Case story – Global School for Entrepreneurship
"Most programmes are about entrepreneurs.
Ours is for them."
How the Global School for Entrepreneurship uses the Point of Value methodology to build founders who understand themselves — not just their business plans.
The Global School for Entrepreneurship is a Netherlands-based, fully accredited university focused on applied sciences. It has one defining feature: students don’t study entrepreneurship in theory — they start their own businesses from day one, building real companies in real time rather than working through case studies.
Its students are future founders — people who intend to build something of their own — they need more than frameworks to do it. What they share is ambition, and a programme built on understanding what actually drives them.
Most entrepreneurship education teaches the mechanics of building a business. But a founder who doesn’t understand their own values builds on sand — and that gap tends to surface only later, once they are deep into a career they never stopped to question.
That was the gap the Point of Value methodology was brought in to fill. Alongside the tools for strategy and execution, the school wanted a way to work concretely with personal values — to help students answer, from day one, why they are building what they are building.Thomas Blekman, the school’s co-founder, explains why that matters — in his own words.
In conversation with Thomas Blekman
How does the Point of Value methodology sit within the programme?
"We have learning coaches who mentor students on a personal level. The coaching includes Point of Value’s ranking system and value mapping — all to help students develop faster than they would anywhere else. There’s a need for this kind of work in a lot of the businesses where our students go on to build their careers. We see so many people troubled by doubts: ‘But why do I actually work here, and what do I want to achieve?’ We address that question from the very start of the programme."
“There’s a need for this kind of tool in a lot of businesses where the students start their careers — we see a lot of people challenged with doubts: ‘But why do I actually work here, and what do I want to achieve?’”
How did you come to work with personal values, and with Point of Value specifically?
"I was a clinical professor at Erasmus University, where I discovered effectuation theory. I started applying it — building tools, getting modules in the right order to help students build impact businesses from scratch. We keep adding tools to the curriculum and discovering new value, and that’s how I encountered Point of Value. It was one of my students who pointed me towards it, because he had done the ranking and it had helped him a lot."
Why is it important to know your personal values as an entrepreneur?
"Knowing your personal values deepens your self-understanding. Who am I? What drives me? Those are among the first questions an entrepreneur should ask. True entrepreneurship is impact- and relevance-oriented, and it should be built on your personal values and meaning. Knowing and acting according to your purpose becomes the solid foundation you build a sustaining business on."
“A lot of entrepreneurial programs are about entrepreneurs and not for entrepreneurs. We focus on a program for entrepreneurs, and we apply the value measurements to give the students a better understanding of themselves.”
What is it that you like about the methodology?
"Many things. One is that it’s not a fixed photo — the content evolves over time together with the person, so you can see that it’s a journey. It’s not static. A lot of other measurement tools put you in a box you can’t get out of. Our students get real-life education — they’re building their own businesses in real time, not case studies. So the ranking is genuinely important for their development. It supports them and challenges them at the same time, and that’s what makes it interesting. It’s not a fixed photo — this content evolves over time, you can see that it’s a journey. A lot of other measurement tools put you into a box, and then you can’t get out of it.”
What changes runs deeper than technique. Working with personal values changed how Blekman led the school itself — the same shift he wants for his students. When the Global School began, it defined itself by competition; over time, that gave way to something steadier.
“We were competitive and developed around those values. Once we were more established, we could change from competition mode towards enjoying the actual success — and find strength in that instead of the competing part.”
What isn't obvious from the outside
The value of the methodology, in Blekman’s account, isn’t that it categorises students — it’s that it refuses to. Where most instruments fix a person in place, this one moves with them as they build, supporting and challenging in equal measure. For students creating real businesses in real time, that distinction is the whole point.
“We were competitive and developed around those values. Once we were more established, we could change from competition mode towards enjoying the actual success — and find strength in that instead of the competing part.”
