Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 oct 2013

Students have natural entrepreneurial instincts and traits. While pursuing education they explore and participate in mini entrepreneurial activities. University education and environment can create an entrepreneurial ecosystem that hones and further these traits and skills and provide them with tools and opportunities to self-direct their education and experiment with their ideas. Educational institutions can become entrepreneurship facilitators by providing early stage services to entrepreneurial ideas of students and ensure that these ideas are prototyped and tested for commercial viability and business potential before letting student entrepreneurs fully venture into the market. Read on...

The Globe and Mail: Why students are natural entrepreneurs
Author: Zachary Strong

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 oct 2013

Entrepreneurship could be worth a try for fresh graduates in the trough state of economy when the job opportunities are not lucrative. According to Professor Andy Klein of American University of Sharjah, a bad job market is actually a good scenario for budding entrepreneurs but they should be prepared for risks inherent in pursuing the venture and adverse consequences if it fails. He suggests that entrepreneurs should also consider bringing in experienced personnel to take advantage of their skills and expertise for their venture's success. A better developed entrepreneurial ecosystem can assist in mitigating the risks for student and fresh graduate entrepreneurs. Read on...

Gulf News: Entrepreneurship a viable career option for students
Author: Jerusha Sequeira

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 09 oct 2013

'Side-project entrepreneurship' is not a new concept but with spread of internet based technologies like social media etc it has the potential to transform the work dynamics of individuals. Side-project entrepreneurs pursue their personal projects and ventures alongside their full-time jobs. Balancing the work-load and been able to do justice to both responsibilities can be challenging. Article shares a side-project entrepreneur's views and experiences and how pursuing a start-up with a day job is a good proposition for those with entrepreneurial mind. He suggests - Experiment and act on the idea in free time; Explore your abilities and learn your limits; Build your autonomy in decision making; Enhance your creativity by involving yourself in innovative pursuits that will also be beneficial for the full-time work. Read on...

Geek Wire: The side-project entrepreneur: 4 reasons to try a startup without quitting your day job
Author: Chet Kittleson

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 06 oct 2013

Prof. Enrique M. Soriano of the Ateneo Graduate School of Business in Philippines, explores the must-have entrepreneurial traits in individuals running their family businesses. He suggests - Know your business partners and suppliers and call them by their first names; Build strong relationships with family members by letting them know that you care; Make friends with similar business interests and goals; Consider your competitors as human beings and interact accordingly even if they don't further your business; Be persistent and consider failures as learning experiences; Manage creatively and support teamwork by understanding diverse nature of employees, family members, suppliers and customers; Imbibe meritocracy among family members while discussing the topic of family business continuity and succession planning; Ensure good planning and monitoring and consider family business as an intellectual property asset; Value your family business brand; Accept and support disagreements to maintain democratic style of functioning. Read on...

Sun Star: Most valued entrepreneurial traits in the family business
Author: Enrique M. Soriano

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 11 aug 2013

The 10th Commonwealth Women Affairs Ministers Meeting (CWAMM) was recently held in Bangladesh. The theme of the meeting was 'Women's Leadership for Enterprise'. Gender equality and barriers to women entrepreneurship were among the various issues that were discussed in the meeting. According to the Secretary-General of CWAMM, Kamalesh Sharma, the new Commonwealth Charter considers gender equality and women's entrepreneurship as basic human rights and fundamental to development. Access to credit and markets to women entrepreneurs has economic benefits and women leadership is an important element of a sustainable economy. The article also explores the various aspects of women entrepreneurship and empowerment in Bangladesh. Read on...

The Financial Express: Women entrepreneurs deserve better
Author: Rahman Jahangir

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 03 aug 2013

According to a study conducted by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in 2012, the entrepreneurial activity among males and females was almost equal in sub-Saharan Africa while it was higher for females in Ecuador, Ghana, Nigeria, Panama and Thailand. Access to capital particularly through 'microfinance' is considered to be the main reason for this growth of female entrepreneurs. This phenomenon of the 'third billion' - a billion women from mostly emerging markets joining the workforce in the next decade - have a significant potential to impact the global economy in near future. Experts identify four main challenges for women - access to education and training; access to legal protection; access to capital and access to market. Read on...

