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  • user 3:35 am on November 17, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Entrepreneurship, , ,   

    The 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Index 

    As millions of people begin to participate in Week celebrations in 165 countries, a new report shows the United States remains the country with the most favorable conditions for entrepreneurs to start and scale new businesses but with a slowly narrowing gap as other countries increase their support.

    2017 Global Entrepreneurship IndexThe 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) provides key information for policymakers and government leaders worldwide to strengthen their digital ecosystems and promote high-growth, high-impact entrepreneurship. The authors estimate that improving conditions to help entrepreneurs create new companies could add $ 22 trillion to the global economy.

     

    “China and India are strengthening their entrepreneurial ecosystems and creating billion dollar startups while Malaysia, Iceland and the Baltic states are emerging as digital entrepreneurship leaders,” said Zoltan Acs, co-author of the report and university professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. “While institutional variables still need to be strengthened in emerging economies—where individuals are running ahead of policymakers—in developed countries individuals need to be shaken up. In other words, not enough people in developed countries—including the United States—are starting productive high-growth businesses.”

    2017-global-entrepreneurship-indexThe top of the rankings were dominated by countries in the innovation-driven stage of development. The United States topped the rankings again this year, with a GEI score of 83.4 – a slight drop from its score of 86.2 the previous year. It was followed by (in order): Switzerland (78.0), Canada (75.6), Sweden (75.5), Denmark (74.1), Iceland (73.5), Australia (72.5), the United Kingdom (71.3), Ireland (71.0) and Netherlands (67.8).

    India (25.8) enjoyed the largest jump in the rankings, moving up 29 spots from last year to land in 69th. Tunisia (40.5) had the second largest jump, from 62nd to 42nd. China (36.3) moved up 12 spots to 48th.

    The GEI measures a country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by combining individual data such as opportunity recognition, startup skills and risk acceptance, with institutional measures, including urbanization, education and economic freedom. These measurements help distinguish self-employment and replicative entrepreneurship from the innovative, productive and rapidly growing entrepreneurial ventures that drive real economic growth.

    This year, it included four new components of the digital entrepreneurship ecosystem: Digital Citizenship, Digital Governance, Digital Marketplace and Digital Business.

    2017 global-entrepreneurship-and-development-index

     

    The report was released by Global Entrepreneurship Network and the GEDI Institute so that findings from the can drive policy discussions at events around the world during Global Entrepreneurship Week.

    “This is just the tip of the iceberg of the digital disruption revolution unfolding,” said Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network. “The promise of jobs, economic growth and the optimism and hope that entrepreneurs bring to government efforts to create opportunity and prosperity for their citizens, has generated an extraordinary increase in attention from all levels of government in empowering their entrepreneurial ecosystems.”

     

    Other interesting observations from the report include:

    &; The big surprise is the rise of Switzerland to 2nd place, primarily driven by the aspiration index with very strong scores in high-growth firms, product innovation and process innovation.

    &8211; Three of the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden, are in the top ten.

    &8211; Taiwan, the highest Asian country, is in 16th place, and Singapore is 24th, which virtually ties it with Japan.

    The 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Index

    The post The 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Index appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.

    Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH

     
  • user 4:54 pm on September 11, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Entrepreneurship,   

    Entrepreneurship and the Id Machine 

    shutterstock_157504361

     

    Slavoj Zizek coined the term Id to describe an engine that allows for the materialization of one&;s desires. Id is the unorganized part of one&8217;s personality which contains one&8217;s most instinctual drives. The Id contains the libido which is the source of energy that is unresponsive to reality.

    Zizek applied the Id Machine to two movies by Andrei Tarkovsky: Solaris and Stalker.

    In both movies, protagonists are faced with an &;area&; &; in Stalker the area is called the room, located within the zone &8211; where their desires are materialized. Zizek names this &8220;area&8221; the Id Machine. The Id Machines are different in each movie. In Solaris, protagonists do not have any control over which desire materializes itself once they are in the Id machine, thus leading to terrifying realizations. In Stalker, protagonists need to figure out what they desires. The realization they sometimes do not know what they desire also leads to terrifying realizations.

    Tarkovsky&8217;s philosophical musings, as interpreted by Zizek give us one Id Machine that reveals the perils of our passive nature and another Id Machine that reveals the perils of our active nature. we get tripped by the unknown parts of our desires, by what we think are our desires and by our inability to formulate our desires.

    I think parallels can be drawn with entrepreneurs, startups and venture investing. VCs and entrepreneurs all enter an Id Machine at some point, where our desires materialize. Outcomes are never certain. Some outcomes are unexpected, others should have been expected, very few come out as expected.

    A Startup&8217;s main protagonists &8211; entrepreneurs and venture investors &8211; need to go through much introspection to sift through their desires. By desires I mean goals, visions, strategy, tactics. Clarity and transparency are paramount. Paradoxically, as the libido is the source of energy unresponsive to reality; the entrepreneur &8211; and to a lesser extent the venture investor &8211; also needs to be &8220;unresponsive to reality&8221;. In other words, the entrepreneur needs to be unshackled from the constraints of reality in order to achieve his dreams. However, she should not make complete abstraction of reality. Complete abstraction from reality leads to either Solaris or Stalker&8217;s Id Machine, with suboptimal results.

