Why Entrepreneurship is Critical on a Macroeconomic Level
For the past fifty years our business schools have been working on a flawed model. We have focused on producing executives for large corporations; only recently have we introduced enthusiasm for entrepreneurship to our MBA programs. However we live in a world economy focused on globalization, revved up by the technological revolution and immersed in a 24/7 mindset. We have created an extremely fast paced environment requiring flexible management led by adaptable and resilient leaders – the essence of entrepreneurship.
The misguided emphasis on turning out high paid executives has led to politically motivated policies like ‘Too Big to Fail’ which can be more properly labelled “Too Big to Succeed” or simply “To Big”. Like their second cousin Big Government these monolithic corporations need the impact of entrepreneurs – people who are disruptors that challenge the status quo in the face of a new global reality. They are too slow and unwieldy and are led by overpaid executives far removed from reality, Increasingly they rely on growth by acquisition and flexibility achieved by contracting out. They are part of our reality but not the part that will have the greatest influence and guide the inherent change built into the global economy. Entrepreneurs will pursue opportunity around the world and find the many niches that will move us to more efficient allocation of resources and lower cost of production across the entire world. At the same time in the west where we have structural issues such as high unemployment levels among unskilled workers, entrepreneurs will invest locally finding opportunity and create jobs that will put these resources to work. Government cannot do this effectively and big business has no interest in doing so.
‘Everyday Entrepreneur’ encourages entrepreneurship at all levels, focused on preparing entrepreneurs for the challenges they will face through a wide range of anecdotes helping them experience the realities of life as an entrepreneur in this ‘New Era of Entrepreneurship’.
Praise for Everyday Entrepreneur
“Fred Dawkins employs a likeable cast of characters and the simple setting of Canadian cottage country in July to convey a complex set of ideas ranging from the nature-versus-nurture debate (are entrepreneurs born or made?) to a variety of essential how-to entrepreneurship skills to specialty topics such as gender, leadership, negotiation, and team formation, as well as the important role of entrepreneurship in the global economy. His casual, easy-to-read writing style belies the critical importance of his subject matter. Not just potential entrepreneurs but also governments, big companies, and business schools in the West must adapt to the new reality of an increasingly educated and ambitious middle class in so-called developing countries and take immediate steps to reinvigorate our large population of underutilized problem-solvers in order to remain competitive and continue to enjoy increasing prosperity. As Sam would say: It is not a question of if, but rather how.”
— Ajay Agrawal, Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, founder of the Creative Destruction Lab for entrepreneurs, and co-founder of The Next 36 entrepreneurship program.
