Welcome 🇪🇺

Before the start of our Defense Hive at PAKCon this Friday, we wanted to start the next 2-part series around the ongoing debate on conscription in Germany, which has been reignited. Part 1 highlights the advantages of having reservists within your team and the respective organizational implications.

About the authors:
Daniel Kirch is managing director of an AI company, startup investor and commissioned reservist in the Cyber & Information Domain of the German Armed forces.

Thomas Knauff is CFO and managing director of an entrepreneurial financed IT-Holding, angel investor and commissioned reservist at the German Federal Army’s Homeland Security Forces.

Dr.-Ing. Johannes Wagner is a director in a fluid technology company, startup investor and commissioned reservist in the German Armed Forces.

Yours,
Uwe, Jack and Jannic

Defense Hive at Project A’s Knowledge Conference 2024 in Berlin

We are excited to be hosting a dedicated Defense Hive at this year’s Project A Knowledge Conference. We will bring together industry leaders, military stakeholders, VCs and startups to discuss what solutions we can find to increase European resilience.

In collaboration with law firm YPOG, The PAKCon24 Defense Hive will feature insightful discussions on securing funding and hearing firsthand from military leaders. We will deep dive into finding ways to navigate regulatory hurdles and foster collaboration between traditional defense companies and innovative start-ups.

Take a look at the agenda and sign up here.

The Resilience Conference 🇪🇺🇬🇧

We are excited to be supporting the Resilience Conference in London in 26 - 27th of September. You can find a full list of amazing speakers here, including Mike Butcher from TechCrunch, Blythe Crawford from Air and Space Warfare Center, UK Royal Airforce, and GPs from funds like General Catalyst & DCVC. Our own Jack Wang will be part of the “Startups, Security & Defence” panel, with more topics such as “Reinventing Procurement for Startups and Innovation” open to the audience.

Access this link to ensure you get a 20% discount on your ticket.

Zeitenwende in business - making employers reserve-capable

More than two years after the Federal Chancellor's Zeitenwende speech, the fact that the preservation of freedom and peace is not a matter of course, but a task for society as a whole, has now penetrated many spheres of our German society. 

While politicians of all stripes are rethinking old geopolitical positions, general conscription is being discussed, the THW, police, fire department, disaster control and Bundeswehr are practicing together for emergencies and schools are increasingly receiving youth officers, the players in the economy must also ask themselves what they can contribute to the defense of our country.

This does not refer to the arms industry, which is already ramping up its capacities - also in its own interests - and enjoying its new, polished image (keyword: soccer shirt advertising). What is meant here are all companies in Germany that employ the majority of Germany's approx. 34,000 commissioned and approx. 900,000 uncommissioned reservists. 

An active, capable reserve requires that our reservists receive the opportunity and support from their employer that they need for their service and regular training. All too often, appropriate reserve service fails due to bureaucratic, organizational or ideological hurdles within the company - or on the part of the Bundeswehr. 

In this respect, it is time, in parallel to the discussion about compulsory military service, to talk about how the potential of society as a whole to defend our freedom can be raised by supporting the reserve on the part of local companies.

This article is intended as an encouragement for reservists to address any hurdles with their employers, as well as a first draft of a guide for companies to make their organization reserve-capable and to enable the reservists they employ to serve. 

Advantages for the company

The advantages of a functioning reserve for the Bundeswehr and thus for society are obvious: the ability to grow, the ability to persevere, the expansion of skills, the integration of the armed forces into society and mutual identification. 

In addition, there are significant advantages for companies that enable their employees to work in reserve.

While the reservist is released for reserve duty, there are no salary costs for the employer, as the loss of earnings can be compensated and the service rewarded in accordance with the Unterhaltsicherungsgesetz (USG, see below). In this way, salary costs can be controlled from a business perspective without losing or financially restricting employees.

On the contrary: by enabling reserve service, employee loyalty and satisfaction are strengthened, as the employee is given the freedom to also perform their service in the Bundeswehr in this company. Otherwise, the service would not be possible and the Bundeswehr would have to do without a qualified supporter - or the employee would have to look for another employer. The employee is motivated by the fact that the employer recognizes the social commitment and therefore represents similar values. Ultimately, a company that gives its employees the opportunity to get involved conveys a high level of appreciation.

