Lennard Schramm is a recent graduate of TUM School of Management with a specialization in Computer Science. He has demonstrated his leadership and entrepreneurial spirit as a founding member of the Family Business Club at TUM and as a next-generation family business leader.

As a co-founder of the Family Business Club, Lennard aimed to create a platform for exchange and networking among potential successors and students interested in family businesses, building a valuable network for next generation family business leaders like him.

His academic journey includes semesters abroad at the City University of Hong Kong and the National University of Singapore, where he gained expertise in diverse fields such as databases, negotiation, new venture creation, and business case analysis.

Right after his Bachelor studies, Lennard started a position in sales at organic veggie food GmbH, his parent’s family business, where he successfully led the SOTO brand relaunch in 2023. The process of handing over the business to him has already begun and he will be assuming even greater responsibilities in the near future. We spoke with Lennard about the opportunities and challenges of family-owned businesses.

Lennard, you joined the family business after graduating from the TUM School of Management. How do the knowledge and skills you acquired at university contribute to your current day-to-day work?

During my studies, I acquired a lot of essential skills which enable me to contribute to the success of our family business. Both management topics as well as informatics courses are highly relevant to my day-to-day work. Moreover, the exchange with inspiring individuals in the university ecosystem is really valuable for me. Programs such as the Family Business Club at TUM or FamilienUnternehmerTUM with NextGen4Bavaria have allowed me to build an excellent network. Furthermore, I gained a lot of inspiration during my semesters abroad in Hong Kong and Singapore.

During your studies, you dealt intensively with the topic of family businesses. What specific aspects of these companies were of particular interest to you and why?

I am very intrigued by the success stories and the inspiring leadership personalities in family businesses. Most family firms have strong values and are committed to a purpose that’s deeply anchored in their culture. This enables them to have a clear mission and achieve outstanding success. Family businesses can rightly be called the backbone of the German economy, as they contribute over 50% to the German GDP. Often times, these companies are highly successful but not publicly well-known, that’s why they are also called hidden champions. That’s something we want to change with the Family Business Club!

As co-founder of the Family Business Club at TUM, you have created a platform for exchange and networking. What were your goals in founding this club and what successes have you had so far?

With this initiative, we bring together potential successors and students who are generally interested in family businesses. Together, we initiate contact with established companies and meet inspiring personalities. We foster the exchange of ideas and the pursuit of knowledge and shared experiences. In only a few years, we created a great community of like-minded students with trusted relationships, as well as establishing great partners and sponsors of our club. I am very proud of our new board members who are successfully continuing and growing the Family Business Club at TUM.

Starting a family business presents unique challenges and opportunities. Can you share some of the biggest challenges you faced and how you overcame them?

When my parents founded the business in 1988, they were having a hard time getting off the ground: In the first couple of years, the public was not interested in organic or plant-based foods. Still, my parents had an inner commitment to transform the food system and to stay persistent. For many years, our sales were so little that they couldn’t make a living. So both of my parents had to take on second jobs, such as being a waiter, to be able to afford running the business and pay wages. The situation was so dire that they had to move into a single-room apartment and take out a loan using my grandmother’s bank account. But they had so much passion and optimism that one day, it will all come together - and it did!

Nowadays, SOTO is a successful business with over 100 employees. So the main lesson here is to be committed, to work really hard, not get discouraged and to have a clear goal. 

Of course, I also faced challenges entering our family business as the second generation: For me, one big challenge was to form meaningful and productive relationships with the team and to be accepted as the next generation leader. I am managing this is by having meaningful and caring conversations with employees, by putting in hard work, and by constantly improving my leadership skills by attending courses such as the excellent Leadership Talent Academy at UnternehmerTUM.

Another big challenge is the fact that I’m being thrown into a lot of existing old structures and processes, which can be very rigid and inefficient. I’m handling this by solving one issue at a time, by being very organized about the approach and by including the team in the change process to ensure acceptance and willingness for change. This is especially important in some digitalization projects which I am leading.

How do you see the future of the Soto family business in which you work? What are your visions and plans for the coming years?

Our company is a pioneer in the field of organic plant-based convenience foods. Even though this product category started to gain traction only a couple of years ago, we are operating in this niche since 1988. Nowadays, with a lot of start-ups as well as corporates entering this market, my vision for Soto is to be a customer-favorite brand, known for delicious and clean food that is good for you and the planet. Plant-based customers are increasingly shifting towards 'variations' - products that are not one-to-one copies of meat – we want to be the leader in this category. Our goal is to make our products, such as our delicious Falafels, available in every supermarket in Europe. We will achieve this by continuing to innovate and launching great products, by stepping up our marketing, and by expanding our great team. We want to stay independent as a successful family business, creating value in our regional value chain.

What advice would you give our students who aspire to join a family business or start their own business?

Listen to your inner entrepreneurial spirit, always be curious and seek conversations with inspiring leaders and successful individuals. Be brave and to try things out, and then see what works and what doesn’t, instead of just thinking about possible scenarios. And most importantly, have fun while doing it!

Read more about the importance of family businesses.