Sixth Policy Roundtable in Berlin Germany

On April 24th 2018 the FIRES consortium was presenting its Reform Strategy for Germany at the German Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie in Berlin. The FIRES-consortium was kindly invited to join the Round Table Mittelstand that was co-organised by the Ministry and the Institut für Mittelstandsforschung in Bonn. The FIRES message that Germany could afford to be a bit more “abenteuerlich” and should change regulation and education to promote more creative and experimental entrepreneurship to complement its traditional strengths in incremental, high-tech innovation, was well received. The problem how to achieve such changes in a deeply embedded culture of Mittelstands-entrepreneurship was less than trivial. The other participants offered their insights from various angles and after every two presentations an lively discussion would erupt. At the conclusion the special envoy for SMEs for Germany, mrs. Hepperle thanked the participants for an inspiring afternoon and many useful suggestions how to push also the German entrepreneurial society. For those that read German, here are the slides of Mark Sanders and Michael Fritsch. The slides presented by Andrea Herrmann are here. For those that do not, here is the report on the roundtable in english.