans, employee participation programs, tax risks, IP essentials, data privacy, and employment law.

This course explores how firms can turn intangible assets—like human capital, IP, brands, and relationships—into competitive advantage. Using a lifecycle approach, students examine how to create, protect, value, and strategically leverage intellectual capital for growth. Case studies span industries from AI and finance to entertainment and agribusiness, offering real-world insights into managing knowledge-based assets.

This course examines the unique dynamics of family-owned businesses—from governance and succession to innovation and sustainability. Students explore key differences between family and non-family firms, study leading theories and models, and apply them to real-world cases. With a focus on strategy, finance, and leadership within family systems, the course prepares students for roles in family enterprises or advisory functions. Guest lectures from family business leaders provide direct insights and open dialogue on today’s challenges and opportunities.

This course explores how emotions, culture, and personal experiences shape economic and financial decisions. Students revisit behavioral and neoclassical economics, study psychological theories, and examine traits like trust, identity, and leadership at both personal and group levels. Topics include herding behavior, risk perception, and how these factors influence markets and regulation. Assignments include group presentations based on literature reviews or data analysis using the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), along with an individual reflection connecting personal experiences to course theory.

In this hands-on course, students follow the five-day Google Sprint process to develop, test, and pitch a real business idea. Working in teams, they define customer needs, map the market, build a prototype, gather feedback, and present a validated business model. Along the way, they sharpen skills in storytelling, business model design, pitching, and applying key startup metrics—culminating in a viable concept ready for investor interest.

In detail, the course will cover the following main aspects: innovation and competitive advantage, linking business and innovation strategy, defining and implementing innovation strategies, innovation portfolio management, R&D investment decisions, assessing and measuring R&D productivity, open innovation strategies, strategic alliances, M&A, external technology commercialization strategies, globalizing innovation, management of international R&D locations, management of globally dispersed innovation teams and the management of basic research.

Family firms make up over 90% of all companies in Germany—and play a critical role in the global economy. This course explores what sets them apart, from goals and governance to leadership and succession. Students examine key concepts, frameworks, and real-world cases to understand the dynamics of owning and advising family businesses. Ideal preparation for careers in family firms or consulting.

This course offers an inside look at the venture capital industry—its structures, strategies, incentives, and influence on entrepreneurship and innovation. Students explore how VC firms operate, evaluate deals, create value, and work with startups post-investment. With practical insights and rigorous analysis, the course prepares students for roles as founders, VCs, consultants, or policymakers navigating the entrepreneurial finance ecosystem.

This hands-on course teaches students how to visualize and communicate ideas effectively in business contexts. Through sketching and structured visual techniques, students learn to create icons, structures, and infographics. The course covers both foundational drawing skills and advanced tools for visual storytelling, analysis, and business modeling—building confidence in presenting complex content clearly and creatively.

Damit du Entrepreneurship sowohl aus dem Blickwinkel von Start-ups, von Unternehmen und von Investoren kennenlernen kannst, bieten wir drei spezielle Kurse in Berlin und Düsseldorf an. Dort kannst du die Gründerszene der WHU persönlich erleben.

1. Die Start-Up-Perspektive – Sprint2Berlin
2. Die Unternehmens-Perspektive – Corporate Entrepreneurship
3. Advanced Entrepreneurial Finance

Le Wagon ist eine der führenden Programmierschulen, die kreativen Menschen die technischen Fähigkeiten vermittelt, die sie brauchen, um erfolgreich zu sein. Im Rahmen ihrer Partnerschaft mit Le Wagon fördert die WHU die Teilnahme von ausgewählten MiE-Studierenden am renommierten neunwöchigen Bootcamp-Programm von Le Wagon. Das Coding Bootcamp fügt sich übergangslos in das MiE-Programm ein. Die Teilnahme ersetzt das Praktikum, das sonst ab Mai nach dem ersten Studienjahr absolviert werden müsste. In einem für Programmierer perfekten Umfeld lernen die Teilnehmer, was sie über Software Engineering, Database-Architekturen und die technischen Arbeitsprozesse von erfolgreichen Start-ups wissen müssen, und gewinnen Erfahrung im Umgang mit Tools wie Ruby, Heroku, Stripe, Mandrill und Algolia, um am Ende eine eigene App entwickeln zu können.

Bei der Erstellung des Lehrplans für das MiE-Programm haben wir eine Vielzahl von Unternehmern und Managern um Rat gefragt, um herauszufinden, welche Fachkenntnisse der Markt tatsächlich braucht. Immer wieder wurden dabei Kenntnisse in der Softwareentwicklung und Programmierung genannt. Ein Unternehmer müsse darüber verfügen, um heute und in der Zukunft erfolgreich zu sein. Um diesem Bedarf zu entsprechen, bieten wir einerseits ein Wahlmodul an, in dem speziell diese Fähigkeiten vermittelt werden, und arbeiten andererseits im Rahmen einer besonderen Partnerschaft mit der weltweit führenden Coding-Plattform Codecademy zusammen. Damit hast du die Möglichkeit, zusätzlich zu Ihren regulären WHU-Vorlesungen auch Kurse der Codecademy zu besuchen, und damit genau jene Programmiersprachen und IT-Skills zu erlernen, die du brauchst.