Entrepreneurship is alive and well

This year Ernst & Young have published a report on entrepreneurship under the title Nature or nurture?  Decoding the DNA of the entrepreneur.   The key findings of the report are:

1. Entrepreneurial leaders are made, not born (nurture not nature)
2. Entrepreneurship is rarely a one-off decision
3. Funding, people and know-how are the biggest barriers to entrepreneurial success.
4. Entrepreneurs share core or common traits.
5. Traditional companies can learn from entrepreneurial leaders.

The full report is available electronically  through the ELIS catalogue at:
http://ets.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=1097
The writers of the report have described the DNA of the entrepreneurial leaders in the following diagram:

Diagram entitled The DNA of the entrepreneur model from Ernst & Young 2011 report p.15.

Like many of you I am interested in reading about companies who have begun exporting or who plan to export  in the near future.   I never fail to be impressed by the variety of products and approaches exhibited by New Zealand companies.

So I decided to explore in a non-scientific way how three NZ companies stacked up against the core traits in this model (the keywords in the brown circle on the outside of the model).   My sample of three was limited to articles recently clipped from the DominionPost newspaper describing three NZ companies. They were:

• Zeezee.com - merino clothing for children
• Radiola Aerospace - testing and calibrating navigation and landing instruments for aircraft
• Planet Green - possum skin golf gloves (possums are a furry pest)

The three companies showed the following core entrepreneurial traits: Resilience,Teamwork, Passion, Quality, Customer focus, Flexibility, Vision and Innovation.    The only two missing were Leadership and Integrity.   In a more scientific survey in which management and staff were interviewed and websites combed, these two traits may also have showed up.   In the sample articles the focus was more on the companies rather than on individual leaders.
The EY report concludes on p.24:
     Over the past decade, entrepreneurial leaders have played an increasingly important role in the global  economy.   Their ability to see opportunities in an uncertain environment, take calculated risks and be tenacious in turning ideas into successful ventures are crucial components of both job creation and the global economic recovery.
If our local companies and their leaders continue to match this DNA, we will certainly begin to make headway in our export-lead recovery.
  
  

Exporting is a hidden activity

Waireinga = Leaping water; also called  The Bridal Veil Falls, Waikato, New Zealand.  Photo: F.Siddle 15 January 2010

What is the link you might ask?  I have just spent a few days in Hamilton and the Waikato Region.   We visited this stunning waterfall where the water falls 55 metres to the pool below.   I had not heard of these falls - they were a hidden delight to be discovered - maybe they are in Lonely Planet or another guide which I hadn't consulted.   It occurred to me that exporting  in New Zealand and probably in other countries is an activity where companies just get on with it.  The Waikato has a number of exporting companies but they are unseen and unsung.  

Ironically it is often products which trumpet themselves are being of 'export quality', 'for export only', export this or that, but these words don't really impinge on our lives.   Out there there are many  companies  doing the hard work which keeps our economy going .

Weightless Economy

Feather on the shore Wellington Harbour near Waitangi Park.

Photo by Marie-Louise Siddle 2009.

Prime Minister John Key delivered a speech on New Zealand's economic performance to a business audience in Wellington on Wednesday 15th July.
It outlined six main policy drivers for the Government -- regulatory reform, infrastructure investment, better public services, education and skills, innovation and a world-class tax system. John Key said the tradable sector of the economy, which includes agriculture, tourism, forestry and manufacturing, has effectively been in recession for five years.
There was no specific mention of assistance to, or ideas for the export sector. The sectors mentioned by John Key in his speech focus still on New Zealand’s traditional areas. What about the weightless economy? It would seem that the series of Discussion Papers on the New Zealand economy put out by the New Zealand Institute’s Director David Skilling have been shelved. In a presentation which he made in 2007 David Skilling says:
‘New Zealand is more likely to succeed in weightless goods and services: adding knowledge-based value to physical products, developing business models that locate production process offshore, as well as producing services that can be transported virtually.’ Creating the weightless economy: positioning New Zealand to compete in the global economy. Unpublished presentation.
David Skilling’s Discussion Paper series are available through the ELIS catalogue.

The emporer has no clothes

Some of you may be interested in this paper from thenewzealandinstitute which has just been published:http://www.nzinstitute.org/Images/uploads/The_emperor_has_no_clothes_Feb_09.pdf It provides some useful background to the current global economic and financial crisis. There is a section specifically about Agricultural exports. From time to time the New Zealand Institute publishes papers to stimulate discussion and thinking about topics of concern to New Zealanders including those involved in international trade. The URL is http://www.nzinstitute.org/