| | A survey of senior
business executives
launched today by global
business consultancy,
McKinney Rogers, makes
worrying reading for UK
business leaders, with
evidence of a more
dynamic generation hot
on their heels,
particularly from
emerging markets, which
are embracing a more
entrepreneurial approach
to business.
Entrepreneurs also
need to take heed as the
research showed that
they may not be as
unique as once thought,
with a majority of
respondents believing
that entrepreneurship is
not an innate gift and
can be developed.
With recent media
attention focusing on
entrepreneurs, the
survey, which
encompassed Europe,
Africa, Asia Pacific and
the US, was designed to
gauge awareness,
perceptions and trends
surrounding
entrepreneurial skills
in the corporate
environment.
Whilst an encouraging
two-thirds of
respondents (69%)
believe that in today's | |
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| | business environment it
is important for large
organisations to develop
a core competence of
entrepreneurship, the
emergence of a more
entrepreneurial spirit
in the boardroom is
noticeably different in
the UK from some other
regions.
The younger emerging
markets are ready to
embrace entrepreneurship
in a large organisation
(50%) as opposed to only
27% in Europe including
the UK, where markets
are more established.
This is supported by
respondents who see
regions like Africa
(88%) believing that
entrepreneurs can be
developed, compared with
only 38% of people
surveyed in UK and the
rest of Europe. Less
constrained by
tradition, these
emerging markets are
perhaps more open to
risk taking and creating
a more flexible
environment and culture
that can embrace
entrepreneurship.
Key findings emerged
when executives and
business leaders were
asked to assess the
defining characteristics | |
|
| | of both CEOs and
entrepreneurs. There was
a marked difference
between the two
perceptions, with
executives seeing more
of a blurring of the
lines between
entrepreneurs and
business leaders,
heralding the emergence
of a more
entrepreneurial approach
to business from the
next generation of CEOs.
Executives saw both
entrepreneurs and CEOs
as being strong
communicators,
energetic, visionary,
flexible, decisive,
intuitive and not
independent operators.
Executives also viewed
the role of a CEO as
including risk taking
and flexibility, which
CEOs scored low in the
survey as core skills
for themselves.
CEOs see
entrepreneurs as
passionate, energetic
and highly motivated and
identified their key
qualities as being
visionary, driven,
persistent and decisive.
When respondents were
asked which parts of the
business were important
in achieving "corporate | |
|
| | entrepreneurship",
interestingly, people
and behaviour related
objectives, such as
encouraging ownership
(72%) and developing an
entrepreneurial culture
(47%), featured more
highly than operational
focus areas such as
creating and developing
new ventures (39%).
Richard Watts, UK
partner at McKinney
Rogers, commented: "What
is interesting about
this research in
particular is the
openness to
entrepreneurs by the
less established markets
and also by newer
industries such as
technology, where the
pace of change
necessitates a more
maverick, flexible and
innovative approach to
business.
"For older, more
established markets to
continue to flourish,
they need to keep pace
and this means adopting
what is called
'intrapreneurship' –
injecting some of the
core qualities of an
entrepreneur into a
large business and
adapting the culture to
allow this to sit | |
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| | comfortably."
Damian McKinney, CEO
at McKinney Rogers,
added: "These results
clearly highlight a real
understanding across
industry that
entrepreneurship has an
increasingly important
part to play in driving
a successful business.
What business leaders
need to understand is
that this isn't about
recruiting a number of
entrepreneurs and hoping
that they will make
changes and expect them
to mould to the current
culture.
"The key is to
identify and nurture
entrepreneurial
qualities in existing
employees and create a
culture that supports
some of the innovation,
risk-taking and
flexibility that is
associated with
entrepreneurs and
empowering people to
take ownership for
this."
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