“Satisfying the owners’ wishes is massively overestimated”

The “aspect of satisfying entrepreneurs is massively overestimated.” The main thing is to “turn customers into shareholders,” says Schröder, who points to two examples in which he himself was involved: Tesla and Sonnen. While the energy start-up Sonnen, where Schröder was a manager, was later swallowed up by Shell, Tesla, where Schröder was once head of Germany, went public. Only the faith of customers who wanted to be part of the Tesla story made the company’s lasting success possible.