Terra News: Women Entrepreneurs Becoming Force in the Developing World
Author: Sarah J. Robbins

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 jul 2013

While speaking at the UNGA (UN General Assembly) Thematic Debate on Entrepreneurship for Development, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon emphasized the importance of entrepreneurship and urged governments to build entrepreneurial ecosystem and encourage, educate and empower young entrepreneurs. He mentions that there will be 73 million unemployed in the global economy this year and an estimated 425 million youths will join the workforce between 2016 and 2030, thus creating a challenging situation of providing jobs to about half a billion people. According to him entrepreneurship can help to overcome this crisis as it will transform these young women and men to become innovators, employers and job creators. Other officials also suggested participation of private sector and civil society in addition to governments to collaboratively overcome this global human resource challenge. Read on...

Global Times: Governments urged to support young entrepreneurs to help tackle global job crisis
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 jul 2013

Experts in technology investing share their philosophy and approach to make investments in technology start-ups and innovations which they term as 'revolutionary tech investing'. Although their main focus for investment advisory is for the Australian market but they don't intend to limit their approach to specifically one market considering the globally connected financial markets. According to them their methodology for investing focuses on those technology stocks and companies that are capable of revolutionizing the marketplace with extraordinary breakthroughs and be global leader in their field. Their current sectors for investment are computational technologies and biological technologies with companies in biotechnology, robotics, molecular technology, computing etc. Their other main area of consideration is related to development in space technologies and companies that focus on commercializing the space and the subsequent creation of space industry. Read on...

Money Morning: Why Technology is the Most Exciting Industry in the World
Author: Callum Newman

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 21 jul 2013

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, explores the correlation between immigration and entrepreneurship, that results in the economic progress and prosperity of the US. He mentions that the passing of the current immigration reform bill in the Senate is a positive step in further strengthening the US national identity of welcoming immigrants that subsequently participate in entrepreneurial ventures for the benefit of the country. The bill intends to secure borders, legalize illegal immigrants, increase visas for high-skilled workers (mostly in science and technology), for low-skilled workers (in construction and hospitality), guest-worker program for immigrant farmworkers etc. According to Partnership for a New American Economy, as of 2011, upto 42% of Fortune 500 companies based in US that account for 10 million jobs worldwide, were started by immigrants or their children and between 1990 and 2005, 25% of the highest-growth companies in US were founded by foreign-born entrepreneurs. The bill would now go to the Congress for consideration. Read on...

The Washington Post: Immigration promotes entrepreneurship and prosperity
Author: Alina Tugend

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 20 jul 2013

Due to economic recession most US and UK firms across various sectors have reduced their innovation activities during 2008-2010, say experts. UK Innovation Survey of 2011 mentions that only 31% of companies continued innovation activities during this period. But the shift towards innovation is now visible. In May 2013 Accenture report it is mentioned that of 519 companies (revenues more than US$ 100 million) from US, UK and France, 70% have innovation among their top five priority. According to research firm Battelle, in US R&D funding for 2013 is estimated to be 2.6% (almost same as 2012) while for UK it is 1.84% of GDP (also same as 2012). UK saw a rise of 8% in innovation spend in 2011 as compared to 2010. Technology and pharmaceutical industries are traditionally most R&D intensive industries. According to experts, in the post recession scenario both technology and healthcare companies have modified their concepts of how innovations are achieved. In pharma they have moved from investing in many drugs model to a more focused selective model as a result of better scientific understanding and informed decision making. While in technology the focus is on finding more innovative ways to utilize the inventions that have been achieved earlier. Moreover consumer-focused sectors are currently more innovation active and using novel concepts to rejuvenate their businesses. Online retail sector in UK is undergoing an innovative shift with threat from companies like Amazon as main driver. Read on...

fundweb: Fund managers look for fresh wave of innovation
Author: Helen Burnett-Nichols

Latest             ⊲ Newer Posts             Entrepreneurship & Innovation             Older Posts ⊳             Last