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Impressive Guest Lecture by Sebastian Gluschak (KANCHA)

Impressive Guest Lecture by Sebastian Gluschak (KANCHA)

Last Thursday (Sept. 26), Sebastian Gluschak, the co-founder of KANCHA, held a great and exciting guest lecture on the topic of social entrepreneurship and his own entrepreneurial experiences within this field in MAN630 and MAN635. Both events were open to public. All participants were very impressed by Sebastian's sound theoretical and practical knowledge of the area of social entrepreneurship and his personal insights about setting up a social enterprise. The 2nd session in C015 was rounded off by letting students work on an own case using an adapted version of business model canvas.

Sebastian started off by giving an overview about what social entrepreneurship really means in MAN 630 Introduction to Entrepreneurship, since many of the participants were highly interested in the topic but not too familiar with the underlying concepts. This background information enabled participants to find out that social entrepreneurship is all about doing well while doing good. Hence, social Startups do not mainly care about the economic performance of their Startup but focus on bringing benefits to a special group of our society or the environment or the society in general. In a second session, Sebastian provided a guest lecture and workshop designed for our MAN 635 students and everybody being interested more in depth. 

In KANCHA's case, this societal benefit is derived from the Startup's business model: KANCHA designs and distributes sleeves for notebooks, smartphones and tablets, which are produced in Kyrgyzstan under fair conditions. Kyrgyzstan is a country located in Central Asia. Income is usually fairly low, jobs are scarce and corruption is quite high. The production enables the local population to earn a fair wage and gain a better standard of living. Sebastian showed some videos and pictures, which highlighted the social impact KANCHA is making for its employees and the whole region. Sebastian also outlined the Startup's timeline and talked about his own experiences with crowdfunding, a topic which was of high relevance for some of the participants.

After giving this interesting theoretical and practical background information, Sebastian involved the participants in a group endeavor of spotting their own social business opportunity and coming up with a first draft employing business model canvas. Due to the diverse background of participants, interesting concepts and discussions evolved and we hope all participants were able to take away some new insights.

We thank Sebastian for giving such a fascinating guest lecture and wish KANCHA all the best for the future - we will keep you updated about the Startup's development and success.

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Sponsors

  • University of Mannheim
  • Institut für Mittelstandsforschung
  • Gründerverbund
  • ESF
  • Europäische Union
  • Baden-Württemberg - Ministerium für Finanzen und Wirtschaft
  • Absolventum