Systematic entrepreneurship: How succession becomes a strategic opportunity
In Germany, around 600,000 companies will be looking for a successor in the coming years - but there is a lack of successors. While start-up programs and start-up initiatives are booming, a huge opportunity often remains untapped: entering entrepreneurship through structured succession. Tobias Kaulfuss, Managing Director of Castella Nova, explains in an interview with strategy expert Christian Underwood how a scalable business model was created from a demographic risk.
Succession as an entrepreneurial alternative
Many managers are looking for more responsibility, purpose and creative freedom - but come up against structural limits in their corporate careers. This is precisely where Tobias Kaulfuss comes in: Instead of founding their own company, experienced managers can join existing, healthy companies that are looking for a successor. What is missing is not the potential - but the structure. Castella Nova offers a model that accompanies managers on this path: strategically, financially and operationally. "We bring managers into entrepreneurship - not alone, but embedded in a functioning system."
Strategy meets market logic
The approach is strategically well thought out: Tobias Kaulfuss and his team analyze markets and identify high-growth sectors with consolidation potential, such as IT system houses, property management companies or craft businesses in the energy and renovation sector. In these markets, they build so-called verticals: groups of companies that grow through targeted succession solutions. The highlight: the entrepreneur often retains a stake, the company continues to operate in a stable manner and new managers can start with entrepreneurial backing.
From manager to entrepreneur - with responsibility
The path to entrepreneurship is not an easy change of scenery. It requires capital, courage - and a realistic self-image. Tobias Kaulfuss emphasizes that anyone taking this step must have made an inner commitment. "I could imagine it, but that's not enough! It has to mean: I was looking for this." At the same time, he points out how important structure, a network and support are to make the leap a success. In the new role, the boundaries between professional and private life become blurred. Responsibility becomes more extensive, decisions more serious - but the impact is also greater.
System beats solo foundation
Particularly exciting: Castella Nova's model not only offers security for entrepreneurs during the handover, but also a real alternative for ambitious managers. Not a high-risk start-up, but a functioning company with a market position, staff, customers and processes - but with scope for strategic development. The platform provides the know-how, the legal and financial structure as well as a growing network of entrepreneurs. This makes succession plannable - and entrepreneurial action scalable.
For whom this episode is worthwhile
This episode is for everyone who wants more than a career - for managers who want to act entrepreneurially without starting from scratch and for entrepreneurs who want to solve their succession strategically and sustainably. It shows how succession can become a gateway to entrepreneurship - with structure, support and impact. Listen now and discover why this is where real opportunities arise.
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