The shortcut to success: C-level empowerment for KLU students

Entrepreneurial Thinking Beyond Start-Ups

What does entrepreneurial thinking look like beyond starting a company? How do senior leaders recognize opportunity, make decisions under uncertainty, and turn setbacks into progress? Over five sessions, KLU students met directly with senior executives from different industries for 90-minute lectures to address some of these questions, and ask their own. The direct exchange in the Empowerment Skills course is intentionally designed to bring leadership practice closer to the classroom.

The course followed two main goals: to give students practical insights into how senior executives think and act, and to show that entrepreneurial skills are not limited to start-ups. They are also essential inside corporations, where leaders need to identify opportunities, understand stakeholders, learn from experiments, navigate failure, and take ownership.

Learning from Senior Leaders

For the participating executives, the course was also a way to share experience with the next generation of leaders. For students, it offered rare access to senior decision-makers and a setting in which they could ask questions and engage beyond the usual classroom format.

Hartmut Engler, CEO of CWS Workwear, opened the course with a session on recognizing opportunity and leadership through change. His advice to the next generation was direct: “Be curious. Be keen to learn every day. Build your own and strong network. Be authentic.”

Astrid Neben, CHRO at Lufthansa Group, focused on understanding target audiences, talent, and leadership development in a global organization. Speaking about career choices and personal growth, she emphasized the importance of finding the right balance between challenge and confidence: “Choosing a job, it’s really important to “stay in the flow”; this means to be in a spot where you feel challenged, but also have the feeling you will manage it.”
 

Curiosity, Resilience, and Learning from Failure

The course then moved into the dynamics of building, testing, and learning with Maik Busse, former COO and CFO of FROSTA AG. Looking at the pace of change in today’s business world, he highlighted a mindset that is especially important for graduates: “In this world that is changing really fast, the trait is dealing with the unknown. It's about being interested and curious in what is in, and unlocking the potential of the unknown.” For Busse, ambition and resilience are closely connected: “Success is when the dreams are bigger than the excuses”.

With Torben Reher, CFO of HOYER Group, students explored what it means to lead through complexity in the global logistics and transportation sector. His session centered on embracing failure as part of development and decision-making. As he put it: “It’s important to accept failure. Failure is just part of the process of getting better.”
 

Taking Ownership and Bringing Others Along

The final session, led by Misel Ahom, HRVP DE&I and Talent Acquisition at Beiersdorf, focused on empowering yourself, taking ownership, and bringing others along. As a role model in female leadership and advocate for female empowerment, she reflected on leadership cultures: “The biggest gap I have observed between male and female leaders is that women have more willingness to show vulnerability and also to create environments where everybody feels they can thrive,” she said.

For the students, the value of the course was not only in the topics but in the format itself: direct access, open exchange, and a chance to see leadership from the inside.

“The Empowerment skills course is a really powerful step into helping students understand how C-level managers operate, not only in their strategy and day-to-day operations, but also their overall mindset. It’s really valuable to sit face to face with these and learn that you can engage with future C-suite executives in a more relaxed manner, as opposed to feeling shy or stressed about such encounters.” – Alex Ocnean, KLU student BSc in Business Administration

Bringing the Future Closer

For Karyna Sarukhanian, KLU student MSc in Global Logistics, the course offered a perspective across industries and leadership realities: “Through KLU, we were able to step into different industries, see how things work from very different perspectives, and not just observe from a distance, but actually engage, ask questions, and interact.”

By connecting students with senior leaders from organizations such as CWS Workwear, Lufthansa Group, FROSTA AG, HOYER Group, and Beiersdorf, the Empowerment Skills course created a learning experience that brought professional futures into immediate reach. It reflects KLU’s commitment to combining academic education with practical exposure, strong networks, and the skills students need to lead in complex environments.

“For me, this is one of the things that makes KLU unique: it not only prepares you for the future in a classroom. It brings that future closer and lets you take the first steps toward your professional career before you have even graduated.”