Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship

M. Isi Eromosele

The developing of greater business skills is only one aspect of entrepreneurship. Today’s big issues and challenges are interdisciplinary in nature and require input and solutions from expertise in multiple fields.

Entrepreneurship is the application of invention and generally requires a background in business. In that respect it is more than just technical innovation, but encompasses everything necessary to get a product to market.

Business models and technology need to collaborate. Product, process and business model must all be aligned. Apple is a perfect example of all three in harmony. Using the iPod to illustrate: Product is the iPod. Process is downloading music. Business model is the great innovation.

Entrepreneurship is critical to the development and wellbeing of society. Entrepreneurs create jobs. They drive and shape innovation, speeding up structural changes in the global economy. They contribute indirectly to productivity by introducing new competition. Entrepreneurship is thus a catalyst of economic growth and national competitiveness.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), high levels of entrepreneurship exist but are mostly informal and not original, which explains the high failure rate in the early stages of a business.

To maximize development of quality entrepreneurship, it is essential to improve the ability of entrepreneurs to innovate with scalable products or services that provide greater value.

The creation of technology-based start-ups has emerged as the bedrock of global economic growth and better living standards around the world, as countries shift from an industrial to an information age. Promoting innovative entrepreneurship is thus a central concern for global policy makers.

In the past, governments built infrastructure such as roads and power grids to further economic development. But the infrastructure and institutions needed today are different.

Instead of  ensuing stability, governments must be open to accommodating technologies that disrupt industries and markets; instead of  investing directly in promising technical innovations, they need to resist the temptation to prejudge the future or assert control and instead ensure that platforms exist for creativity to emerge.

Moreover, rather than appeal to a parochial sense of protectionism, governments should consider promoting the free-low of information, goods and people within and across their borders.

There is no single approach that is best suited to engendering entrepreneurial success. If  supported well, entrepreneurship need not be the exclusive purview of  just a handful of exceedingly smart or lucky individuals, but can be fostered in many people in multiple ways.

Innovative entrepreneurship has become the cornerstone of economic growth in the developed world. It is the source of jobs and high living standards for individuals, as well as great benefits for society in the form of technical progress and economic development.

Promoting innovative entrepreneurship is therefore a central concern for government and industry. To achieve this, a myriad of solutions have been proffered, which is itself a reliable indication that no one really knows how to do it for sure.

Huge amounts of financial and human resources have been poured into fostering an environment for innovative entrepreneurship to thrive with mixed results.

New sorts of policies, infrastructures and institutions must be established to stimulate and sustain a new era of global business. It has to be one where nimble, globally-minded startups rather than bloated bureaucracies are the motor of economic development.

We must discover anew what these policies, infrastructures and institutions are and find the best way to provide them. It won’t be delivered in the same way as in the past or with the same set of stakeholders.

Government can act as a catalyst to greater private action without serving as the agent of action itself. It should invest in upstream areas, such as education, as well as remove obstacles and encourage new forms of investment. It should not reward failure, but simply minimize the consequences when it inevitably occurs.

Just as nations established the infrastructure for the physical flow of goods in the past, today it must support platforms that facilitate the flow of information. Government and industry can create the platforms to tap into people’s creativity in whatever way it is expressed, rather than regard innovation as the domain of a small handful of people.

Enlightened policy should promote entrepreneurship without pre-guessing the specific technological form that it takes. Intellectual property must be protected, but at the same time must not be so strict that it restrains innovation.

Importantly, public policy should take after the very thing it hopes to promote and embrace risk, experimentation and diversity. Provided the right balance is established, innovative entrepreneurship can flourish to the benefit of society.

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

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