Andreas Widmer: The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship
Andreas Widmer is a seasoned entrepreneur with a passion for helping business professionals find deeper meaning in their work and sustainable success through principled entrepreneurship. He is also the author of, The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship: Creating Enduring Value, where he shares his philosophy in a practical guide on how to start and do business in a way that’s both virtuous and profitable. Previously, Andreas helped lead high-tech companies, bringing more than one hundred leading-edge technology products to market in the process. He also led several organizations focused on enterprise solutions to poverty. He is a former member of the Swiss Guard serving under Pope John Paul II and author of the book, The Pope and the CEO, which describes the ten lessons he learned from the late pope about leadership and the centrality of the human person in work. This Episode’s Heavy-hitter’s: Andreas was a self-described “troubled youth” who struggled to find what he was good at early in life. His first aspiration was to be a bodyguard, which was “the coolest job he could think of” growing up, and so he ended up becoming a bodyguard for none other than Pope John the 2nd. Andreas was part of a company called FTP Software early in his career, where the team was very close and eventually they exited the business for hundreds of millions of dollars. The lasting lesson was from that process of going public, where the team chemistry and vision was greatly disrupted. This led Andreas to the realization and creation of his trademark concept of Principled Entrepreneurship that he actively teaches about. Being a person with ADHD and Dyslexia, Andreas says he teaches “to the back of the room” for those that are like him and have trouble with the standardized style of education. Andreas believes that the only asset a company holds that has infinite ROI is its people and employees, and he suggests that companies invest more in them because of it. Continuing that trend, Andreas rejects the idea that human beings are a curse to the planet— and believes that through collaboration we are the solution to worldly problems. To learn more about Andreas, check out: https://andreas-widmer.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/thepozcast#thePOZcast is brought to you by our friends at Interseller – the prospecting + outreach platform of recruiters and sellers. Whether you’re doubling down on business development or recruiting talent, Interseller does all the heavy lifting of finding contact data, automating the email and follow-up process, and syncs all that rich data into 20+ CRMs and ATSs. Reach out and get going in a 2-week *free* trial today and let them know you heard about them from Adam on #thePOZcast. Check out a free demo today! https://bit.ly/2Fbm/BZ For more, please visit www.thePOZcast.com Thanks for listening!