I really enjoyed reading Feld’s Startup Communities, all about the Boulder, Colorado, startup ecosystem. Boulder is a fun, quirky town at the foot of the mountains, which has tremendous startup activity in technology, biotechnology, and natural foods (tea, for instance). Feld tells how entrepreneurs make their own communities through volunteer leadership, taking a bottom-up approach. Neither venture capitalists, governments, nor universities call the shots in the making of a vibrant community.

Startup Communities is partly a study in good networking, packed with examples of interesting activities like meetups, coffee clubs, and Startup Weekend. The book, however, carries broader messages about leadership, including the need for inclusiveness, community engagement, experimentation, outreach to other communities, and cultivation of new leaders. Feld has discovered how much entrepreneurs can get done without relying on government initiatives.

Still, Feld despairs of policy leadership since officials have different agendas and time frames than entrepreneurs do: “Government is going to do whatever it is going to do…” While he’s right on the mark about the importance of bottom-up leadership, he could be underestimating the capacity of entrepreneurs to become policy entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs by nature are in a hurry, yet some do engage in policy affairs when they perceive a serious effect on their business. For example, a small group led by Sherwood Neiss, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, et al made recommendations on crowdfunding for the JOBS Act. No way can entrepreneurs alone remake government, but if they are selective they can have a valuable voice. As Feld himself notes, leaders should have a vision and a 20-year commitment, so perhaps there is time for policy change too.

Kim Bettcher
CIPE

Register now! Democracy That Delivers for Entrepreneurs in Chicago, April 9-10.

The Young Entrepreneurs Group of Asia-Pacific has published its 6th newsletter. Contents include:

• Nominees for the Third Asia-Pacific Young Entrepreneur Award
• “Surviving the Global Economic Crisis,” by Secretary Alfonso T. Yuchengco, President Emeritus, CACCI
• “SME Business Incubators,” by Anna Marie Periquet, Chairman, YEGAP
• “Of Family and Business: Thriving Across Generations,” by Jean Henri Lhuillier, Cebuana Lhuillier chain
• “The Golden ABCs in Business,” by Bernido Liu, President, Philippine Retailers Association

Continue reading ‘YEGAP Newsletter: Entrepreneurship and Youth’ »

After accumulating extensive management experience and conducting intensive management trainings over the past fifteen years, Sergey Filin and Tatiana Filina of the Kazakhstan Institute of Directors observe that beginning managers continue to encounter the same difficulties and continue to make the same mistakes. While their observations and recommendations focus on individuals entering into management roles, the authors maintain that their findings are relevant for managers at all levels.

For the sake of clarity, the authors divided their observations into three sections: misperceptions, mistakes, and problems. Misperceptions include the following: “I need to keep things as they were with my former colleagues, who are now my subordinates,” “I have to help my subordinates because they cannot get by without me,” “My subordinates will teach themselves how to do their jobs,” and “I am not managing people, but rather business processes.” Additionally, the authors observe the following mistakes: “Now that I have become a manager, I risk losing my field of expertise,” “I must be more competent than my subordinate in everything,” and “I can now perform only that work, which I find to be particularly interesting.” Finally, the authors indicate that beginning managers face problems such as “how do I manage people older than me” and “I continue to fulfill previous professional obligations, despite the promotion to management.”

Continue reading ‘Biases of the Beginner Manager’ »

The Peruvian think tank Instituto Invertir launched LíderAcción, a leadership and entrepreneurship program for university students from rural Peru. This program, now in its second year, has had a tremendous impact on improving the youth’s perceptions of a market economy and democracy. The program also helped students to achieve their dream of starting their own businesses. Working in groups, students developed 47 business plans for community development projects. Of these plans, a total of 12 businesses are currently in operation, and 5 more are in the start-up process. After completing the program, students have been encouraged to stay active by taking their knowledge and experience back to their home communities.

See the video on CIPE Development Blog.

See the winning 2008 business plan (in Spanish).

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