What makes an entrepreneur: responsibility, not titles

What makes someone an entrepreneur?

A title is quickly handed out. Managing director in the commercial register, CEO on the LinkedIn profile, founder in the pitch deck for investors. None of these terms says whether someone actually acts entrepreneurially. My view: an entrepreneur is someone who carries responsibility and answers for the outcome. That applies to the figures, to the people in the business and to the impact on the outside world. The title follows from that, or it remains a formality.

I have built and run two companies from scratch. What shaped me was never the wording on the business card. What shaped me were the decisions taken under uncertainty, where in the end nobody else bore the consequences.

Responsibility means answering for things

The law has long recognised this idea. Anyone running a GmbH must act with the care of a prudent businessman, that is, in the way a conscientious manager would handle someone else's assets. If a managing director culpably breaches this duty and the company suffers a loss, the company can hold them personally liable for compensation. Where there are several managing directors, they are jointly liable. An internal division into areas of responsibility does not protect the individual from being held to account for the whole.

That sounds dry, but it goes to the heart of the matter. The law is not interested in the title, but in the person who decides and bears the consequences. Anyone who adopts this attitude only because of liability, however, has missed the point. Responsibility is first of all a question of mindset: I identify a gap in the market, build a business model out of it and answer for the outcome, even when it goes wrong. Anyone who hides decisions behind committees and areas of competence so as never to be exposed is administering a company, not leading it.

Responsibility for your employees

The second part of responsibility points inwards. Success is created by the team. A good business idea and meticulous work are necessary, but they are not enough as long as the people in the company do not work well together. That matters more to me than any key figure, because the key figures only arise from it.

Just how much depends on this is shown by the Gallup Engagement Index for Germany 2025. Only 10 per cent of employees feel strongly emotionally attached to their employer, 77 per cent only slightly, 13 per cent not at all. Only 23 per cent believe that their management will master the challenges ahead, and only 18 per cent feel inspired about the future by their company's leadership. Employees with a strong emotional bond, by contrast, are absent 41 per cent less often, and only 3 per cent of them are actively looking for a new job. Gallup puts the productivity losses caused by a lack of engagement at 119 to 142 billion euros for 2025.

These figures describe leadership. Anyone responsible for a company is also responsible for whether people enjoy working there. Genuine appreciation, openness to new approaches and an atmosphere in which work is enjoyable create trust. Trust produces performance. Change only succeeds together with the people in the business. Anyone introducing something new has to listen, explain and build acceptance. That applies to new software just as much as to any other decision.

Responsibility for society

The third part extends beyond the business itself. According to the Federal Statistical Office, of the 3.2 million companies in Germany in 2024, 99.3 per cent were small and medium-sized enterprises, including 2.7 million micro-enterprises. Only around 21,500 companies counted as large. At the same time, 54 per cent of the 39.3 million people in employment worked in small and medium-sized enterprises. More than half of all jobs therefore depend on businesses in which the entrepreneur sees the consequences of their decisions directly in front of them: training places, wages, orders for suppliers and the question of whether a region remains economically alive.

For me, this outward impact is part of entrepreneurship. A business is part of a place, an industry and a network. Partnerships, clients and friendships have grown out of the Cologne entrepreneurial networks in which I have been active. That sort of thing only lasts if you also stand up for others through your own conduct and do not make your own deal the only yardstick.

The objection: titles do matter

Anyone objecting that titles do matter nonetheless is right. A title organises responsibilities, creates clarity for customers, banks and authorities, and makes visible who signs. Without being appointed managing director there is no power of representation and no personal liability in the sense of the law. In that respect, titles are the form in which responsibility becomes visible to the outside world.

It is only the order that counts. The title reflects responsibility that someone already carries. Anyone who holds a title without taking the corresponding decisions and bearing their consequences is adorning themselves with a responsibility that they in truth leave to others. And the owner of a small craft business who pays wages and suppliers every month and manages without any addition on the business card is an entrepreneur in the fullest sense.