“Sport is an indispensable productivity tool” – Bennet Barth from the BMW Foundation
Bennet Barth has been part of the BMW Foundation’s Munich Invest team since March 2019. Before joining the foundation, he was at Maze, where he worked with entrepreneurs and investors to scale effective solutions to societal and environmental challenges. Bennet’s main focus was on impact investing. He has advised social enterprises and has contributed to the expansion of the impact investing ecosystem in Europe through various publications together with international partners.
In our “5 things I can’t work without” series, Bennet Barth reveals what he attaches great importance to in his day-to-day work.
Notebook: One of the most important tools in my daily work – even if it may sound old-fashioned at first glance – is a classic notebook with numerous post-its in it. With no other means can I capture thoughts so quickly, briefly sketch ideas and connections before I later record them in a digitally structured manner. For this reason, the notebook is with you almost everywhere. When it comes to backing up the first sketches from the book with hard facts and complex financial and investment models that I deal with every day, I of course fall back on tried and tested IT solutions such as Excel.
Strong coffee: I’m a big coffee fanatic and coffee can’t really be strong enough for me. I get my first cup at home, one or two more in the office. I prefer to drink coffee from smaller roasters, usually a classic, strong espresso. You can taste quality and fair trade is a must!
Electronic music: Especially when I have to work very concentrated, I like to use my headphones to shield myself from the outside world and the noises around me. Then I prefer to listen to the electro, so I can concentrate super for hours. Which DJ or which genre I listen to can be very different, right now I like listening to Nicolas Jaar again. In my spare time, of course, I go to concerts and watch the artists live.
Meetups: If creativity is required, I prefer the meeting and joint reflection on site to any digital meeting. That is why meeting rooms continue to play a major role for me, in order to find answers to possible problems together, but also to generate new ideas. I think it’s important to be able to let off steam creatively, so I always need flipcharts or whiteboards, colored pens, enough paper or index cards. Especially after the lockdown and home office ultra phases, I enjoy being able to work together on solutions face-to-face again.
Sports: I also see a healthy balance from day-to-day work as an indispensable productivity tool. Especially during work-intensive weeks, I need various forms of exercise. So sport is at the top of my list in my free time: I go jogging several times a week and go to various yoga classes. Whether short trips in everyday life or longer tours in the mountains at the weekend: cycling also helps me switch off. When on vacation, people go surfing more often, for example to Portugal. I can really clear my head in the waves of the Atlantic – the best productivity booster ever for me.