    I was recently asked what I actively sought in startups when investing. My answer was interoperability with the real world, pointing to the necessity for a blockchain startup to take into account the realities of the law, especially in the context of securities law in the capital markets space.

    I thought further about my interoperability answer in light of Tarkovsky&8217;s movies and Zizek&8217;s interpretation and believe I apply it to all startups. Further elaborating on interoperability, I define it as the quality to will a new reality while understanding the constraints of a current reality, incorporating these constraints within one&8217;s thought processes, and using them to the best of one&8217;s advantages. This is the quality I seek in an entrepreneur and in a startup. In Freudian terms, I seek an entrepreneur who can apply the right ego touches to her id. Too much ego touches and the id&8217;s desires never materialize, too little ego touches and the traps of the Id machine come in play. The right ego touch is also essential in regulating the id&8217;s tendency for instant gratification. Organic growth with the right tempo is often not recognized as one factor of success with startups. There are many pitfalls with fast growth and/or high valuations within short periods of time (too little growth also being a killer). This I view as being part of a certain interoperability with the real world, or with certain natural laws of organic growth.

    I find the above amusing on a personal note as I have always been more Jungian than Freudian in my interpretations. That may provide me material for another post.

    FiniCulture

     
  • user 3:35 pm on May 27, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Entrepreneurship, , , ,   

    Recommendations to Boost Entrepreneurship in Switzerland 

    While might be one of the best locations in the world to set up a business, the country&;s own ecosystem has not yet reached its full potential, according to the Start-up Monitor foundation.

    In a new report, the Start-up Monitor foundation provides an in-depth analysis of entrepreneurial activities in Switzerland. Founded in 2012 by ETH Zurich, University and St.Gallen and University of Basel, the Start-up Monitor foundation is an organization aimed at monitoring and helping develop the startup ecosystem in Switzerland.

    The Swiss Entrepreneurship Ecosystem report 2015 2016The document, entitled &;The Swiss Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Report 2015/2016,&8217; addresses the strengths and weaknesses of Switzerland&8217;s entrepreneurial scene and suggests that although the country is one of the most competitive and innovative in the world, there are still many challenges to overcome in order to become an internationally recognized &;Start-up Nation.&;

    Switzerland is globally recognized for its stable, transparent and effective institutions, but also its healthy finances, attractive taxes, excellent infrastructure, exceptional capacity for innovation, and world-class education system, and yet, the country does not rank among the most entrepreneurial countries in the world, the report says.

    It notes that due to the lack of growth-stage funding, many startups leave Switzerland at this stage to countries with more favorable conditions. &8220;Switzerland needs to ensure funding opportunities not only for seed-stage, but also for the start-up and growth-stages of a venture,&8221; the report says.

    It advises for more entrepreneurship education programs on primary and secondary level, and notes that there is a strong need to strengthen a supportive entrepreneurial culture, notably among young people, in order for them to consider entrepreneurship as a desirable, feasible and viable career opportunity.

    The document also claims that there is a strong need to focus on ageing workforces, increasing entrepreneurship intentions to prolong working lives and reduce older-age unemployment.

    Moreover, the fact that Switzerland is a relatively small market can cause significant scalability challenges for new ventures.

    Swiss Innovation Park Dübendorf

    The report lists a number of initiatives that have been undertaken to foster the Swiss entrepreneurial spirit, among which the new innovation center set to launch later this year in Dubendorf. The Swiss Innovation Park is a project of the federal government, cantons, science and economy, which will be dedicated to industrial research.

    Another initiative is Digital Zurich 2025, which focuses on turning the greater Zurich area into a leading European center for digital innovation. It aims at being a platform where academics and experts in information and communication would meet and collaborate. Digital Zurich 2025 is also planning an annual congress and a Swiss Investor Summit where startups would have the opportunity to meet with international investors and business leaders.

    Balgrist Campus on the other hand, has recently established a research and development center for medicine located between the lake of Zurich and Balgrist University Hospital.

    Finally, the Swiss Investment Fund (SIF) initiative of the Swiss Private Equity and Corporate Finance Association aims at closing the financing gap and foster innovation entrepreneurship in the Swiss innovation ecosystem. SIF acts as a &8220;fund of funds,&8221; which means that it invests in a number of smaller funds, which in turn, can provide equity capital to a number of young Swiss tech companies.

    That said, Switzerland has got many advantages for businesses as well. In addition to its high innovation capability, Switzerland has a very supportive government, as well as regulations in favor of entrepreneurship.

    Additionally, its geographical location provides young companies with an easy access to the European market and stronger trade links.

     

    Swiss Entrepreneurship Report 2015 2016

     

    Featured image: Zurich pinned on a map of Europe by Dmitry Kaminsky, via Shutterstock.com.

    The post Recommendations to Boost Entrepreneurship in Switzerland appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.

    Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH

     
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