“The aim is to move from being the leader in Sweden to being the leader internationally, becoming both highly regarded and well-known," says Martin Lackéus, project manager at G4E.
 
“What we do in Göteborg is to concentrate, instead of as before engaging in friendly competition with one another in the various entrepreneurship schools. With increased cooperation, the education offered can also become more resource-efficient and permit increased specialisation. Quite simply, we´ll improve in a number of areas," emphasises Martin Lackéus. “And entrepreneurship is after all interdisciplinary, so cooperation pays."

Martin Lackéus took up the post of G4E project manager on October 1, 2009. G4E consists of four entrepreneurship schools: Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship (CSE), Göteborg International Bioscience Business School (GIBBS), Intellectual Capital Management (ICM) and Entrepreneurship Track. Martin Lackéus now has responsibility for integrating these schools in the best possible way to create a powerful joint operation, all under the same roof.

And it is clear that Martin Lackéus is ideally suited to the task of leading this project. For one thing, he is himself a graduate of the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship (CSE), and for another he has practical experience of successful entrepreneurship from building up and running a company by the name of Vehco over a number of years. His experience from both the academic and business worlds is an enormous asset and important for him to take with him in his new role, to create a sustainable entrepreneurship structure under one roof.

After completing his initial engineering degree at Chalmers, Martin Lackéus worked first for a number of years at a relatively large company. “But I saw that one is considerably more self-reliant on one´s own entrepreneurship capacity, which does admittedly mean greater vulnerability but also that one has more control. My time there convinced me to focus on entrepreneurship, which in turn attracted me to apply to the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship, CSE", relates Martin.

“In 13 years, Göteborg´s entrepreneurship schools have generated something in the region of one billion kronor"

For a year and a half starting in 2001, Martin Lackéus studied management at CSE while spending one year of his studies running a project in the form of a company as part of his course. There´s no mistaking Martin´s enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and the start he got in life. “I´m immensely grateful for the opportunity to study at the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship," he says. “It really is a unique course, definitely the best in Sweden, and it´s inspired many other institutes of higher education such as Lund and even as far afield as Norway. Göteborg is a source of inspiration!"

“You get the chance to try things out yourself and learn to be an entrepreneur through a process of ‘emergency learning´," relates Martin Lackéus. “There´s an immense advantage to being allowed to run a company in real life. It´s surprising that this type of education is not in more widespread use. For example, one would never authorise a doctor start working without insisting that he or she first undertake supervised medical practice. Entrepreneurship should really be a consistent theme through the entire educational system. Society´s development takes place large via the creation of new business and for many companies the motto is to develop or die. Knowledge about entrepreneurial resources is an essential ingredient for society in general," emphasises Martin.

Martin Lackéus also feels that entrepreneurship education brings major benefits for the individual. “What´s most important is the individual!" says Martin. “Education makes it possible for the right individuals to create profitable companies. The individual is put behind the wheel of a new company. This promotes a special relationship with entrepreneurship, it creates enthusiastic individuals. This is a stimulating environment and everyone works immensely hard and puts in a lot of work in this atmosphere," relates Martin. “At the same time, entrepreneurship is both a broad area and one that is difficult to grasp. Some projects evolve into companies, others don´t."

"Entrepreneurship is after all interdisciplinary, so cooperation pays."

“In 13 years, Göteborg´s entrepreneurship schools have generated something in the region of one billion kronor, and those figures don´t even include some of the companies that have made it. The question is whether these companies would have managed to start up, drive and develop business ideas with such success without the existence of entrepreneurship education," reflects Martin Lackéus. 

When it comes to the individual, are there any special characteristics that contribute to success? “For me it is the small things that have always been important," says Martin. “My motto, “the devil is in the detail", is not particularly unique, characterising many other successful corporate leaders too. Ingvar Kamprad has always been immensely thorough with the smallest details in his company, for example. But one thing is absolutely clear: you can be sure that it is also the smallest details that can trip you up and cause major problems. So it´s always worthwhile to keep your eye on the details, there´s a whole lot to be gained there," emphasises Martin.

How does Martin Lackéus view the scope for bringing together eight faculties in the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers into the G4E project? “It´s not entirely straightforward," he says. “Not everyone shares my vision, so there may be some resistance among the various parties to the idea of bringing together everything under one umbrella. Everyone guards their own territory, and that is one of the main issues to be dealt with. It´s not necessarily universally accepted that everyone should work under one roof, changes must be given time to mature, they should not be pushed through too quickly. After all, it´s all about developing a joint platform between the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers," Martin Lackéus points out. “However, if we look at this in the international perspective, there are successful ways of working that have themselves also generated success. There are surveys from Silicon Valley in California which show that informal contacts and networks are forged when people work alongside each other — links that would otherwise not have been made if the people concerned worked in different locations. In the longer-term perspective, I have immense faith in this idea," says Martin.

A man who works a lot and whose very being burns with keen enthusiasm for entrepreneurship — what does he do in his free time? “Right now my personal needs are having a total break," he says with a smile. “But that´s more because I have two young children at home, a two and a half year old and a six month old baby. There quite simply isn´t any time left over for anything other than the children and work."

 
Text: Helene Jaktling, GöteborgBIO