New challenge to role of entrepreneurs

In today's economy, the entrepreneur has become a central figure behind our economic growth. Traditional views of entrepreneur-ialism are that it is essentially a money-making exercise in which developing a business to bring a product to the market is the central aim, with eventual success embodied in a listing on the stock exchange.

The concept is, however, being challenged, with political, artistic, community and social innovators included as part of a new club soon to be set up in Ireland to encourage the development of entrepreneurs, not just in the business and commercial world but across the whole range of society.

One of the people behind the idea, Mr Billy Glennon, managing director of Vision Consulting, says entrepreneurs are people who spot an anomaly in the world and feel that it is something worth exploring, while also possessing the passion and tenacity to find and promote a solution for it.

Mr Glennon points to non-business people who are successful entrepreneurs in organisations such as "Mothers Against Drink Driving" in the United States. The originators of this idea, having seen and experienced the effect drink driving has had on their own and other people's lives, started a campaign against it.

The group, starting from a very small base, almost single-handedly managed to change the whole culture of drink driving and transformed attitudes towards the issue.

Can the skills of entrepreneur-ship be learned? Not all people are suited to it or are capable of success, as the uncertainty and risk which are bywords for entrepreneurs require drive and self-belief.

The entrepreneurs club', which initially will take in around 50 members, hopes to provide guidance to members by developing the core practices of entrepreneurs and providing a forum for exchange of ideas and methods.

"You can't point to any one source. The sources expected to provide entrepreneurs, like MBAs and business schools, are not doing it, and the traditional educational systems have failed to produce them," says Mr Glennon.

With the social structures of Ireland breaking down, resulting in more and more uncertainty in people's lives, the entrepreneurial spirit is being increasingly brought out in Irish people.

Prof Deirdre Hunt, the director of the masters in entrepreneur-ship at University College, Cork, says that parents can "still play a huge role in creating a climate of entrepreneur-ship as, after investing in their children's education, they don't want to see those same children facing bankruptcy a few years later".

Increasingly, smaller businesses are coming to dominate economies as big companies downsize and outsource, leading to a myriad of small suppliers.

"It is now credible to think of becoming an entrepreneur in Ireland, but until the mammies start putting a career in self-employment or setting up your own business next to a job as bank manager or as a civil servant, the climate will be slow to change."

Many people think success equates only with large companies, but in most European countries the majority of GNP is from companies employing 100 people or less.

Prof Hunt firmly believes the skills of entrepreneur-ship can be learned. She thinks they are mainly about persuading and encouraging creativity in people, as well as placing trust in young people in both intangible and tangible ways.

"Contemporary business is about brokerage, and Ireland has an enormous cultural asset in that it traditionally has been in the position of brokering between large competing groups, which is integral to modern business," she says.

The masters degree is attracting a lot of mid-career people from large companies (like Beamish and Coca Cola) that are having to deal with more and more small suppliers, while the entrepreneur-ialism and new ventures option as part of the commerce faculty has developed from a course of four or five people a few years ago to being one of the most popular courses in the faculty today.

"Big businesses are now being seen as organisations which are inefficient users of resources, with IKEA, the international furniture suppliers, basically a management company for a conglomeration of over 100,000 small businesses around Europe, a perfect example of the new era," Prof Hunt says.

In Finland, the bankruptcy of big business is presented as a good thing, and Prof Hunt points to the closure of Digital in Galway, which has resulted in an actual increase in jobs in the longer term, with former employees going out and setting up their own businesses.

Even though the climate for business in Ireland has improved hugely, and confidence is growing, Mr Glennon believes that the climate for entrepreneurs is no better. The fear of failure and the fear of taking a risk is still very prevalent in Ireland, discouraging many people from developing an idea into a reality. However, the large rewards now going to many entrepreneurs may be starting to change the climate.