- Story
“Innovative companies have realised that they have to be caring”
07.07.2025 Are corporate innovativeness and profitability incompatible with a caring approach? No, says Martin Murmann, a researcher on innovation and entrepreneurship at the BFH Business School.
Key points at a glance
- The leadership style of company bosses has a direct influence on the working atmosphere and on employee health.
- A BFH research project is looking into how the pressure felt by company founders affects their health, the company’s success and the workforce.
- A BFH event will look at what contribution the business sector can make to a caring society.
Do company founders take sufficient care of themselves?
Company founders are generally under great pressure. On the one hand, they lead companies that are often backed by private capital and face enormous challenges because they aren’t yet established on the market. This automatically creates tremendous pressure to spend a great deal of time and energy moving the company forwards.
On the other hand, founders find their own businesses extremely fulfilling. Most of them become self-employed so that they can make decisions themselves and enjoy a high level of autonomy. At the same time, many surveys have shown that company founders often complain of enormous stress, insomnia, anxiety and burnout. So in the context of founding a company, it appears to be difficult to care for yourself properly.
How pressure in startups adversely affects mental health
Company founders are often under enormous pressure and have to juggle responsibility, financial stress and high expectations all day. A research project being conducted by BFH and international partners is examining how these factors impact the founders’ mental health, the company’s success and the employees’ careers. The focus is on young companies in the founding or initial growth phase of their development with the aim of deriving scientifically sound recommendations for managers, political decision-makers and the public health system, especially with regard to startups.
The project, which is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, is headed up by Prof. Martin Murmann, a lecturer at the Institute for Innovation & Strategic Entrepreneurship of the BFH Business School. His research addresses the issues of human capital, personnel management and innovation at newly founded companies as well as the organisational structure of startups.
Can you name any company founders who look out for their own wellbeing?
In recent years, movements have cropped up, particularly in Anglo-Saxon countries, that raise awareness of this issue and advise founders about how they can better deal with the many different stress factors. Famous entrepreneurs such as Arianna Huffington, who co-founded the Huffington Post, or Twitter inventor Jack Dorsey, have described in books and podcasts what they did to cope with the enormous pressure they faced.
Startups are mostly characterised by a motivational culture.
Where do company founders derive their energy from and what do they find particularly difficult?
Company founders’ main sources of energy – or ‘resources’, to use the technical term – are high autonomy and a passion for working on things that they enjoy. The greatest stressors are uncertainty about whether the company will survive the start phase, and responsibility for both their own income and that of staff and their families.
Another stress-inducing factor is the complex role in which company founders find themselves. Suddenly they have to handle everything, from financial and HR-related matters to technological tasks, after previously perhaps having a clearly defined role as a specialist.
Start-ups are said to demand enormous dedication and hard work. Is that accurate?
Yes, I would agree. In the initial phase of a startup, the many tasks that arise have to be distributed between comparatively few people. That automatically leads to a high level of stress. What’s more, startups are mostly characterised by a motivational culture. Their employees identify strongly with the company’s goals and are prepared to work overtime and go the extra mile as needed. That can even go so far as to dissolve the boundary between work and private life. However, we shouldn’t forget that many people in startups seek out precisely this atmosphere, because they like the intermingling of work and friendship.
There is a danger that people who can’t choose their job end up at less caring companies.
How do company bosses shape the work atmosphere, and what effect does this have on employee health?
Studies show that a company’s corporate culture – for instance, the way that team conflicts are handled – has a direct impact on its innovativeness and the health of the workforce. However, there has been almost no research into this matter at startups, which is why our study is looking at how company founders’ mental wellbeing and leadership style affect their staff (cf. box above).
Startup founders have a close relationship with their first employees. Staff often view founders as role models because they dream of starting their own business too one day. This close relationship has also been identified by studies that show that employees leave startups as soon as they no longer work directly with the company’s founders, for instance if a managerial level is inserted between them. This relationship between founders and employees suggests that the bosses of startups shape the work atmosphere to a far greater extent than those at established companies.
Can a company be both caring and innovative?
Many of the most caring companies are also innovative. Or rather, innovative companies have realised that they have to be caring if they want to attract the best people. For example in the US, where there are few requirements relating to social benefits, major tech companies entice people with generous employment packages: from parental leave and health insurance to pension plans and even mental-health care. This caring approach then also has a positive effect on a company’s innovative drive. On the other hand, there is a danger that people who can’t choose their job end up at companies that aren’t very caring.
The economy and the caring society
A caring society takes care of the well-being of all people. With the Caring Society strategic thematic field, BFH aims to ensure that care is given greater importance in our society.
The economy is also central to the functioning of a society. What role does it play in a caring society? This question will be the focus of the “Economy and care: not a contradiction” symposium on 4 September. There will also be discussions about tangible ways in which the private sector can help shape a caring society.
Was zeichnet für Sie eine fürsorgliche Firma aus?
Eine fürsorgliche Firma macht ihren Mitarbeitenden Unterstützungsangebote, wo sie Bedarf haben. Das kann bei der familienexternen Kinderbetreuung sein, bei gesundheitlichen Problemen oder in der Altersvorsorge. Die Leistungen einer fürsorglichen Firma gehen dabei deutlich über das Feigenblatt des Obstkorbes hinaus, der im Pausenraum steht.
Was bräuchte es, damit Unternehmen fürsorglicher werden?
Viele Unternehmen, die fürsorglich sein möchten, haben die dafür nötige Kultur und die Strukturen bereits geschaffen. Bei Firmen, denen dies noch nicht so wichtig ist, kann ein Mindestmass an staatlichen Vorgaben helfen, zu verhindern, dass sich die Schere zwischen Menschen, die Jobs bei den «besten» Betrieben bekommen, und jenen, die nur bei weniger fürsorglichen Unternehmen Arbeit finden, weiter öffnet.
