1.
The Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project
__________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
231
Forest
Street,
Babson
Park,
MA
02457
USA
disen@babson.edu
+1
(781)
239-­‐6290
Building
an
Entrepreneurial
Society
in
Italy1
Small
Business
is
the
Problem
to
be
Solved:
Growing
Businesses
are
the
Solution
Daniel
Isenberg,
Professor
of
Entrepreneurship
Practice,
Babson
Global
Executive
Director,
Babson
Entrepreneurship
Ecosystem
Project,
October
14,
2012
Three
months
ago
quite
by
coincidence,
I
discovered
that
10
of
my
former
students
from
Harvard
and
Babson
over
the
past
7
years
have
started
ventures
from
scratch
which
have
created
over
2000
jobs
and
well
over
$1
billion
in
wealth.
One
is
an
online
gaming
company
in
Latin
America,
one
is
an
outsourcing
company
in
India,
one
is
a
biotech
company
in
Israel,
one
is
a
direct
insurance
company
in
Japan
that
went
public
last
year,
and
one
is
a
media
company
in
Silicon
Valley
that
was
just
bought
by
Google
for
a
reported
$250
million.
These
examples
of
extraordinary
growth
have
all
occurred
during
the
worst
recession
we
have
seen
in
our
lifetimes,
a
recession
that
has
brought
some
of
the
world’s
biggest
economies
to
the
edge
of
bankruptcy,
and
it
is
not
over
yet.
This
extraordinary
growth
is
what
I
call
entrepreneurship:
the
creation
and
capture
of
extraordinary
value
using
brains,
and
hard
work,
often
going
against
conventional
wisdom.
This
extraordinary
value
is
being
created
at
the
very
same
time
that
our
economists
and
our
political
leaders
from
Italy
to
the
US
are
debating
fiercely
on
whether
stimulus
or
austerity,
whether
integration
or
autonomy,
will
create
prosperity.
This
extraordinary
value
creation
is
taking
place
at
the
same
time
that
leaders
from
the
Middle
East
are
all
quite
understandably
worried
about
the
looming
tidal
wave
of
joblessness,
estimated
by
some
to
reach
a
100-­‐million-­‐job
deficit
in
just
a
few
more
years.
So
it’s
ironic,
isn’t
it,
that
right
under
our
noses,
under
the
radar,
while
the
great
leaders
of
great
nations
are
expending
great
effort
to
create
growth,
these
entrepreneurs
and
thousands
like
them
are
actually
doing
it;
they
are
not
waiting,
they
are
simply
growing.
They
did
not
get
their
ideas
from
professors
or
governments
or
the
EU
or
consulting
companies
or
from
experts.
They
did
not
take
a
penny
of
public
funding.
Nor
is
anyone
of
them
from
a
wealthy
family
or
have
a
name
that
magically
opens
doors.
These
are
people
just
like
you
and
me,
just
like
the
person
sitting
next
to
you.
They
are
everyone.
These
entrepreneurial
ventures
are
surprising,
and
that
indeed
is
what
entrepreneurship
does:
it
surprises
us.
____________
But
I
have
another
surprise,
one
that
may
make
us
feel
uncomfortable
because
it
also
goes
against
conventional
wisdom.
These
entrepreneurs
never
view
themselves
as
small.
They
never
see
themselves
as
SMEs
(small
and
medium
enterprises).
In
fact,
when
I
talk
with
them,
they
find
the
term
“small”
distasteful.
If
you
want
to
offend
them,
then
call
them
small
businesses
or
SMEs.
Rather
they
see
themselves
as
big
companies
in
the
making.
They
are
going
to
big
and
powerful
enough
to
sell
to
the
big
companies,
they
are
going
to
compete
with
the
big
companies,
and
they
are
going
to
buy
the
big
companies.
The
concept
of
small
is
anathema.
One
of
them
says,
“Think
big;
thinking
small
is
a
crime.”
I
don’t
believe
that
thinking
small
is
a
crime,
but
thinking
small
does
not
drive
growth.
Thinking
big
drives
growth.
Thinking
small
has
its
place
in
poverty
alleviation
which
is
important
of
course,
but
thinking
big
is
what
drives
economies
forward.
1
Address
given
October
14,
2012
at
the
ceremony
of
the
Award
of
the
Gold
Medal
of
the
Pio
Manzu
Center,
Rimini,
Italy.

2.
The Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project
__________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
231
Forest
Street,
Babson
Park,
MA
02457
USA
disen@babson.edu
+1
(781)
239-­‐6290
I
have
heard
it
said
in
the
past
few
days
here
in
Rimini
that
small
companies
are
the
backbone
of
the
Italian
economy
and
I
have
heard
similar
statements
in
almost
every
one
of
the
20
or
so
countries
I
have
consulted
to,
including
the
US.
This
is
wrong:
Somebody
has
been
telling
you
the
wrong
thing.
Small
companies
are
not
the
backbones
of
any
economy,
and
if
they
are
then
we
are
in
bad
need
of
a
chiropractor.
Ambitiously
growing
companies
are
the
backbones
of
a
healthy
economy.
The
research
on
this
is
getting
clearer
all
the
time.
Small
companies
without
growth
are
the
problem
to
be
solved;
they
are
net
job
destroyers,
not
net
job
creators.
Let
me
repeat
that
to
be
very
clear:
small
companies
are
the
problem
to
be
solved.
We
need
growing
companies.
