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Week of September 19 - 23, 2005

Welcome 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 NDE-news, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving the innovation economy. Subscribe now to receive your weekly copy. Archived issues are available online. Links to the day's entrepreneurship stories from across the nation and around the world are posted each weekday on the NDE main page - bookmark it and stay informed about the latest entrepreneurship news.

New International Education Statistics

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has just released its latest compendium of global economic statistics. The report is an excellent source for international education data, and it contains some good and bad news for the US. Overall, America’s knowledge economy remains strong. For example, the US accounts for 42% of all R&D spending within the OECD. However, its rate for R&D spending as a percentage of GDP (2.6%), is topped by those of Sweden, Finland, Japan, and Iceland. Similarly, the US accounts for 1/3 of all patents within OECD, but falls behind Germany, Japan, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland when patents are tracked on a per capita basis.

In terms of educational attainment, the American system generally ranks in the middle when compared to other OECD nations. America’s university system remains world-class, but education quality and performance for 15 year-olds rank near the bottom of OECD nations. This result is somewhat surprising as the US spends more on education on per capita basis than any other OECD nation except Switzerland.

At the university level, there are other causes for concern. US universities produce a below-average number of science graduates when compared to other OECD countries. The US produced 1063 university science graduates pre 100,000 persons employed in 2003, slightly below the OECD average and far below the rates in Japan, Korea, the UK, France, and Australia. In addition, fewer foreign students are choosing American universities. The OECD data examine 2003 numbers and find that the US share of the overall global market for foreign graduate students dropped 2%. More recent figures indicate that this rate of decline continues to accelerate. In its conclusion, the OECD commends America’s higher education system, but warns that problems in primary and secondary education represent a significant competitive challenge.

The 2005 edition of Education at a Glance by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is available at:
http://www.oecd.org/document/34/0,2340,en_2649_201185_35289570_1_1_1_1,00.html

New Entrepreneurship Center at Berkeley

The University of California Berkeley is buying into entrepreneurship in a big way. Last week, the university unveiled its new Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (CET). Starting up a new university entrepreneurship center is hardly a revolutionary undertaking these days, but CET brings some unique assets to the table. First, CET is located in Berkeley’s engineering school and is designed to bring a commercialization mindset to undergraduate engineering students and other researchers. CET also benefits from its proximity to Silicon Valley and its list of advisors reads like a “who’s who” of the region’s technology economy. In addition to offering traditional classes and other support, CET will cooperate closely with Berkeley’s Venture Lab program—an effort to build strong teams around commercialization opportunities or innovative business concepts.

To learn more about UC-Berkeley’s new Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, visit http://cet.berkeley.edu/

SBA, Junior Achievement team up on youth entrepreneurship

The youth of today are still being told to mind their own business – only now it’s by the U.S. Small Business Administration and Junior Achievement. Targeting young entrepreneurs looking to start, run or grow their own business, the two recently launched www.mindyourownbiz.org. The Mind Your Own Business site provides information on five steps of business ownership – explore, decide, build, connect and succeed. Through those five steps, the co-branded site directs viewers to a variety of links, primarily to a revamped Teen Business Link site run by the SBA and to various sections of the Junior Achievement site.

At the launch, SBA Administrator Hector Barreto introduced Brian Hendricks of Potomac, Maryland, as the winner of the 2005 JA Worldwide National Student Entrepreneur of the Year award. The high school senior began his company – StartUpPC (www.startuppc.com) – as a cost-effective alternative to computer stores and on-site technical support companies. The company offers custom-built computers and computer services for home users, home offices, small businesses and students. Hendricks was selected by a panel of entrepreneurship experts that included NDE’s Jonathan Ortmans and Mark Marich.

For more information on Mind Your Own Business, visit www.mindyourownbiz.org.

Secret Capitals of Small Business

The September 2005 issue of Fortune Small Business contains an interesting piece that examines the phenomenon of business clusters. “Secret Capitals of Small Business” profiles a number of communities that host a strong and unique niche business cluster----led by groups of growing entrepreneurial businesses. In these regions, small groups of firms have been able to both collaborate and compete. In the process, they have developed a local environment where specialized firms can grow and prosper. The article profiles the following regions and clusters:

  • Birmingham, AL—Orthopedic Surgery

  • Central Florida--Virtual Reality Software

  • Central Massachusetts—Medical Imaging

  • Durham, NC--Weight Loss Centers

  • Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN—Cardiac Devices

  • Phoenix, AZ--Helicopters

  • Sturgis, SD—Firearms

  • Wichita, KS—Light Aircraft

“Secret Capitals of Small Business” appears in the September 2005 edition of Fortune Small Business and is available on-line at http://www.fortune.com/fortune/smallbusiness/articles/0,15114,1095013-1,00.html

NFIB and VISA: Small Biz Optimism Up

Small business owners are feeling bullish about their prospects, according to new surveys from the National Federation for Independent Business (NFIB) and VISA USA. Their joint research release includes data from NFIB’s Small Business Conditions Report and VISA’s Commercial Consumption Expenditure (CCE) Index. Both reports indicate high levels of optimism and increases in non-payroll spending by small businesses. NFIB’s research shows that 46% of surveyed business owners report that business is good and that 61% believe that the outlook for the next three months is positive. Meanwhile, VISA’s CCE Index indicates that overall non-payroll spending by businesses and government agencies should grow 5% over the course of 2005, and will ultimately reach $17.3 trillion by 2007.

To learn more about recent findings from NFIB’s Small Business Conditions Report and VISA’s Commercial Consumption Expenditure Index, visit http://www.nfib.com/object/sbcny0905.html

Kauffman Foundation    The Public Forum Institute

National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship
2300 M Street, NW; Suite 900
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Mark Marich, Editor

All stories © 2005 The Public Forum Institute
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