"The creative industries need entrepreneurship"

Prof Dr Elmar Konrad knows the challenges faced by budding creative professionals like no other. At the Institute for Entrepreneurship at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, he specialises in cultural entrepreneurship and self-employment in the creative industries, with a focus on the financing of start-ups, among other things. We met Prof Konrad after his keynote speech "The role of higher education for creative entrepreneurship" at the German Creativ Economy Summit and asked him why creative people find the term "entrepreneurship" so difficult.

As Professor of Interdisciplinary Start-up Management and Creative Entrepreneurship, you hold the first and only interdisciplinary start-up professorship in Rhineland-Palatinate. What is this about?

First of all, we need to realise one thing: The fields of activity in the cultural sector and in the creative industries are extremely diverse, complexly networked and usually also entrepreneurial. The business challenges of an art sculptor, an artistic director or a gaming developer are fundamentally different. In my teaching and research, I focus on aspiring freelancers in the creative industry as well as small teams who have an idea and want to turn it into a business.

What problem do you want to solve with your work?

In most degree programmes in the creative industries, the curricula rarely teach the basics of business management. That's exactly where we come in. We train students in the basics of business administration. But this methodological knowledge is of no use if they are not also taught how and, above all, why this is necessary for their later professional life. It is therefore primarily about training entrepreneurial thinking as an important skill in creative work. And so we try to prepare them for the step into self-employment or for the upcoming start-up process.

In your presentation, you said "the creative industries need entrepreneurship". What motivated you to make this statement?

The creative industries need entrepreneurship because creative people are usually not employed, but work independently as freelancers or often in small teams. Self-employment, i.e. entrepreneurship, is the rule rather than the exception in the creative industries. But in order to be successful in these constellations, you need an entrepreneurial understanding as well as excellent creative performance. By this I don't just mean specialised knowledge of business or financial plans, but clarity about the question: What is my creative output worth? How and with what can I convince customers of my creative offerings, products and services? And finally: How do I deal with the fact that, on the one hand, I want to be creatively independent and, on the other hand, I also want - indeed have to - earn money?

Why does this question pose challenges for many?

I think it is more difficult to deal with the topic if it has not already been taught during your studies. Entrepreneurship and creativity are not a contradiction in terms. Many people will know from their own student days that there is still a rivalry between the ideal of free art on the one hand and the traditional image of the free market, i.e. profit maximisation through supply and demand, on the other. The rivalry between these two views is still quite strong. But it no longer works that way. We need a cultural change. We need to stop separating entrepreneurship and creative services, because they belong together. Many people realise this at the latest when they set up their first business or become self-employed.

How do you sensitise creative people at the university to the topic of entrepreneurship?

What we want to teach our students on the creative degree programmes is entrepreneurial skills. Not only on a business level, but also, as already mentioned, on a social-interactive level. In addition to assessing one's own performance, this also includes the ability to explain oneself and one's own performance to others. We also raise awareness of the importance of networks and collaborations in the creative industries and how to find, build, maintain and utilise them. The Creative Economy Summit is also an important forum for making contacts and building networks. All of this has a direct but also indirect impact on the success of your own artistic endeavour or creative start-up.

What is your impression: How or where do the ideas for the start-ups originate?

At our university, the ideas mainly come from the Department of Design. That's where the ideas that really have potential come from. That's interesting because there is a misconception that most start-ups come from business studies. This is because the creative degree programmes find and implement specific innovative solutions to social problems using creative means. However, it becomes interesting when these creative people want to found a start-up with their products, for example, and need financial resources to do so. In this case, creative and technical expertise is no longer enough; instead, the aforementioned entrepreneurial skills are required. If a start-up team wants to attract investors or obtain a large bank loan, they need to be able to convincingly explain where they want to go with the company, who the customers are, how they will benefit from the product and that the investment will also pay off.

The risk of starting a business is particularly low at the end of a degree programme. Do the students realise this?

I also think that the timing is good. And if the idea is promising, students should definitely give it a try. We support them in assessing this process. If the students have a great innovative idea for a business start-up, i.e. not freelance, there is also the option of applying for start-up grants such as EXIST. However, the money from the grant is only paid out if you can prove that you are working 100% of the time. In this respect, the step into founding a company also goes hand in hand with sacrifice. Students must be aware of this and we try to convey this to them. But when would be the best time to do this, if not shortly after graduation? If the students then take the plunge anyway, it often indicates that they themselves believe in their product and their idea as entrepreneurs, and that is always a good sign.

Thank you very much for the interview!