Enterpreneurship
In this global economy, entrepreneurs are national assets to be encouraged and promoted. Entrepreneurship is not a new concept, it is as old as business itself but in the past it was based on individual’s skills to create wealth and people often considered it as “luck” rather than “science”.
Today entrepreneurship is mostly associated with technology innovations as it has larger impact on business and the economy. Startups created by entrepreneurs, in the form of new products and services, often result in significant wealth, many high paying jobs which produce huge impact in the economy. New innovations can stimulate more startups that impact more businesses and promote more economic development. Nobody would expect semiconductor products built in the garage of Mr. Hewlett started the electronic revolution and changed the small town of San Jose into the Silicon Valley. Nobody would expect that a small personal computer built in the garage of Steve Jobs’ father would start the computer revolution and transformed Silicon Valley into the center of innovation. Nobody would expect small software built in the basement of Bill Gates’ father would start the software revolution that still last until today. Together these innovations have created million high paying jobs, significant wealth for the entrepreneurs and the U.S economy.
The entrepreneurship movement is not limited to the U.S. but spreading all over the world. For example in the late 1990s, a few small IT company owners founded the Indian IT industry to support the Y2K issues. At that time the group only had few hundred programmers but it grew into thousands in few years and today it has millions of software developers. In less than twenty years, the industry accelerated its domain and expanded it into a global center of Information Technology with several million high paid workers; over four hundred millionaires, and seven billionaires. The most amazing thing is they did it without any support from government.
In 1994, I went to Bangalore, India and it was a small town with only few buildings. But in 2014 when I went back, the town was as vibrant as Chicago or New York. Businesses like call center operations, network maintenance, and cloud computing as well as hardware providers flourish all over the place. Hundreds of education institutes provide trainings for millions of IT workers for better, high-paying jobs. My friend explains: “The population is increasing fast as young people from all over India came here to get trained in IT as a best way to improve their lives. They start as testers, programmers but quickly learn enough to move up to better positions. They all work very hard because they all know that the door of opportunity only opens for a short time and this is the time.”
There is a difference between “Old style” entrepreneur and “Technology” entrepreneur although both generate wealth. “Old style” entrepreneurs start mostly on existing businesses; it only grows to certain size then remains confined to existing markets. For example, entrepreneurs can open coffee shops, restaurants, or retail shops and do well but their income is limited to the size of the store and the market needs. However “technology” entrepreneurs create new products and services, many never exist before, and these new offerings open new markets with unlimited wealth for the creators, their workers, as well as the local economy. Additionally, having more workers with higher earnings contribute significantly to the local economy as one job in IT can help support eight more non IT jobs. Through their technology knowledge and skills, creating startups is no longer “Luck” but a “science” which means it can be taught, practices, and replicate elsewhere.
For example, smartphones and their apps have revolutionized startups all over the world. Today developers can create their own app, sell it in App store and making money. In this connected world, the market is no longer confined in local market but expanding into global market. Today technology innovations are not exclusive to developed countries but can be created anywhere. I have seen many startups in India, China, and Africa and the number is increasing fast. As a science, starting a company is relative easy; it does not require a lot of capital or physical space. The virtual market is wide open for anyone and e-commerce is growing fast with over millions of virtual stores and has profound impacts on many countries’ economy.
The interaction of entrepreneurship and economic development has proved to be a successful formula for many countries. Entrepreneurship does not require a lot of capital but it does require knowledge and proper training. That means in order to succeed; the country must invest in education system, especially in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Having strong policy to promote, nurture entrepreneurship will definitely result in a positive impact on economy and society.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
