Heribert Trunk invites innovative students to South Africa

Successful entrepreneur Heribert Trunk is committed to both the creation of new businesses and social causes such as equal opportunities and education, and this was quickly apparent at the event "On a Donut with Heribert Trunk" in October 2022. The junior professor for social entrepreneurship Dr Eva Jakob of the University of Bayreuth invited to the extraordinary event about the career of the founder of the Chance Jugend foundation. With wit and energy, Prof. Dr. Jakob discussed Trunk's career, simultaneous managing director of Bi-Log GmbH, the sometimes missing perspectives for young people and his commitment to the foundation system.

He is now breaking new ground with the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (IEI) at the University of Bayreuth. The IEI developed a programme in which talented students were identified and accompanied over three months in the development of the start-up idea. In the so-called "Enabling", IEI enables students to pursue a start-up project in cooperation with organisations and companies in order to develop social, technological or ecological innovations and bring them to market.

He is now breaking new ground with the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (IEI) at the University of Bayreuth. The IEI developed a programme in which talented students were identified and accompanied over three months in the development of the start-up idea. In what is known as "enabling", IEI enables students to pursue a start-up project in cooperation with organisations and companies in order to develop social, technological or ecological innovations and bring them to market.

The project phase was divided into three parts. During the introduction to the problem, the participants had to work on five challenges, network with each other and form teams. In the second phase, problem analysis and solution development were tackled. Within a two-day interactive workshop, different methods were used to generate ideas. In the last step, an individually elaborated prototype was developed and, after further feedback, transformed into a final business model. Heribert Trunk refers in particular to the energy that was in the room during the working process, because "curiosity and out-of-the-box thinking could always be felt and experienced in the collaboration". The entire process was accompanied by IEI's Co-Creation & Enabling Team.

Heribert Trunk was so enthusiastic about the result of the innovation teams that he and his family invited the #DonateWhatMatters team, whose business model had been intensively developed over the last few months, to foundation projects in South Africa without further ado. On site, the students had the opportunity to gather new impulses and to see what social-ecological impact can look like in practice. The team was accompanied by Barbara and Heribert Trunk, who made direct contact with target groups in South Africa and were thus able to show how the solution of business models can be adapted to the needs. Among others, the innovation team visited the Jakes Gerwel Technik School in Bonnievale, which is a model for a potential project in Knysna, as well as the Life Choices and Hope Cape Town projects, which aim to offer children and young people a self-determined future. "We are very grateful for this unique experience. Nothing could have advanced our digital solution as much as experiencing the work of the social organisations in South Africa first hand," says Jannis Kolb from the Donate What Matters team. He is not going home for the time being. He will use the time to gather more impressions and return to Bayreuth at the beginning of April with a wealth of new experience, so that he can continue to implement the foundation with great motivation.

For Prof. Dr. Eva Jakob, the cooperation with Heribert Trunk is a complete success: "After we have already entered into several cooperations with local companies, I am particularly pleased that with Heribert Trunk we can now also show how social innovations can be created through entrepreneurial thinking and action. Here in Bayreuth, we are creating a launch pad for innovation that addresses social challenges."

Further information on the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation is available at iei.uni-bayreuth.de.

For more information on Heribert Trunk's Chance Jugend foundation, please visit chance-jugend.de.