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Recently I heard a lecture by a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The lecturer was discussing worldwide trends in education. Fostering creativity was a major theme, which was not being fulfilled. However, the country-by-country analysis failed to consider that certain failing countries were centrally controlled governments. Such governments typically prefer for the government to provide the "creativity" through a form of central planning. This approach is particularly prevalent in economic development.
This article from the NYT, "Entrepreneurial Spirit Awaits its Moment in the Middle East”, cites Joi Ito, the new Director of the MIT Media Lab, on entrepreneurship in the Middle East:
“In five to ten years, I think this will be a very vibrant entrepreneurial hub [Middle East and North Africa], but when it is going to happen will depend a lot on how much the governments and big companies are willing to allow those small companies to grow here.”
I would point out that the Middle East and North Africa has a long history of centrally controlled governments.
When one considers the countries where entrepreneurship flourishes, the U.S., Israel, Brazil and Singapore immediately come to mind. Two of these countries have long histories as democracies, the third has been a successful democracy in recent years and the fourth is probably the most progressive centrally controlled government in history. However, I do not draw the conclusion that we should foster democracy in order to encourage entrepreneurship. Rather I think we should foster entrepreneurship recognizing that it is much more challenging in centrally controlled governments.
Entrepreneurship requires certain support in order to flourish:
- Great universities (MIT, University of Singapore, etc.)
- Access to capital (independently managed firms for seed, venture capital, private equity)
- A class of "business" people (barter does not support entrepreneurship)
The good news is that the people exist everywhere. Access to capital can be arranged, with perhaps Israel offering the best example. To encourage entrepreneurship, the Israeli government allocated a significant amount of money to be run by foreign private sector venture capital firms. The Brazilian government tried the same approach but elected to manage the money itself and failed.
The challenge is in fostering great universities, especially in the areas of science, technology and maybe business. Perhaps Joi Ito plans to use the considerable expertise and resources of MIT to address this issue in northern Africa and the Middle East.
