Frustrated at the high unemployment rates facing young people in Europe, Kevin Ackermann, 25; Iman Fadaei, 26; and Martin Wetterberg, 22, decided to try to make things better. About 12 months ago they launched Aha Design, a London start-up that provides affordably priced website development and other services to clients such as start-ups, charities and the British government. They pay young people to work on projects to gain valuable work experience and, ideally, recommendations from clients so they are more employable when they send out job applications. "We're all passionate about entrepreneurship and making money, but also about helping create a better world," said Fadaei, a law school graduate who also runs Ethical Art, a start-up that sells artwork and uses the proceeds from each sale to send a child to school in Tanzania for a year. Meanwhile, Ackermann runs another business, called BACA Jewellery, which sources pearls from cooperatives that teach survivors of human trafficking how to make a living through jewelry making; it donates some of its profits to them. Aha Design made the GEW 50, a list of the most promising start-ups competing in the Startup Open, a contest that is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). Winners will be announced Nov. 18 as the celebration kicks off in 139 countries. "We're all passionate about entrepreneurship and making money, but also about helping create a better world." Founded in 2008, GEW honors innovators around the world who are launching start-ups that foster economic growth and job creation and give back to society. It was founded by Jonathan Ortmans, a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo.–based organization that champions entrepreneurship; Carl Schramm, Kauffman's former president and CEO; and Gordon Brown, former prime minister of the U.K. In October the Kauffman Foundation teamed up with the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation to launch the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network (GERN), aimed at helping policymakers and entrepreneurs around the world learn how to promote new business creation and growth. In the five years since the first GEW took place, the situation of entrepreneurs around the globe has changed significantly, according to Ortmans. Entrepreneurship has become more widely accepted as a legitimate career path among young people in many countries—in part, because some can't find traditional jobs in a tough economy. And easy-to-use low-cost digital and mobile technologies are making it possible for more non-techies to start businesses on a shoestring. "There's been a shift in power and confidence from institutions," he said. "Start-ups need governments and universities much less than they ever did in the past." As a result, start-up activity is bubbling up around the globe. In South American countries an average of 17 percent of adults are currently involved in early-stage entrepreneurial activity, compared to 13 percent in the U.S. And in Sub-Saharan Africa, participation averages 28 percent, according to the "Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2012 Global Report," published earlier this year by Babson College and several other universities around the world. In the Middle East and North Africa, 8 percent of adults are involved in early-stage ventures. "What has been so interesting to me about the Middle East is, so much is happening from the bottom up," said entrepreneur Christopher Schroeder, author of the book "Startup Rising." Often the efforts are sparked by young people with access to technology, he says, rather than government efforts to encourage start-ups. In other economies, rates are lower than for the main hot spots. In the Asia Pacific and South Asian region, 10 percent of adults are involved in early-stage entrepreneurial activity, compared to 8 percent in the European Union and 7 percent in European countries outside the EU, an area that includes Russia. The reasons vary. In more developed economies, citizens often have many choices of work, so they aren't as driven to entrepreneurship by necessity as others where the economy is more fragile. Cultural attitudes also play a role. "In some societies entrepreneurship is not valued as a career," said Candida Brush, holder of the Franklin W. Olin Chair in Entrepreneurship and faculty research director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College. For instance, in Japan only 30 percent of adults surveyed for the GEM report consider entrepreneurship to be a good career choice, compared to an average of 59 percent for the Asia Pacific and South Asian region as a whole, 58 percent of the European Union, 75 percent for South America and the Caribbean and 6 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Global Entrepreneurial Revolution !
Frustrated at the high unemployment rates facing young people in Europe, Kevin Ackermann, 25; Iman Fadaei, 26; and Martin Wetterberg, 22, decided to try to make things better. About 12 months ago they launched Aha Design, a London start-up that provides affordably priced website development and other services to clients such as start-ups, charities and the British government. They pay young people to work on projects to gain valuable work experience and, ideally, recommendations from clients so they are more employable when they send out job applications. "We're all passionate about entrepreneurship and making money, but also about helping create a better world," said Fadaei, a law school graduate who also runs Ethical Art, a start-up that sells artwork and uses the proceeds from each sale to send a child to school in Tanzania for a year. Meanwhile, Ackermann runs another business, called BACA Jewellery, which sources pearls from cooperatives that teach survivors of human trafficking how to make a living through jewelry making; it donates some of its profits to them. Aha Design made the GEW 50, a list of the most promising start-ups competing in the Startup Open, a contest that is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). Winners will be announced Nov. 18 as the celebration kicks off in 139 countries. "We're all passionate about entrepreneurship and making money, but also about helping create a better world." Founded in 2008, GEW honors innovators around the world who are launching start-ups that foster economic growth and job creation and give back to society. It was founded by Jonathan Ortmans, a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo.–based organization that champions entrepreneurship; Carl Schramm, Kauffman's former president and CEO; and Gordon Brown, former prime minister of the U.K. In October the Kauffman Foundation teamed up with the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation to launch the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network (GERN), aimed at helping policymakers and entrepreneurs around the world learn how to promote new business creation and growth. In the five years since the first GEW took place, the situation of entrepreneurs around the globe has changed significantly, according to Ortmans. Entrepreneurship has become more widely accepted as a legitimate career path among young people in many countries—in part, because some can't find traditional jobs in a tough economy. And easy-to-use low-cost digital and mobile technologies are making it possible for more non-techies to start businesses on a shoestring. "There's been a shift in power and confidence from institutions," he said. "Start-ups need governments and universities much less than they ever did in the past." As a result, start-up activity is bubbling up around the globe. In South American countries an average of 17 percent of adults are currently involved in early-stage entrepreneurial activity, compared to 13 percent in the U.S. And in Sub-Saharan Africa, participation averages 28 percent, according to the "Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2012 Global Report," published earlier this year by Babson College and several other universities around the world. In the Middle East and North Africa, 8 percent of adults are involved in early-stage ventures. "What has been so interesting to me about the Middle East is, so much is happening from the bottom up," said entrepreneur Christopher Schroeder, author of the book "Startup Rising." Often the efforts are sparked by young people with access to technology, he says, rather than government efforts to encourage start-ups. In other economies, rates are lower than for the main hot spots. In the Asia Pacific and South Asian region, 10 percent of adults are involved in early-stage entrepreneurial activity, compared to 8 percent in the European Union and 7 percent in European countries outside the EU, an area that includes Russia. The reasons vary. In more developed economies, citizens often have many choices of work, so they aren't as driven to entrepreneurship by necessity as others where the economy is more fragile. Cultural attitudes also play a role. "In some societies entrepreneurship is not valued as a career," said Candida Brush, holder of the Franklin W. Olin Chair in Entrepreneurship and faculty research director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College. For instance, in Japan only 30 percent of adults surveyed for the GEM report consider entrepreneurship to be a good career choice, compared to an average of 59 percent for the Asia Pacific and South Asian region as a whole, 58 percent of the European Union, 75 percent for South America and the Caribbean and 6 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa.