A nation of entrepreneurs
Article Date: Dec 17 2008A lot of hot air is expended on discussing how we could make the UK more entrepreneurial.
Are we too risk-averse as a nation? Are business taxes too high, or regulations too onerous? Or is it just that we’re now too comfortable and affluent to really fight for success?
I spent three years in Shanghai and like many others who have been there before and since, was impressed by the city’s entrepreneurial spirit. Just as Londoners love to talk house prices, it’s never too long before Shanghai dwellers bring up business opportunities. Complete strangers will float money-making ideas within ten minutes of meeting you. Entrepreneurialism is everywhere – from the archetypal noodle seller saving up to rent a small shop, to the ambitious foreign companies that see the city as their gateway to China.
Admittedly, go-getting Shanghai may be something of a special case, but throughout China people believe that the future will be better than the past. That optimism is at the core of entrepreneurs everywhere. Tony Murtagh, CEO of UK-based remortgage specialist The Money Group, senses the same spirit in his home city of Manchester.
‘Manchester has a lot of people working in businesses who think “I could do this myself”, or “The gaffer’s got a nice car – I’d like one like that”,’ he argues. ‘That’s what breeds entrepreneurship.’
Of course, the motivations of those who start and grow businesses differ between Manchester and Shanghai. A recent survey from Barclays Wealth and the Economist Intelligence Unit suggests that in Europe, the key reason people run their own show is the ability to be their own boss, while in Asia the biggest driver is the opportunity to create new products and services.
One thing most entrepreneurs the world over have in common – according to the survey anyway – is that they’re not driven primarily by money. Less than a third of business owners cite the chance to get rich as an important factor in their decision to work for themselves. After all, in many parts of the world there are routes to wealth and prestige that do not involve risking your shirt.
Clearly, ‘entrepreneurialism’ is a handy catch-all for a host of different cultural phenomena, from the Chinese noodle seller to the Silicon Valley risk taker. Whatever the difficulties of generalising across those extremes, I still think those tasked with making the UK more entrepreneurial could do worse than spending a couple of weeks in Shanghai.
