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Week of July 26 - July 30, 2004Welcome to the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, an initiative of the Public Forum Institute made possible by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City. Through e-News, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving the innovation economy. Current and archived issues of e-News are available online at www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde/news/enews.htm. To subscribe, visit www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde/join/ 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. |
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New U.S. Entrepreneurship Monitor Report Rates of entrepreneurship are rising in the US, but they’re not necessarily contributing to robust job growth. That’s the primary message from the latest report from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project, a research program of Babson College and the Kauffman Foundation (NDE’s sponsor). The report notes that entrepreneurial activity in the US is bouncing back after two years of slowdown. Surveys show that 11.9% of the US adult population is involved in entrepreneurial activity. Yet the GEM researchers caution that many of these start-ups simply reflect self-employment; these new businesses are unlikely to be major generators of new jobs and innovation. Overall, more than 40% of new business owners are self-employed and do not plan to hire others. Among other findings in the report are that the US continues to lead the world in the quality and breadth of entrepreneurship education offerings. At the same time, the GEM researchers argue that all levels of government need to do a better job of creating a regulatory and policy framework that supports entrepreneurship. |
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Highlights of the Democratic Party Platform As Democrats are meeting in Boston for their 2004 convention, we thought it would be useful to take a look at some highlights from this year’s party platform. The platform’s economic planks contain a lot of ideas that should interest supporters of the entrepreneurial economy. The general pitch can be found in this statement: “We believe the private sector, not the government, is the engine of economic growth and job creation. Government’s responsibility is to create an environment that will promote private sector investment . . . (and) an innovative economy.” Within these general goals, the platform expresses support for, among other things:
To read the
Report of the 2004 Democratic National Convention Standing Committee on Platform: Strong at Home, Respected in the World—The Democratic Platform for
America, visit http://www.democrats.org/platform/ |
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New Venture Capital Numbers The venture capital (VC) business seems to be following larger entrepreneurship trends as recent data from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) suggest that the VC business is looking up. First, new data on VC performance in the first quarter of 2004 show that VC investments posted a one-year return of 15.4%---the first double-digit rise since 2000. Returns over a three-year period are still negative (-13.3%), but the long term picture is pretty good. Over a 20-year period, VC investments return an average of 15.7 percent (compared to S&P 500 returns of 13.1%). NVCA has also released a new study (by Global Insight) that examines the performance of VC-backed companies during the 2000-2003 downturn. The study finds that firms receiving VC investments between 1970 and 2003 performed quite well, even in tough economic times. Between 2000 and 2003, these firms grew jobs (by 6.5%) and revenue (11.6%) at a rate that far outpaced the overall performance of the US economy. |
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New OECD Entrepreneurship Center For some time, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been promoting entrepreneurship as a viable strategy for local economic development. The OECD has now opted to formalize this function with the creation of a new Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises), and Local Development. The new office is designed to consolidate and streamline the OECD’s programs supporting entrepreneurship and small business development. The new office was one of the outcomes of a June 2004 OECD Ministerial Meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. At this session, OECD partners committed themselves to more aggressively support small business development throughout all of the member countries. |
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The War for Talent Revisited For many years, business executives, consultants, and other economy watchers have been talking about “the war for talent.” These analysts argue that human capital (i.e. talent) will be the key differentiator in determining the future economic prospects for companies, regions, and countries. A new Accenture study, the fourth annual
High Performance Workforce Study, will add more fuel to this fire. The study surveys 244 leading executives in the US, Europe and Australia. It finds that 41% of respondents believe that the war for talent will affect their firm’s prospects in the next twelve months, yet only 17% described the skills of their workforce as “industry leading.” The survey also contains some good news. In past surveys, executives have noted that cost control would be their primary mission in the coming year. In 2004, 42% plan to focus on growth in the coming year. Only 18% plan to make cost control a top priority. |
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Contact
the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship:
Mark Marich, Editor - mark@pfidc.org |
