By Maria Solvsteen on October 29, 2012 in DISCUSS, OFF CAMPUS

How often have we heard that a society´s prosperous future is dependent on brilliant minds and innovative ideas?

Those brilliant ideas exist inside the mind of 20-year old Frederik Kehler.  At the age of just 16 he founded his first company, enovasion, and has since then expanded his innovative entrepreneurship to the founding of the retail jewelery company; Art Gemma.  All the while being a high school student, a member of the study board, a socialite and a friend to everyone!

We have met with Frederik for a chat on his aspiration of becoming a CBS student, uniting the Danish Jantelov (the law stating that you shouldn’t think too highly of yourself) with creativity while simultaneously facilitating his brilliant mind.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you spend your time.

I’m currently working on a lot of different projects, which requires me to spend a lot of time researching on social media. It is really a great source of innovation.

Likewise, it is a great place to attain knowledge to reinvest in many other projects because it requires a lot of time and research to differentiate myself and to constantly be aware of the current trends. I think it goes for every entrepreneur that it is important to specialize, which is also the case for me especially because I don’t have as much manpower as many of my competitors. Also, it allows for reflecting personally on various political topics, which is important to me in order to be able to form my own opinions on future investments. For instance, I see great opportunities in e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like. The concept of social media is so new and there is a prospect to be one of the first- movers in these new tendencies. It is fascinating to me, to be able to be a part of the new innovative social media projects rather than focusing on older, more well-integrated and established industries.

In regards of time management, I’m really incapable of living by a scheme. However, I do need to adapt to some of the rules in business life. Nevertheless, this can be very difficult to combine with being an entrepreneur like having to talk to someone from China at odd times of the day. But when the responsibility is entirely your own, it kind of requires a lot of liability and accepting that sometimes working 24- hour´s a day does not translate to 24- hours of productivity.  Rather, there is a lot of waiting time. Ultimately, this is the balance between combining money for my time and knowledge for my time.

How did you manage to develop your own company at such an early point?

It really all comes down to taking initiative. In my experience, there is everything to win in starting young because it often portrays drive and motivation. So, instead of seeing limits and hindrances, we should focus on opportunities and possibilities. Some of those possibilities lie within utilizing your own resources and exploring your network. For example, there is really a lot of accessible information on the Internet and in attending entrepreneurial forums. Another important aspect is not to be afraid of handling the administrative process and also not to be anxious about seizing an opportunity due to lack of experience – it is perfectly fine to be green. Entrepreneurship is all about learning by doing. This point really can´t be stressed enough, that is really the key.

What is your idea of success and how do you know when it has been achieved?

At this point, the smiling look in his eyes has turned in to something more thoughtful as he starts considering some of his own core values. He ends up arguing that: “Success is not necessarily best measured in salary because developing innovative ideas usually requires faith in the project and consequently extensive reinvesting. Rather, it is the combination of capabilities and the balance it requires to combine work with social life. Success is hard to measure as I would consider myself successful if I were able to keep on challenging myself and evolving ideas. So, it is probably achieved when I am able to combine work and family with continual progressing.”

What are your thoughts on the possibilities in DK for facilitating innovation?

Frederik grasps this opportunity to discuss the acceptance policy of CBS and the general universities in Denmark as it is where innovation is likely to unfold. “To me, it is as if the universities seem to focus on traditional conventions rather than adapting to new innovative trends as has been done in other places. Instead of fostering those with great ideas in a resourceful relationship between students, many institutions seem quite focused on rules, books, and regulations. This is definitely a downfall and a neglect in allowing for prosperous joint ventures between students and entrepreneurs and creativity as a whole. In my opinion, CBS should focus on other capabilities than just grades to a larger extent than they already do (referring to the 2^nd quota dilemma). This would certainly be a first mover advantage and a pioneering action that would change the perception of old educational conventions. There should be a focus on case orientation and on networking between different groups to form the foundation of capital, entrepreneurship and innovation”.

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