Based on their “Entrepreneurial Project”, which is an integral part of the ESSEC & MANNHEIM Executive MBA and requires students to develop a real life business case, MBS alumni Erol Bozak, Wolfgang Kalthoff and Jörg Wiemer founded their own company shortly upon graduation in 2009. Treasury Intelligence Solutions (TIS), as they called the company, offers innovative and easy to use risk and compliance solutions in the areas of bank account and cash management. Since its inception, the company has gone from strength to strength: Earlier this year the TIS executive team announced a € 2.5 million investment into the company by Munich-based venture capital firm Target Partners as well as a cooperative sales partnership with Deutsche Bank AG.

In recognition of their achievements, the three Mannheim entrepreneurs were the first to receive the international Entrepreneurial Venture Award, launched this year by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), one of the three leading international associations for accredited business schools. The winners were announced at the annual Gala dinner of the association, which was held at prestigious Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London, on October 19, 2011.

The aim of TIS is to provide secure and efficient payment solutions for businesses. “All business-critical processes related to payment transactions, cash balances, payment statuses and bank account responsibilities are managed in a single, audit-proof application”, explains Wiemer who holds the position of CEO at TIS. “The solution is sold in the Software as a Service (SaaS) model and is easy to implement - without the need for costly, resource-intensive project planning, thereby delivering quick time to value for customers.”

The Entrepreneurial Project is a key element of the ESSEC & MANNHEIM Executive MBA program and designed to promote innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset. Students are challenged to transform their ideas into concrete business plans and to apply the cross-disciplinary knowledge they acquire in the course of their program. “Through the Entrepreneurial Project, students give proof positive that they not only understand business imperatives, but are able to act upon them as well”, says Professor Dr. Jens Wüstemann, President of Mannheim Business School. Thus it should come as no surprise that a significant number of graduates found their own company upon graduation – and do so rather successfully, as the example of TIS shows.