Magazine BEAST #15 2019

4
#Business | Innovation
BUILDING AN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP-FRIENDLY
ENVIRONMENT
BY ALEXANDRE KEILMANN
The country of Luxembourg is known for its steel industry,
financial services and more recently for its ICT expertise.
To further allow the development of these industries
among others, the Grand-Duchy has been favoring
innovation and entrepreneurship through several
initiatives for several years, one of which being the House
of Entrepreneurship. Founded in October 2016, the House
of Entrepreneurship was launched on the initiative of the
Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of the Economy
and aims at helping entrepreneurs in their entire journey.
We met with its CEO and Director Entrepreneurship of the
Chamber of Commerce, Tom Baumert, to discuss some of
the main projects led by the House of Entrepreneurship
and how it answers to the challenges currently faced by
entrepreneurs in Luxembourg, and in the Greater Region.
The House of Entrepreneurship can be labelled as a
platform, or «one-stop shop», bringing together all
the parties involved in the creation of a new company.
«We also benefit from the support of the Ministry of
the Economy, and our main mission is to federate the
actors and people involved in the process of creating and
developing businesses. Back in the days, different entities
were located all around the country. Now, the House of
Entrepreneurship is a unique point of contact located
in the capital of Luxembourg» highlights Tom Baumert,
explaining that all necessary information is now available
at the House of Entrepreneurship. He continues: «it brings
more coherence and also consistence to entrepreneurs:
through our organization, they can also have an easy
access to information and can easily figure out who their
appropriate contact for specific tasks is».
Since its creation, the House of Entrepreneurship has
been a great success as it has been in contact with more
than 80,000 clients, sharing information with them but
also promoting Luxembourg as an entrepreneurship hub,
with more and more players participating and allowing the
enhancement of the program.
«A similar initiative called ‘Espace Entreprise’, existed
back in 2015 at the Chamber of Commerce. Since
launching in late 2016, we have seen a rise of 281%
in the number of clients contacting us, showing
how successful the House of Entrepreneurship is.
Our goal is also to bring more partners on board,
from administrations to private-public partners, etc.,»
underlines the CEO.
A one-stop shop to allow entrepreneurs to grow and
develop
The House of Entrepreneurship first focused on the
administrative procedures, which can sometimes be
a burden, even if Luxembourg has been smoothing
it over the years. As explained by Tom Baumert,
«this section of the House of Entrepreneurship is still
popular, with many questions being asked to – and
answered by – our experts. Yet, our focus grew and
we are now also helping companies that are already
established on Luxembourgish soil. They often come
up with interrogations and our job is to point them
in the right direction and tell them which partner(s)
will be able to accompany them, depending on the
challenge they are facing».
Moreover, in a context of digital transformation,
the Chamber of Commerce and the House of
Entrepreneurship have also launched an initiative called
«Go Digital», which aims at helping SMEs tackle the
current challenges and embrace today’s digital world.
However, this is not the only initiative the Chamber of
Commerce and the House of Entrepreneurship have
launched to support already established entrepreneurs
in Luxembourg: «Several other aspects are also being
covered by our different initiatives, namely facilitating
business transfers/successions, helping entrepreneurs
who are facing difficulties, sharing best practices
through a mentoring program, … In other words, we
are bridging the gap between the different players of
the innovation/entrepreneurship ecosystem: we are
creating synergies,» highlights the CEO.
BEAST MAGAZINE #15