Helping entrepreneurs flourish

Helping entrepreneurs flourish:
Rethinking the drivers of entrepreneurship
Written by:

Contents
About the research 02-03
Executive summary 04-05
The challenge of supporting entrepreneurship 06-09
How existing businesses can help create entrepreneurs 10-11
Formal education and entrepreneurship: 12-15
a glass half-full
Making education entrepreneurial 16-17
Case Study: The National Centre for Entrepreneurship 18
in Education: Getting the culture right
Conclusion: A more entrepreneurial 20
society’s wider benefits

Helping entrepreneurs flourish: Rethinking the drivers of entrepreneurship
02
About the research
This report investigates the
complex issue of encouraging
entrepreneurship, and in particular
the contribution that education and
business can and should make
towards achieving that goal. To shed
light on these topics and compare
the perspectives of potential and
established entrepreneurs, the EIU
conducted two global surveys. For
the first survey we contacted 420
individuals aged 18 to 25, mostly
students and recent graduates.
Of these, 31 per cent are from the
Asia-Pacific region, 30 per cent
from Europe, 29 per cent from North
America, and the remainder from
the Middle East, Africa and Latin
America. The 200 respondents to
the second survey are entrepreneurs
aged between 18 and 69, with an
average age of 44. The geographical
spread is similar, with 30 per cent
each from Europe, North America
and the Asia-Pacific region, and the
rest from the Middle East and Africa.
Helping entrepreneurs flourish: Rethinking the drivers
of entrepreneurship is a UK Trade & Investment (UKTI)
report, written by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
In addition, the EIU conducted
seven interviews with entrepreneurs
and other experts in the field as well
as substantial desk research. Our
thanks are due to the following for
their time and insight:
• Nicolas Brusson, co-founder
and COO, BlaBlaCar
• David Frost, executive
chairman, National Centre for
Entrepreneurship in Education
• David Gorodyansky, co-founder
and CEO, AnchorFree
• Rob Law, founder and CEO, Trunki
• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder
and CEO, Biocon
• Narayana Murthy, founder and
executive chairman, Infosys
• Professor Yong Zhao, University
of Oregon
The report was written by
Dr Paul Kielstra and edited by
Zoe Tabary and Victoria van Lennep.
29% 30%

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03
31%
30%
30%
30%
10% 10%
Geographic breakdown of people surveyed
18-25 Survey (420 respondents)
Entrepreneurs Survey
(200 respondents, average age 44)

04
Many would-be entrepreneurs,
however, will fall by the wayside.
Although entrepreneurship
inevitably involves difficulties and
a large number of failures, too
often their efforts are hampered by
unnecessary barriers.
This report looks at how to foster
an entrepreneurial mindset both
through education systems and
business experience, and what
makes entrepreneurs thrive. Drawing
on seven in-depth interviews of
entrepreneurs and other experts,
substantial desk research and
two surveys – one of established
entrepreneurs and another of young
people aged 18 to 25 – its key
findings include the following.
Entrepreneurship is a highly attractive
job option for young people.
In the global survey of young people,
30 per cent say that their preferred
occupation by 2020 would be running
their own business – the most
common choice for that question.
More generally, 75 per cent are open
to starting a company one day, and
a further 7 per cent have already
done so. A significant proportion
of student respondents look to
running one’s own business as
a source of personal satisfaction
in their work (37 per cent) and a
way to create something new /
innovative (35 per cent). Part of this
willingness or desire to become an
entrepreneur, however, may be a lack
of understanding of the difficulties:
over half (57 per cent) of respondents
running their own business say that
aspiring entrepreneurs underestimate
how hard it will be.
Executive summary
The roughly 10 per cent of the world’s adults who are entrepreneurs have,
for some time, been recognised as significant drivers of economic growth.
In a world where numerous countries are struggling to tame unemployment,
their potential as job creators will make them all the more important.
A significant
proportion of student
respondents look to
running one’s own
business as a source of
personal satisfaction
in their work.