We
need
growing
entrepreneurs
with
big
ambitions
and
big
visions.
This
ambition,
these
big
visions,
drive
prosperity,
innovation,
and
quality
of
life.
____________
Can
that
happen
in
Italy?
It
can
and
it
does
and
it
is
happening.
I
have
no
doubt
that
it
can
be
much
greater
and
happen
much
faster.
The
human
capital
is
here.
The
success
stories
are
here.
The
reputational
capital
is
here.
The
financial
capital
is
here:
It
takes
very
little
money
to
create
the
growing
ventures
I
am
talking
about,
if
you
unleash
the
entrepreneurial
spirit
that
runs
so
deeply.
It
takes
commitment
and
understanding,
not
money.
I
also
have
no
doubt,
that
without
these
entrepreneurs
breaking
loose,
economic
prosperity
will
remain
elusive.
I
have
been
asked
to
give
advice
to
the
Italian
leaders
and
here
are
some
suggestions
based
on
our
work
around
the
world:
1. Get
clear
about
the
difference
between
small
companies
and
entrepreneurs.
Be
clear
that
venture
growth
is
the
top
priority,
not
small
enterprise.
That
is
not
as
simple
as
it
sounds
because
it
requires
a
change
in
mindset.
Don’t
glorify
small;
celebrate
growth,
not
stagnation.
2. Help
foster
conditions
targeted
to
the
very
best,
to
the
most
talented,
the
most
ambitious,
the
hungriest
for
achievement
and
success.
If
you
serve
them
well,
everything
else
will
take
care
of
itself,
and
there
will
be
more
dignified
jobs
and
prosperity
for
all.
Entrepreneurial
achievement
is
democratizing,
and
entrepreneurship
is
the
best
equal
opportunity
employer
there
is.
3. Don’t
spoil
them:
these
entrepreneurs
know
that
easy
money
from
the
bosom
of
government
is
unhealthy
and
distorts
markets;
they
are
looking
to
prove
themselves
only
in
the
marketplace.
To
make
good
wine,
as
you
in
Italy
know
better
than
I
do,
you
need
to
stress
the
roots.
Entrepreneurship
becomes
strong
in
the
face
of
adversity
and
some
stress.
4. Removing
obstacles
is
much
more
important
than
creating
incentives.
You
have
so
much
native
entrepreneurial
spirit
that
mostly
you
need
to
get
out
of
the
way.
Mostly
you
should
invest
in
creating
a
fair
and
transparent
system,
in
and
of
itself
not
a
simple
task.
Why
not
ask
entrepreneurs
how
to
do
that;
they
will
tell
you.
Listen
to
them,
not
just
to
the
economists
and
professors.
5. Governments
cannot
and
should
not
pick
winning
companies
or
select
winning
sectors
or
winning
opportunities.
Entrepreneurs
are
good
at
sniffing
out
the
opportunities,
usually
where
the
rest
of
us
think
there
are
none,
and
if
they
are
not
yet
good
enough,
let
them
learn,
through
intelligent
trial
and
error.
6. At
the
federal
level
what
you
can
do,
in
addition
to
modeling
good
governance
and
transparency,
is
to
foster
a
culture
of
meritocracy,
increase
labor
flexibility
and
liberalize
bankruptcy
laws.
It
is
becoming
clear
from
experience
around
the
world
that
if
you
make
it
structurally
easy
to
fail,
you
will
be
amazed
at
how
many
more
will
try
to
succeed.
7. Finally,
nations
are
only
of
limited
usefulness
is
fostering
entrepreneurship
ecosystems.
Around
the
world,
entrepreneurship
occurs
in
very
geographically
concentrated
pockets.
So
encourage
the
mayors
here
of
Rimini
and
Bologna
and
elsewhere,
along
with
their
private
leaders,
local

3.
The Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project
__________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
231
Forest
Street,
Babson
Park,
MA
02457
USA
disen@babson.edu
+1
(781)
239-­‐6290
entrepreneurs
and
family
businesses,
the
universities
and
the
foundations,
to
band
together
to
foster
the
culture,
the
mindset,
the
regulations,
the
capital
system,
and
the
entrepreneurship
education.
Entrepreneurship
is
transcendent.
It
spans
the
globe’s
almost
200
nations
and
all
of
our
spoken
languages.
It
can
be
a
force
for
global
understanding,
and
even
peace,
because
entrepreneurs
around
the
world
speak
the
same
language.
Like
art
and
music
and
literature,
entrepreneurship
is
part
of
the
human
experience.
It
transcends
races,
religion,
age,
and
gender.
Victor
Hugo
once
wrote
that
there
is
no
army
as
powerful
as
an
idea
whose
time
has
come.
Entrepreneurship
is
an
idea
whose
time
has
come.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Daniel
Isenberg
is
a
Babson
Global
professor
of
Management
Practice
and
the
founding
executive
director
of
the
Babson
Entrepreneurship
Ecosystem
Project
(BEEP),
the
global
action
research
subsidiary
of
Babson
College,
the
world
leader
in
entrepreneurship
education.
BEEP
creates
projects
around
the
world
to
foster
substantially
greater
levels
of
entrepreneurship
in
specific
regions.
For
more
information,
visit
www.entrepreneurial-­‐revolution.com
and
www.facebook.com/entrepreneurial.revolution
or
contact
Dr.
Isenberg
at
revolution@babson.edu.
Daniel
Isenberg
has
a
Ph.D.
in
social
psychology
from
Harvard
University.