While working in the reserve, employees have extensive opportunities for further training in hard and soft skills, which subsequently benefit the company.

As reservists are often deployed according to their previous qualifications through training, studies and/or professional experience, for example as a chemist in a CBRN unit or an IT specialist in the Cyber and Information Domain, reserve service acts as an experience-expanding work shadowing in a (presumably much larger) company, from where learnings regarding processes, quality, management and standards can be transferred to the company's operations. Switching between domains broadens employees' intellectual horizons and flexibility.

In the process, the reservist meets several equally motivated and committed specialists and can thus expand his professional and private network. 

In addition to their own time management and stress resistance - reserve service usually represents a double burden, as civilian professional issues do not suddenly stop when they start their service - their sense of responsibility is also trained. As a result, reservists generally have the opportunity to experience and train a wide range of leadership skills earlier and to a greater extent and can then apply the leadership skills they have learned in their civilian careers - regardless of whether they are managers or qualified specialists.

While the reservist is serving with the Bundeswehr, the employing company has the opportunity to check its organization for bottlenecks, latent knowledge and structural dependencies. After all, processes should not be restricted just because a reservist is not on site for a few weeks. The temporary absence of employees from the organization thus serves to validate a bottleneck-free and independent organization with decentralized decision-making capabilities. 

The advantages for the company are rounded off by the fact that a company that supports the reserve can fulfill its corporate social responsibility and, in addition to the positive external impact, also makes a real social contribution to peace and freedom. 

After all, a solid security situation forms the basis for a prosperous economy: the better it is in Europe, the more companies can flourish and attract foreign capital.

Organizational preparations

In organizational terms, reservists and their employers must essentially take into account the following three areas that make it possible to be released for an exercise or reserve service in a company-related context:

Recruitment process and substitution rules

Probably the most significant challenge for companies in Germany that want to release reservists for exercises and reserve services is the organizational (and bureaucratic) integration of the call-up process into everyday business life. Pretty much every reservist will be an essential pillar of the company they work for, so employers will be reluctant to do without specialists and managers. On the part of the Bundeswehr, it is therefore essential to organize call-up processes early, reliably and transparently so that reservists can approach their employers with an appropriate lead time so that the employer can plan the upcoming reserve-related absence in everyday business life with as little friction as possible (customer projects, vacation phases, production processes, etc.). 

As a rule, the call-up process is first started informally by the reservist's relevant Bundeswehr office by telephone or e-mail, asking about interest and availability for reserve duty. The reservist should then coordinate the acceptance of the reserve exercise with the employer at the latest. If the reservist submits the relevant forms intending to exercise and, if applicable, the employer's permission, the service or the Bundesamt für das Personalmanagement der Bundeswehr (Federal Office of Bundeswehr Personnel Management) initiates the formal and legally binding call-up process, which concludes with the receipt of the call-up notification (Heranziehungsbescheid) by the reservist. The exercise is then formally set and the reservist becomes a soldier with all the associated duties from the start date of the exercise specified in the call-up notice. 

At the same time, it is necessary to directly involve the reservist's colleagues, who may have to take on any work and tasks that arise in their absence (for which they should also be thanked separately, as these substitutes also make it possible for the reserve to practice in the first place).

Internal and external transparency

Although the usefulness of a functioning Bundeswehr has become increasingly clear in recent years and the "benevolent disinterest" has given way to a tendency towards support, it is not to be expected that entrepreneurial involvement in the armed forces environment will be accepted uncritically by all stakeholders.

Particularly against the background of widespread ESG criteria in everyday corporate life, which could also shed negative light on a company's military or armaments-related references, companies should consider with sufficient lead time what message they use to communicate their active support of reservists internally and externally. 

Of course, active support can also be provided exclusively discreetly if any negative effects for a reserve-supporting company are to be avoided.

On the other hand, positive examples of internationally active corporations, such as Commerzbank mentioned below, show that companies can realize a positive social impact with a reserve service, contrary to the classic interpretation of ESG, and can now communicate openly about this.

Financial and personnel administration

Practical experience shows that smooth cooperation with the company's HR department is essential for the reservist. There are three prerequisites for this in the HR department. 

