Having attended the London launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009 (GEW) on Monday morning, interesting points were raised by a number of speakers around the cultural differences between the UK and the US when it comes to wealth creation and entrepreneurial success.
Dr Carl Schramm, a respected developer of entrepreneurial talent and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, joked about how the UK tends to come up with ideas for new technologies and innovation, which are then acquired and marketed by the US, who have the confidence to see an idea through. Is the issue therefore that fear of failure in the UK means we are also afraid to market potentially brilliant ideas?
As a marketing professional it is incredibly satisfying to work with driven entrepreneurs, many of whom have failed at some stage in their careers but have not been put off trying again. In order to create inspirational role models for our future entrepreneurs, both the business model and the visionary leader behind it should be promoted and we shouldn’t be embarrassed to do this.
Perhaps if the UK borrowed the attitude of its peers across the Atlantic and had much more self belief and, in the words of Dragon’s Den member Peter Jones, started encouraging people to say “I can” rather than “can I?” then emergence from the current recession would be quicker.
Jim O’Neill, Global Head of Economic Research at Goldman Sachs, voiced concern that that the UK seems to have an emerging view that wealth creation isn’t a good thing, having been scarred by our recent economic decline. With such detailed reporting in the media, on both banking bonuses and the earnings of many of FTSE CEOs, it’s no wonder that there may be some reluctance for entrepreneurial businesses to stick their necks out and race towards financial reward.
The belief that there will be criticism of pay packets and negative responses from members of the public may in fact be preventing some of our rising stars from taking that first step. The GEW speakers highlighted the fact that fast growth and rewarding staff needn’t be considered evidence that the wheels have come off a business, as long as there is a scalable model in place and those individuals have genuinely helped build a business that is creating jobs and boosting the local economy. While many have had to postpone growth during the recession and freeze salaries, the story isn’t (and shouldn’t be) the same for all businesses.
Lord Davies, Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Small Business, appealed to the many journalists attending GEW to stop focusing so much on business failures and instead profile the success stories that still exist. We are reliant on our entrepreneurs to help rebuild the economy, but we need some help from the media to challenge the opinion that is dangerous to talk about financial success. GEW 2009 makes the world focus on enterprise for one week each year but wouldn’t it be better to celebrate the successes of our entrepreneurial veterans and encourage the next generation of entrepreneurs every single day, regardless of their geographic location, the country in which they trade and the language that they speak.