Was at this event the entire day. Enterprising Britain – The Debate. Good food. Interesting talks. Successful speakers. Free book. And thanks to IC Entrepreneurs I got in for free!

The main thrust was in encouraging our young to engage in entrepreneurial activites. Though it might seem a bit irrelavant to my life in general, much of what they shared seem to resonate with what I am going through.

I will summairze what was shared, the trends and call to actions into five major points. Tribute goes towards Richard Scase, one of the speakers whom I got these from. Below is a photo of him speaking at an event and also his book, Global Remix: The Fight for Competitive Advantage which was so generously given for free.

1. Media
Of late, the media has been protraying entrepuenership as being core to our society. This is shown by the popularity of TV Programs like Dragon’s Den, The Apprentice (UK) and The Apprentice (US) . Positioning these people as role models creates within our society a sense of desirability to be like them.2. Local History
To many young people, Richard Branson is of a different league. People like Richard Branson are of a unreachable realm. Hence it might be better if local mid sized businessmen were introduced to the students instead encouraging them that it is not different to start and succeed in businesses, instead of letting them be discouraged at the start. With just a bit of encouragement, young people can succeed and do great things. And sometimes they succeed just because they don’t know that something could not be done.

3. Teaching Methodolgy
In schools, it is not uncommon to have recruitment talks from the Finance Industry, from various Government agencies etc etc. However there is a lack of having talks made about business in school.
We realize also that there is a dichotomy in the educational system. Our education system teaches people to be individualistic, to be good in writing. However what we see is important in industry is the ability to work in teams and communicate and present ideas in a coherant manner.

And the issue is not that of the teachers, but that of the system. The educational system in the United States was used as an example. In their educational system, every student was encouraged to be different, to dare to try new things. Even the system was provided with a lot of autonomy. Each school was provided with a basic guideline of how things were to be done and the individual school masters then made the best decisions they could.

This would also encourage failure to be seen in a more positive light. Richard Branson had failed in his first business venture at the age of 9. He started a business in selling Christmas Trees, however it ruined because a rabbit was destroying the trees at that time. In the end, he took a gun, shot the rabbit and sold it to the local butcher.

4. School Business Advisors
However education does not mean pushing everything to teachers. This would probably put more load on the already overworked teachers. What would be better would be tying up with businessmen and having them mentoring our school children periodically.

5. Global, interfultural initiatives
After the internet boom and burst, we have finally started to really see the effects of the internet. Thanks to technology, the young are doing things which are impossible in our parents age. With technology, they are recording and creating their own music and video CDs. Instant messenging allows people to interact from one end of the world to the other. Online gaming allows groups of strangers to interact with one another. This globalization opens up new available markets and opportunities. Our young has got to realize and capitalize on this to continue being on the forefront.