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05
Education has some positive influence
on entrepreneurial success, but this
is currently limited.
Those surveyed for this report have
seemingly contradictory views
about the role of education in their
development. Among entrepreneurs,
for example, 79 per cent say their
university education aided them to
start their own business. However,
very few cite their primary and
secondary schooling as a top
influence in helping them launch their
business. Similarly, nearly half of
the 18-25-year-olds surveyed think
an academic degree is important
to entrepreneurial success (with
that share rising to two-thirds in
North America), but just 19 per cent
say their university is effective at
giving students the skills they need
to start a business. Successful
entrepreneurs, then, can make use
of education, but traditional teaching
methods risk undermining attitudes
conducive to entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneur-friendly education
requires a shift not only in how
schools and universities teach,
but also in what they teach.
Experts interviewed for this report
recommend a greater focus on
problem-solving, communication
and networking skills. Rather than
just helping those who may one day
start a business at the expense of
the rest of society, these so-called
21st-century skills are increasingly
being promoted within educational
circles and by business as beneficial
for all students.
Existing entrepreneurs are crucial
in developing aspiring ones through
mentorship and employment-based
learning.
Entrepreneurs believe that having
mentors who have built up their own
firms is vital for success. The growing
number of mentorship schemes is
testament to the value of such activity.
The inevitable constraints of running
a business can restrict the time
available for external mentoring. Even
more helpful, therefore, is running a
company in ways that instil and develop
entrepreneurship in employees:
81 per cent of entrepreneurs say that
they acquired more entrepreneurial
skills through work experience than
through education.
Personal qualities matter greatly for
success, but entrepreneurs are not
simply born.
Respondents from both surveys
for this report rank passion and
determination as the most important
attributes for entrepreneurial
success. Such qualities are difficult
or impossible to teach outright –
entrepreneurs certainly cannot be
manufactured to a template – which
helps to explain why those who have
started businesses are more likely
to say entrepreneurs are born rather
than made. On the other hand, those
interviewed for this study point to the
numerous other factors needed to
become successful. Policy choices
and the cultural environment can
clearly support entrepreneurship
by helping aspiring entrepreneurs
understand what they need to know
to avoid some of the many pitfalls of
starting a business.
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Entrepreneurs believe
that having mentors
who have built up
their own firms is vital
for success.

06
The challenge of supporting
entrepreneurship
Although there are no further data
available, extrapolating by using
the surveyed states’ proportion of
global GDP yields a rough figure of
nearly half a billion entrepreneurs
worldwide, or over 10 per cent of
the adult population.
Any phenomenon of this size
is complex and multi-faceted,
but research in recent decades
has made several aspects clear,
not least entrepreneurship’s
substantial economic importance.
A comprehensive 2013 analysis of
World Bank data from 125 countries
over eight years is only the most
recent to find that entrepreneurship
levels have a significant positive
impact on GDP per head and
employment.1
Such figures have for
some time interested governments
in promoting this potentially
powerful engine of growth.
Entrepreneurship, even narrowly defined as the economic act of starting one’s
own business, is ubiquitous. In 2012 the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
(GEM), a multinational academic research partnership, estimated that in the
54 countries its research then covered, 388 million people were either starting
new businesses or operating businesses they had recently launched.
Entrepreneurship is also global,
according to the World Bank’s most
recent report that ranks economies
on their ease of doing business. It
found New Zealand to be the easiest
place to start a small and medium-
sized enterprise, ahead of Canada,
Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong.
The US and the UK rank in 20th and
28th place, respectively.
Looking ahead, Professor Yong Zhao
of the University of Oregon, author
of World Class Learners: Educating
Creative and Entrepreneurial Students,
cites developments which make
further growth in entrepreneurship
absolutely essential: “We have a world
population growing very fast; a lot
of people are living longer, working
longer, and occupying more jobs;
we have huge youth unemployment
problems; and technology has
replaced a lot of low-level jobs.
The only thing that can help is more
entrepreneurs who can create jobs.”
Those looking to boost the number
of entrepreneurs have, potentially,
a highly receptive audience. In the
survey of 18-25-year-olds 30 per cent
say that their preferred occupation
by 2020 would be running their own
business – the most common choice
for that question, ahead of “working
in business”. Their sector of choice
would be technology (cited by
41 per cent of respondents), ahead
of media and entertainment
(24 per cent) and retailing
(19 per cent). The attractions
of entrepreneurship vary widely.
The most common is the desire for
financial independence which one’s
own business can bring (44 per cent),
but non-financial attractions such
as personal satisfaction in general
(37 per cent) and having an outlet for
one’s creative ideas (35 per cent) are
also important.
1: Douglas Cumming et al., “The Economic Impact of Entrepreneurship: Comparing International Datasets”,
manuscript December 31st 2013 (forthcoming) in Corporate Governance: An International Review.

