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Week of June 25 - July 1, 2007 |
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As we prepare to celebrate
our nation’s birthday, the US Small Business Administration (SBA) is
doing its bit to provide some extra support to America’s veterans. SBA
officials have recently unveiled their new Patriot Express Loan
Initiative. This effort is an extension of SBA’s flagship 7(a) loan
guarantee program. The Patriot Express Loans work much like 7(a) loans
-- potential customers work with a local bank, and can be eligible for
loans of up to $500,000 with up to 75-85% of that total covered by an
SBA guarantee. The program will also provide SBA’s lowest interest rate
for business loans (anywhere from 2.25% to 4.75% over prime). |
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Does Microcredit Miss the Mark?
A provocative new article in
the Stanford Social Innovation Review takes aim at the shortcomings of
the burgeoning field of microcredit. The study’s author, Aneel Karnani,
contends that microcredit programs have very limited economic benefit in
terms of poverty alleviation. He contends instead that the best
anti-poverty strategy involves creating new jobs and improving worker
productivity. These goals cannot be achieved via support for
microenterprise. Instead, resources should be shifted away from these
programs and toward efforts that support larger, labor-intensive
industries. This is an interesting argument that is sure to stimulate
much discussion given the increasing profile of microenterprise. |
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Prospering in Disruptive and Disrupted Markets
Business executives
recognize that markets in all sectors are becoming less predictable and
more disruptive. Growing competition and the rapid pace of technological
change are among the many factors that market-altering change is
becoming a more regular phenomenon. And, not surprisingly, corporate
managers don’t feel very well-equipped to deal with such rapid change. A
new study from the Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum and
Deloitte Consulting asked 180 senior technology executives to discuss
how they are responding to this new market. The respondents felt that
they were doing a poor job of reacting to disruptive market change –
noting that they lacked the tools, talent, and processes needed for this
effort. As one example, managers acknowledged that they were spending
more time on strategic planning functions. But, at the same time, their
firms were not increasing investments in these activities. A focus on
short-term profitability and results is preventing firms from taking the
long-view and making critical investments that may not produce quick
quantifiable results in the next quarter. As a result, managers fear
that their firms may be blind-sided in the face of future market
disruptions. |
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A new Brookings Institution
study, by researchers Robert Crandall, William Lehr, and Robert Litan,
takes a hard look at the economic effects of broadband deployment. While
most casual observers would suspect that broadband deployment is a good
thing, there are remarkably few empirical studies that detail its
effects on output and employment. This new research indicates that
broadband deployment does indeed have positive economic impacts. In
fact, for every one percent increase in a state’s broadband penetration
rates, employment increases at a rate of 0.2 to 0.3 percent per year. If
these figures are aggregated to the national level, we find that this
increase could lead to an additional 300,000 new jobs per year. Based on
these early findings, the researchers recommend that state policymakers
be more aggressive in terms of promoting competition in broadband
services. This competition will help reduce costs, improve services, and
further hasten deployment efforts. |
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A new set of projections
from Forrester Research predicts that there will be more than one
billion personal computers (PCs) in use worldwide by 2008. That’s a
pretty astounding growth rate in PC use as Forrester researchers project
that PC use will grow at a compounded annual rate of roughly 12% between
2003 and 2015. Overall, it took 27 years to reach the one billion mark
for PCs. The two billion mark should be achieved in an additional five
years. As PC use skyrockets, there are lots of implications for
entrepreneurs and for policy makers. One clear conclusion from this
research is that emerging markets (especially Brazil, Russia, India, and
China) will account for the predominant portion of future growth in the
personal computer market. |
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The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship is 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 entrepreneurship around the world. Subscribe now to receive your weekly copy. Archived issues are available online. |
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National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship
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All
stories © 2007 The Public Forum Institute
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