Firstly, it is crucial that the HR department does not see supporting the reservist with the necessary formalities such as leave of absence, salary corrections and filling out forms as a side issue or an additional burden, but as a natural, important task. In addition, at least individual personnel clerks must be well acquainted with the necessary processes and formalities of reservists' leave of absence, which requires at least a few hours of training. Finally, it should also be mentioned that the processes must be handled quickly and without errors so that, for example, registrations for reserve services or applications for reimbursement of lost salary are not delayed or even made impossible. If these requirements are met, there are few formal obstacles to reserve services.

Drawdowns are usually paper-based and bureaucratic processes with a turnaround time of up to two months. Essentially (unless the employer voluntarily pays the salary in the reservist's absence for an exercise/reserve service), a trial payroll must be prepared by the HR department (or the tax advisor who handles the payroll for the company) showing how much gross and net salary will be lost.

The reservist must then submit this when applying for USG benefits. In addition, notifications must be completed and submitted to the pension insurance (the reserve service period is counted separately towards the pension) and health insurance (this is suspended during the reserve service). During this process, it is not uncommon for employers to ask questions about the form in which the necessary documents are to be completed. The provision of a central e-mail inbox “[email protected]” offers reservists and employers a quick and uncomplicated means of contact for any questions and the exchange of forms. The originally heavily paper-based administrative support of a reserve service has been significantly simplified using the USG-Online mobile application and could be further digitalized through the automated transfer of data from the call-up.

News That Caught Our Attention 👀

• Navy Unmanned Efforts Will Benefit from Russia’s Black Sea Mistakes - US Naval Institute

• Why the US cannot build ships - Brian Potter

• China is winning, now what? - American Affairs

• Planning for a Post-American NATO - Foreign Affairs

• NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg will become new MSC Chief - Politico

• Inspired by Ukraine, US Army picks up two commercially produced drones - DefenseOne

Featured Jobs 👷

Every week we feature a list of interesting roles in European DefenceTech start-ups and scale-ups for readers seeking their next challenge in their careers.

• Quantum Systems: DevOps Engineer (Gilching)

• ARX Robotics: Mechatronic (Munich)

• Alpine Eagle: Senior Robotics Engineer Multi-Agent Systems (Munich / Karlsruhe)

• Tytan Technologies: Senior Computer Vision Engineer (Munich)

• Labrys Technologies: Senior Product Designer (London)

If you are a founder and would like to promote your open roles, please get in touch with us!

Passionate and want to contribute? 👩🏻‍💻

The European Resilience Tech Newsletter is always looking for regular and guest authors, writers, reporters, content creators etc. If you like what you read, you are passionate about improving European resilience regardless of your background and want to contribute, just reach out to us!

European Resilience Tech Newsletter Team

Uwe Horstmann co-founded Project A Ventures in 2012 as General Partner and has built Project A to be a leading European early stage investor with over $1bn USD under management and having backed 100+ founders. In addition to Project A, Uwe serves as Reserve Officer in the German armed forces and advises the German Ministry of Defence in digital transformation issues.

Jack Wang is a software engineer turned product driven tech investor and joined Project A in 2021 to lead the firm’s deep tech investing, which have grown to include DefenceTech. Prior to joining Project A, Jack worked in a variety of organisations such as Amazon and Macquarie Group across Australia, US and UK / Europe. Jack holds a MBA from London Business School and Bachelors of Engineering (Bioinformatics, 1st) from UNSW, Australia.

Jannic Meyer joined Project A initially contributing to what is now known as the Project A Studio, partnering with founders at the pre-idea stage, where he covered a variety of topics ranging from energy infrastructure to dual-use robotics and led our investment in ARX Robotics. He is now part of the investment team at Project A covering all things resilience.

Project A Ventures is one of the leading early-stage tech investors in Europe with offices in Berlin and London. In addition to 1 billion USD assets under management, Project A supports its 100+ portfolio companies with a platform team over 140 functional experts in key areas such as software and product development, business intelligence, brand, design, marketing, sales and recruiting. Project A have backed founders of Trade Republic, WorldRemit, Sennder, KRY, Spryker, Catawiki, Unmind and Voi as well as founders building in European Resilience: