Innovation must be cultivated

Entrepreneurship can be taught

Innovation

Innovation = Invention + Commercialization

Invention = To solve a problem

 A culture that promotes Experimentation

Commercialization = To make the solution widely

available

Entrepreneurship

 A set of skills

 Industry Knowledge

 Practice

 Network

 Geography
5 Key Findings
 Entrepreneurial Leaders are made not born

 Entrepreneurship is rarely a one-off decision

 Funding, people and know-how are the biggest barriers to entrepreneurial

success

 Entrepreneurs share common traits

 Traditional companies can learn from entrepreneurial leaders

 1. Entrepreneurial Leaders are made not born

There is no Entrepreneurship gene

Most entrepreneurs start at a young age but most are out of college

 Age at first start-up

 10% are <20

 45% are b/w 20-29

 31% are b/w 30-39

 12% are b/w 40-49

 2% are b/w 50-59

More than half of entrepreneurial leaders are transitioned.

42% always are entrepreneur and 58% transitioned.
 2. Entrepreneurship is rarely a one-off decision

The minority of entrepreneurial leaders create a majority of start-ups

Grow & Sell profile i.e. serial entrepreneurs

3. Funding, people and know how are the biggest
barriers

Access to capital is the biggest problem

Funding 33%, People 19%, Know-how 19%, Short-Term

risks 1% and Operation 1%

Choose between being rich and being king

Skills are difficult to find, but finding people with the right
values is even harder

It is essential to build teams that combine deep technical

knowledge with broad business skills. It is rare to combine
both in a single individual
4. Entrepreneurs share core traits

Belief that it is your actions that lead to outcomes and not

external forces that control outcomes

They also see opportunity where others see disruption

Risk, tolerance and willingness to work

Culture has a core influence on risk taking and tolerance

Banking laws prevent many entrepreneurs from building

start-ups
5. Traditional companies can learn from Entrepreneurs

Treatment of Employees i.e. meritocracy

Compassion, competitiveness

Reward employees for growing the company

Approach to innovation

Ask for ideas from your employees

Intrapreneurship

Diversified workforce

Be prepared for failures

10 things Every Entrepreneur must know

1. Its not just about ideas

2. It is all about the right people

3. Make something that customers want to buy

4. Focus i.e. you should be able to explain what you do within 1-2 sentences

5. Don’t reinvent the wheel

6. Don’t be afraid of competition

7. Don’t sweat the equity

8. Don’t do it for the money

9. Be confident but not arrogant

10. Don’t be afraid to fail