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General Secretary of the Hellenic Association of Young Entrepreneurs in Athens Yunanistan Genç İşadamları Derneği (HAYE) Genel Sekreteri Entrepreneurs: The Power of Change Entrepreneurs have been the guiding force in some of the 20th century's most revolutionary innovations: the airplane, the radio, the computer, the automobile and prefab housing, to name a few. We can even look at significant events in history that have entrepreneurial links. Lindbergh's flights, climbing Mount Everest, Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World, or even the Erie Canal. All these have strong threads of innovation. Specifically, new opportunities for entrepreneurs result from a shrinking global market, a technology revolution, demographic changes and communication networks such as the Internet. Risk-takers look for change, respond to it and exploit the opportunity industries are evolving and transforming at a puzzling pace. For instance, look at the communications segment. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners; it will take the Internet only five years to reach 50 million users. Many of the innovations of the past involved entrepreneurs who brought us new products and services when larger companies lacked the vision to bring innovations to market. Entrepreneurs are visionary. Many computer technologies were pioneered by IBM, which had the patents, scientists, and the research and development teams. But the minicomputer market was created by entrepreneurs at Digital Equipment Corp. and the computer workstation by entrepreneurs at Sun Microsystems. IBM had the lead in technology, but not the entrepreneurial catalyst. Innovation does not only involve technology. It can represent unique distribution strategies (L.L. Bean and Amazon.com), pricing strategies (Home Depot and Sam's Club) or convenience (McDonald's and Starbucks). Entrepreneurs have created whole new industries that affect our daily lives. Think of new industries that did not exist a generation ago: personal computing, voice mail, cellular phones, fast oil changes, Internet shopping, superstores and digital entertainment. The rapid development of the entrepreneurial economy has helped soften the pain of disappearing jobs. Since 1980, the United States has added 34 million new jobs, while Fortune 500 companies lost more than 5 million. In telecommunications, AT&T lost 207,000 jobs in the late '80s and early '90s, but new companies like MCI, Sprint and Lucent created more than 202,000 new jobs. Likewise, Sears and Kmart lost 196,000 jobs, while entrepreneurial Wal-Mart gained 624,000. Future successful economies will be those where established industries are able to quickly adjust to changes in the global environment. Entrepreneurs see and make ways to make our economy more adaptable. Their businesses are not run "the way it's always been done." Small entrepreneurial companies are not traditional marketers. They think globally rather than regionally. They view the world as their marketplace and are as comfortable selling their products Down Under as they are down the street. Companies with fewer than 500 employees make up nearly 97 percent of all exporting firms. In the United States, about 600,000 to 800,000 new businesses are started each year. These entrepreneurial companies do not follow the old ways. Some entrepreneurial companies, and e-commerce businesses, cluster around universities. Other entrepreneurs stay close by to take advantage of venture capital, knowledgeable workers and the ability to collaborate with others in the field. Entrepreneurs must become one of the most dynamic forces in European and global economy. They are driving the technology boom, which is itself driving much of the world's economic growth. This makes entrepreneurs very important from a macroeconomic perspective. They have, a major impact on the economy as internationalization of business becomes even more widespread, this impact will be felt even more deeply. Entrepreneurs are usually first off the blocks in spotting the opportunities opened up by some sort of change. Small companies can be excruciatingly vulnerable to turbulence