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07
In 2020, which of the following would be your preferred occupation? (18-25 Survey)
Work in business
28%
Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit 2014.
Run my own
business
(ie, become an
entrepreneur)
30%
Other
(please specify)
7%
Work in
government
14%
Work in a charitable
organisation
12%
Full time
parent/carer
3%
Don’t know/not
sure
6%
What has been, or would be, your main motivations for doing so? Select up to two. (18-25 Survey)
Financial
independence
44%
Personal
satisfaction in
my work
37%
Leaving a legacy
10%
Ability to be my
own boss
31%
Being able to
create something
new / innovative
35%
Making a positive
impact on others
22%
Other
(please specify)
1%

08
companies then were not willing
to hire a female brew master, the
profession for which she had trained.
The point is not to make a dubious
defence of the economic merits of
sexism, but to highlight the central
importance to entrepreneurship of
factors that policy can address often
only obliquely at best. In particular, the
role of personal qualities, especially
in the face of the inevitable adversity
of starting a company, has led to the
question of whether entrepreneurs
are born or made – a point on which
the 18-25-year-olds in the survey
are nearly evenly split and where
entrepreneurs are more likely to say
“born” (41 per cent to 26 per cent).
Entrepreneurs and experts
interviewed in-depth for this
study, though, are more nuanced
about this issue, pointing out that
circumstances and environment
can do much to affect degrees of
entrepreneurial success or failure.
Recent academic research, has
found that stronger property rights
protection correlates with higher
numbers of small entrepreneurs
being willing to grow their firms
into the larger companies which
produce employment.2
The issue
for those wishing to promote
entrepreneurship, then, is finding the
most effective interventions to create
an environment in which it is more
likely to thrive.
One area where change would be
particularly welcome is helping
potential and new entrepreneurs
become better informed about the
road they hope to travel. Failure is
endemic among new businesses:
in the UK and the US roughly half
of all start-ups fail within five years.
Part of this is inherent in what is
by its nature a risky activity, and it
is a valuable learning experience
that most entrepreneurs must
face. Nevertheless, finding ways
to reduce unnecessary failure has
clear benefits. Lack of preparation
or appreciation of what is involved in
starting a business is a widespread
problem. In the survey, 57 per cent
of entrepreneurs say that beginners
underestimate how hard it will be.
This, says Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw,
is symptomatic of a larger problem:
“Most entrepreneurs give up or fail
because they have not understood
what it takes.” David Gorodyansky,
co-founder and CEO of AnchorFree,
a US-based virtual private network
that allows users anonymous web
browsing, adds: “Everybody says
[that they want to be the next
famous entrepreneur], but nobody
realises what that actually means.
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone;
it should not be romanticised.”
Finding better ways to educate
potential entrepreneurs, both
before they start out and in the early
stages of their efforts, is therefore an
important potential focus for creating
an environment more conducive to
successful start-ups.
The nature of entrepreneurship,
however, makes its effective
promotion “a complex question”
in the words of Nicolas Brusson,
co-founder and COO of BlaBlaCar, a
service that connects people looking
for a ride with car owners. “We tend
in Europe to want to recreate Silicon
Valley, but it was never the result of
a mandate. It kind of just happened
because the environment was right:
it had the right mix of technology,
top universities, lawyers and
financial backers.”
The important role of individual
personality should also induce
wariness of seemingly easy answers.
Our survey of entrepreneurs found
that these individuals considered
passion to be the most important
attribute for success in starting a
business (cited by 50 per cent),
followed by determination and
creativity (both 46 per cent). Similarly,
young people put determination
(59 per cent) and passion (52 per
cent) as their first choices. Some
individuals may lose these qualities
as a result of bad experiences, but
as Rob Law, the founder and CEO of
Trunki, a maker of children’s luggage,
puts it: “You can’t teach passion.”
Moreover, barriers rather than
smooth pathways have more than
once resulted in the making of an
entrepreneur: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw,
founder and CEO of Biocon, one of
India’s largest life-sciences custom
research companies, recalls that she
initially started a business because
2: Jonathan Levie and Erkko Autio, “Regulatory burden, rule of law, and entry of strategic entrepreneurs:
an international panel study”, Journal of Management Studies, September 2011.

