Entrepreneurship Summit 2025: Keynote speech by Bodo Janssen

Summary

In his keynote speech ‘Leading with meaning and humanity’, Bodo Janssen talks very personally about leadership, humanity and responsibility. His starting point is his conviction that leadership is not primarily about enforcing goals or optimising processes, but about empowering people. He deliberately distinguishes leadership from management: people are led, things are managed. According to him, many undesirable developments in organisations arise because this distinction has been lost.

A central element of his argument is the intention with which leadership is exercised. For him, leadership is neither good nor bad, but appropriate or inappropriate – depending on the inner attitude, the context and the people. Using private and business examples, he shows that the ‘why’ always determines the ‘how’. Those who are only interested in efficiency or control produce different results than those who want to empower people.

Bodo Janssen describes how fear – especially after the sudden death of his father and the assumption of entrepreneurial responsibility – can lead to excessive control, bureaucracy and the disempowerment of employees. This fear takes away meaning, weakens personal responsibility and promotes a victim mentality. He counters this with the idea of strengthening meaning and significance: people take responsibility when the meaning is greater than their fear.

He repeatedly emphasises that true leadership means not taking people's problems away from them, but trusting them to find their own solutions. Leadership should lead to people ‘going home with their heads held high’ because they have grown. Finally, he broadens his view to society and the future (including AI) and argues that leadership should be understood as a contribution to freedom, responsibility and social stability.

Key insights for founders

1. Leadership begins with inner intention

It is not methods or structures that are decisive, but the question: What am I leading for? Profit, control or empowering people lead to fundamentally different organisations.

2. Lead people, manage things

Founders often fail because they treat people like processes. Those who manage people rob them of their dignity, responsibility and motivation.

3. Fear creates bureaucracy – meaning creates responsibility

Control systems often arise from fear. Responsibility arises where people experience meaning and their own significance.

4. Good leadership does not solve problems, but strengthens problem-solving skills

Those who constantly take problems away from employees keep them small. Leadership means giving trust and enabling personal responsibility.

5. Significance is a strategic success factor

People do not get involved because they are paid, but because they feel that they matter – even and especially in times of AI and change.

About the speaker

Bodo Janssen is an entrepreneur, leader and driving force behind people-centred leadership. He has close ties to the Obstalsboom company and has played a key role in shaping its development. Following the sudden death of his father, he took on a great deal of responsibility at an early age and dealt intensively with the effects of fear, control and bureaucracy in organisations. His leadership style is strongly influenced by a sense of purpose, dignity and responsibility. Bodo Janssen sees business as a means to an end for people and is committed to ensuring that companies become places where people grow, take responsibility and have a social impact. He works at the interface of entrepreneurship, human resources and social responsibility and is involved in charitable organisational and leadership models, among other things.