Are Entrepreneurs a Dying Breed??

Has the economy finally finished off the entrepreneurs? I hear stories of horror regarding the American and European entrepreneurs. Risk taking is now considered the eighth deadly sin.

You know, the thing that most people forget is that there is a HUGE difference in a calculated risk and reckless spending. Spending money on processes that are proven to produce failure is just plain ignorant. I equate this kind of risk to pumping money into GM knowing that labor unions have sucked every ounce of life out of the company. I say let them fail it will open the marketplace up for innovation. Someone please tell me how Ford was able to make it without government funding while GM sucked their own coffers dry and then pillaged the pockets of the tax payers. What GM needed was a real life entrepreneur to step in and make painful radical decisions.

I find it important to note that many of America’s great companies were born during the Great Depression of the 1920’s-1940’s. This was a time in history that men and women took calculated risks. The future of lives and families were at stake. Every penny was spent as if it were the last. I contend that ‘depressions’ and ‘recessions’ are not the time to repress good entrepreneurs but rather a time to encourage calculated risks.

I’d venture to say that 80% of the companies in America could cut 15-20% of their budget and never lay off one person. Think about where you work. How many processes can you name that add no value directly to the customer? We need to get our priorities back in the right place in America. Globalization of the economy is where it’s at. Successful companies in the future must be able to innovate and merge their processes into the global product chain.

For more study on this topic, e-mail me or make a donation and you will be sent a 5 page quick-study on the promoting of global intrapreneurship within your business.

Your thoughts?

kml

2009