INNOVATION & The Pitfalls of Promoting Entrepreneurship – A new book examines the challenges — and potential benefits — of government programs designed to foster entrepreneurship
Lots of governments would like to promote high-tech entrepreneurship and venture capital in their regions — but many don’t know how to do it effectively.
In his new book Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Why Public Efforts to Boost Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Have Failed — and What to Do About It (Princeton University Press, 2009) Josh Lerner, the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, examines which types of policies to promote entrepreneurship and venture capital tend to work — and which don’t
Lerner supports his carefully researched analysis with numerous examples chosen from around the globe
Read a MIT Sloane Management Review By Martha E. Mangelsdorf
SME Financing – When it comes to securing financial support, entrepreneur Jack Ma, chairman and CEO of China’s Alibaba Group, has this advice for small and medium-sized enterprises: don’t rely on the government and the banks; rely instead on your family and friends
Speaking in Singapore, Ma told a regional SME conference that every country needs a financial incentive package to support the growth of SMEs because all big companies start as small businesses, adding that the SMEs of today will be tomorrow’s major companies like eBay, Google and UPS
Ma, himself, knows the pains of growing a business. In 1999, he founded the Alibaba Group, which has grown to five e-commerce companies operating business-to-business, retail, third-party online payment portals and cloud computing development services. The group employs 17,000 people in China, Japan, Korea, the UK and the US
Source: Insead
Read Full Article Here: SME financing: small businesses struggle to survive the downturn
Are Entrepreneurs Born? Or Made?
What do you think? Are you born an entrepreneur? Do you become one early in life? Or are entrepreneurs likely to start businesses out of hard-won expertise who then start a business around their skills and networks?
Recent research shows that entrepreneurs are not likely to come from entrepreneurial families. And not all business owners identified themselves as being entrepreneurial-minded in college. Instead, 69% started their own businesses within 10 years of working for someone else
In other words, the most likely path to entrepreneurship is the simplest one: you work for someone, become an expert in a technical area, build a network of contacts, then strike out on your own, presumably with a believe that you can solve a problem or build a better mousetrap than competitors
Social entrepreneurship is nothing more than offering innovative solutions to significant problems within a society
Social entrepreneurship as a way of life. For most entrepreneurs, the priority seems to be just getting a business going, and worrying later about making it socially and environmentally sustainable. There are many reasons for that. Most entrepreneurs consider it a luxury to focus on social or environmental issues. They want to find financial security first, to get on their feet and move beyond the daily survival worries
It’s not easy to find entrepreneurs whose businesses revolve around a social or environmental issue. Dedicating oneself to another, bigger cause is a daunting responsibility, and most businesses focus on much more immediate goals of simply making a profit
Read Whole Article: Social entrepreneurship as a way of life
Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards recognizes and honors Asian businesses for championing sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship in the four categories namely:
- Green Leadership
- Community Engagement,
- Investment in People, and
- Responsible Business Leadership
This is in line with Enterprise Asia’s two founding pillars, which are Responsible Entrepreneurship and Investment in People
Imagine doing business in a place where you can easily be connected to potential clients, business/research partners who are just less than an hour‘s car ride away
How about getting work permits for your team approved – in less than 2 days? Sounds too good to be true? These are exactly the things that foreign start-ups will find in Singapore
Singapore has established a reputation for being one of the most business-friendly countries in the world. Start-ups will also be able to tap on the country’s Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network which will reach every home and office by 2012, providing ultra high-speeds of up to 1 Gbps and pave the way for innovative new online services
Finally, there will be no trouble staying connected with more than 7,500 hotspots island wide providing free wireless access
More than 7000 MNCs and 10,000 small-medium enterprises that have already set up their strategic operations here, providing various collaboration opportunities for Singapore-based start-ups
It’s not surprising that the country is emerging as one of the hottest start-up hub in Asia
China Entrepreneurship – Jia Shaohua is helping his students set up their own online shops to learn business and management skills
Jia says his e-commerce entrepreneurship classes, in which about a fourth of the college’s students participate, offer real-life skills to students who graduate better equipped to compete against the millions of other university students who enter the job market every year
An educator at a vocational school with about 8,000 students, Jia is at the forefront of efforts to make higher education more relevant to China’s job market at a time when an economic downturn means university graduates face bleak prospects
Read Story: Hit by job crunch, China trains entrepreneurs
The European Union is considering a regulation change that would require online etailers in Europe to also own a brick and mortar store
Shopping online has been becoming more popular in Europe over the past few years as they have been hit by an economic recession, which has forced many consumers to visit Internet retail sites for their purchases
Overall for Europe, it is expected that online retail sales will jump almost 20%, most of which coming from countries catching the online shopping craze like Spain, France, and Poland
As more consumers remain conscious of their budgets, it is likely that this online shopping trend will continue in Europe. This means that the brick and mortar retailers need to find a way to combat the shift towards online spending
If nothing else, every brick and mortar store should consider adding an online retail site to their portfolio to try and increase the likelihood that they will generate enough sales everyday
Investors and industry analysts in Europe will continue to watch this trend as it could alter the retail landscape in the region as consumers change their shopping methods
Kaufmann Foundation – Online Program to Identify the Entrepreneurial Mindset
Are entrepreneurs born with a unique gift? What is it that enables them to transform an idea into a successful new venture? What can we learn from their experience? Do I have what it takes to succeed? “Mindset” attempts to answer these questions and more, for the benefit of someone considering an entrepreneurial venture.
Based on more than 200 hours of on-camera interviews with a variety of successful entrepreneurs, including Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, E-Myth author Michael Gerber, Inc 500 winner Chuck Halberg, Pulitzer nominee Clifton Taulbert, Emmy winner Jim Stovall, serial inventor John Osher and many others, “Mindset” provides an inside look at what it really takes to start and grow a successful new business.
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has teamed up with The Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (ELI) to offer “Mindset: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial IQ,” a self-paced online learning program that enables aspiring entrepreneurs to learn from the firsthand knowledge and experience of successful real-world entrepreneurs.
Whether you’re a small businesses SME – SMB in Asia or a Fortune 500 company in a Western country, social networking has the power to expand your brand among both your audience and fellow business owners
For the latter, entrepreneurs can take advantage of specialized social networks to meet, communicate share and partner with others
LinkedIn is a business social network cementing its position as the top social network for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses with over 50 million users end of 2009
PartnerUp aims to do for small businesses and budding entrepreneurs what MeettheBoss does for executives by providing the opportunity for networking, collaboration and sharing
MeettheBoss narrows the business social network focus to the management level, providing a portal for executives and higher-ups to meet and communicate
For Asia SME Entrepreneurs we have above linked Asian-based forum where we can exchange ideas about Asian business issues. Go visit and sign-up today … and don’t forget to tell your friends