in the marketplace. At the same time, entrepreneurs are usually first off the blocks in spotting the opportunities opened up by some sort of change, whether or not they see it as part of a trend. Twenty years ago not many people in the business world were familiar with the term outsourcing. As large companies began farming out more and more of the work they had once done themselves, however, they created huge new market niches. Tens of thousands of start-ups rushed to fill them. Entrepreneurial companies. Every new company is in effect a high-stakes bet on the future: somebody is investing a lot of time and money on the gamble that there will be a market for whatever he or she is selling. If you see a cluster of companies exploring some new business niche, it's reasonable to think that their founders know something the rest of us don't. Even with all these data, of course, it's tough to outline the future -- too much remains unpredictable. How many forecasters a decade ago, say, foresaw the impact that the Internet would have? Still, no assessment of the state of small business would be complete without a glance ahead. The world of small companies is constantly changing. The job of the entrepreneur is to figure out what might be around the next bend in the road. Entrepreneurs in London, Amsterdam and Zurich have access to the same superior educational and networking opportunities as their entrepreneurial counterparts around the globe. The entrepreneurial landscape is greatly expanding, and we're seeing a surge of interest from young business owners all over Europe. Young Entrepreneurs Associations members are under the age of 40, and are the founders, co-founders, owners or controlling shareholders of companies 33 years old. Member revenues worldwide range from a minimum of (US) $1 Million and climb to more than (US) $1 Billion. ANDREAS STEFANIDIS: “GİRİŞİMCİLER: DEĞİŞİMİN GÜCÜ” Girişimci, bir şirketin risklerini organize eden, yöneten ve üstlenen kişidir. Günümüzde bu tür kişiler için birçok fırsat vardır. Girişimciler, teknoloji devriminin yarattığı sürekli ve hızlı değişimin her geçen gün yarattığı fırsatlardan yararlanmaktadır. Özellikle global pazarın küçülmesi, teknoloji devrimi, demografik değişiklikler ve internet gibi iletişim ağları girişimciler için yeni fırsatlar oluşturmaktadır. Risk alan kişiler, değişimi arar, değişime yanıt verir ve ortaya çıkan fırsatlardan faydalanır. Örneğin iletişim sektöründe radyonun 50 milyon dinleyiciye ulaşması için 38 yıl geçmesi gerekti, ancak internetin 50 milyon kullanıcıya ulaşması için sadece beş yıl geçmesi gerekecek. Geçmişte yapılan yeniliklerin birçoğu, büyük şirketlerin yenilikleri piyasaya sunma vizyonuna sahip olmadığı bir dönemde yeni ürün ve hizmetleri piyasaya süren girişimciler tarafından gerçekleştirilmiştir. Ancak yenilik sadece teknoloji anlamına gelmez. Benzersiz dağıtım stratejileri (L.L. Bean ve Amazon.com), fiyatlandırma stratejileri (Home Depot ve Sam’s Club) veya rahatlık (McDonald’s ve Starbucks) anlamına da gelir. Girişimciler, bir trendin parçası olsun veya olmasın, değişimin yarattığı fırsatları görme konusunda ilk davranırlar. Girişim ekonomisinin hızlı gelişmesi, işsizlik sonucu ortaya çıkan acıları da hafifletmiştir. 1980’den beri ABD’de 34 milyon yeni iş imkanı doğmuş olmasına rağmen Fortune 500 şirketleri 5 milyon kişiyi işten çıkartmıştır. Gelecekte, köklü endüstrilerin küresel ortamdaki değişikliklere hızla ayak uydurabildiği ekonomiler başarılı olacaktır. Girişimciler ekonominin daha esnek olmasını sağlayan yöntemleri görür ve uygulamaya geçirir. Küçük girişimci şirketler geleneksel pazarlama yöntemlerini kullanmaz. Bölgesel değil, küresel düzeyde düşünürler. Piyasaları olarak bütün dünyayı görürler, dünyanın bir ucunda satış yapmakla sokağın bir ucunda satış yapmak arasında bir fark görmezler. Bütün ihracat firmalarının %97’si, eleman sayısı 500’ün altında olan şirketlerden oluşmaktadır. Genel olarak girişimcilikte büyük gelişmeler görülmektedir; Avrupa’nın her yerindeki genç işadamları bu konuya giderek daha çok ilgi göstermektedir. Genç İşadamları Derneği’nin üyeleri 40 yaşın altındadır ve çeşitli şirketlerin kurucuları veya çoğunluk hissedarlarıdır. |