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Week of June 28 - July 2, 2004Welcome to the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship and e-News, an electronic newsletter sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City for followers of the entrepreneurial economy. Through e-News, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving the innovation economy. Please feel free to share this with friends and colleagues. To subscribe, visit www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde/join/ Did you know that links to the day's entrepreneurship stories from across the nation and around the world are posted each weekday at www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde? Bookmark it and stay informed about the latest entrepreneurship news. Current and archived issues of e-News are available online at www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde/news/enews.htm |
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NDE e-News will be off to the fireworks for next week’s Fourth of July holiday, so we won’t be publishing on July 5th. Look for us again on July 12th. |
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Global Development Through Entrepreneurship Many foreign policy mavens have long criticized the “Washington Consensus,” the prevalent view that developing economies will prosper through a mix of privatization, market opening, and foreign investment. The limits to this traditional model have become clear, but what can replace it? One option is a more active embrace of entrepreneurship, according to Carl J. Schramm, President of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (NDE’s sponsor). Schramm’s article “Building Entrepreneurial Economies,” appears in the July/August 2004 edition of
Foreign Affairs. Schramm argues that American officials should more actively export the American model for supporting entrepreneurship. Breeding new firms that create new innovations is the best way to support job growth and economic prosperity in the developing world. |
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Tips for High Engagement Philanthropy Entrepreneurs have been transforming the field of philanthropy for the past decade. If there is a watchword for this effort, high-engagement would fit the bill. Instead of simply engaging in a “donate and forget” strategy, today’s entrepreneurs want to be actively engaged in working collaboratively with non-profits. A new report from Venture Philanthropy Partners and Community Wealth Ventures provides a detailed look at this approach. The report is a series of dialogues with leading funders and the non-profit leaders who are promoting new approaches to social services. Participants include Mario Morino of Venture Philanthropy Partners, Michael Bailin of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Vanessa Kirsch of New Profit, Inc., and many other leaders in the field. The report includes many insights; it is particularly strong in examining the difficult internal changes (in both culture and management procedures) required if non-profits want to pursue truly bold and ambitious objectives. |
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Networking among Solo Entrepreneurs We regularly tout the benefits of entrepreneurial networking in this e-zine, and it appears that many entrepreneurs already understand that networking is good for business. But, sometimes that understanding is more theory than practice. That’s one message from a new survey of microbusiness owners by researcher Charles Matthews and Terry Lonier of
Working Solo, an excellent information source on microbusiness. The study surveyed 625 small business owners and asked them to discuss their participation in various business network activities. 79.5% of the group was part of at least one industry association, but 52.6% indicated that they did not participate in more structured and intense peer interactions, such as Master Mind groups. These types of peer group activities have been shown to be very helpful for new entrepreneurs, yet few microbusiness owners are participating in such groups. The authors speculate that microbusiness owners are often unaware of such groups or lack the time to participate in this more intensive format. |
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Clearing the Hurdles If you’ve read past E-News articles, you probably already know about the Diana Project—a major research initiative that is examining the unique opportunities and challenges facing women entrepreneurs leading high-growth ventures. The various research findings have been compiled in new book that is hot off the presses:
Clearing the Hurdles: Women Building High-Growth Businesses. The book offers the latest research on why women-owned firms have more trouble getting venture capital than do their male-owned counterparts. But, it doesn’t stop there. It also offers tips on how women entrepreneurs can best prepare themselves for building a high-growth business. |
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RFID: The Next Big Thing? Nanotechnology is hot. When most of us think of this industry, we envision microscopic factories or other products that are the stuff of science fiction. But, real-life applications of nanotechnology are on the market today, and both investors and entrepreneurs are looking for important new markets. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies are viewed by many as one of the best candidates for early (and profitable) commercialization. RFID tags are small devices that display information about a product’s characteristics, such as price or size. The tags emit a radio wave that can be read by sensors that record the necessary data. Many major retailers, led by Walmart, are embracing RFID, so the potential for this market is huge. The debate today concerns whether this market will truly emerge, and, if so, when? While we can’t offer a definitive view on this issue, we can suggest some interesting articles for those that want to learn a little bit more about this interesting and potentially very profitable technology. Below are a list of several recent articles that offer a fresh look at where the RFID market is going:
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Mark Marich, Editor - mark@pfidc.org |