46%
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09
What would you say are the most important attributes for a successful entrepreneur? Select up to three
18-25 Survey
Entrepreneurs Survey
52% 50%
Passion
59%
Determination
36% 29%
Imagination
12% 17%
Strong academic skills/
educational background
30% 19%
Strong soft skills
(leadership, networking, etc)
14% 34%
High appetite for risk
36% 46%
Creativity
38% 30%
Ability to accept failure/learn
from mistakes
20%7%
Self sacrifice

10
Young people seem to concur: the
most frequently mentioned change
they would like to see in education is
better contact with the professional
world (47 per cent). This is not simply
about providing contacts who might
offer work: having a network and the
skills of knowing how one uses it are
critical to entrepreneurial success.
“Because they understand the need
for such support”, says David Frost,
who earlier in his career led the UK
Chamber of Commerce for a decade,
“in my experience, entrepreneurs are
willing to help out.” If anything, more
are getting involved. A recent Ernst
Young survey on entrepreneurship
in G20 countries found that the
availability of mentorship has even
been increasing in the last three
years.3
The practice has also gone
far beyond one-on-one help – which
remains common – to encompass
almost innumerable government-
supported and private schemes to
link those in need of advice with more
established businesspeople.
Looking back, substantial majorities
of those surveyed in this group wish
that they had had better access to
other entrepreneurs (selected by
64 per cent), others who could have
provided support (62 per cent),
and incubators or accelerators that
could have provided information and
guidance (71 per cent).
Indeed, it is difficult to overstate the
value of mentorship, especially for
new entrepreneurs. Rob Law says:
“It is vitally important to be able to
bounce ideas off people who have
been through similar experiences.
When I first started, I was mentored
through the Prince’s Trust [a UK-
based youth charity], and it helped
me find out what I wanted to do very
quickly, rather than just chasing my
tail.” David Gorodyansky similarly
recalls: “When I started AnchorFree,
I had no experience and I didn’t
know what I was doing. I just
knew I wanted to help the world
and impact a billion people. I got
a lot of mentorship and help from
many entrepreneurs.” This included
support from board members
of his company, which greatly
contributed to the firm’s success.
These can reach substantial scale
and sophistication. For example,
the recently launched National
Entrepreneurship Network Mentor
Platform of India’s Wadhwani
Foundation – an NGO which supports
entrepreneurship education in a wide
variety of forms – brings together
new and aspiring entrepreneurs from
across India with individuals from
its pool of 1,200 mentors who can
provide specific, detailed advice in
one-on-one or small group settings.
For many entrepreneurs, such activity
is about giving back. It also has
advantages, however, helping to
extend the networks on which even
mature entrepreneurs continue to
rely for success. The difficulty, says
Narayana Murthy, is usually time:
“Until I retired, I was busy ten hours
a day, six days a week, and did not
have time to mentor many people
until then.” Similarly, Kiran Mazumdar-
Shaw says that she has mentored a
few entrepreneurs and played a role in
about a dozen start-ups but, inevitably
“one’s bandwidth is limited”.
How existing businesses can help
create entrepreneurs
According to entrepreneurs looking back, the most valuable help was often
practical advice at the point of need from people who have been there before.
3: The EY G20 Entrepreneurship Barometer 2013.

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11
Therefore, a potentially even more
important contribution to the
entrepreneurial environment is how
businesses approach recruitment
and employment. Although
entrepreneurs are typically young,
at least some time working for
others is normally a key part of their
development. Of entrepreneurs
surveyed, 81 per cent say that
they acquired more entrepreneurial
skills through work experience than
education, and 70 per cent say
that having corporate experience
before becoming an entrepreneur is
preferable. That share is highest in
North America, with 78 per cent of
entrepreneurs advocating corporate
experience, compared with 57 per
cent and 67 per cent respectively
in Asia-Pacific and Western Europe.
Making entrepreneurship a part of
one’s own company culture can
therefore be a way of cultivating future
entrepreneurs. According to Nicolas
Brusson, for example, 80 per cent of
what is done [at BlaBlaCar] is based
on those patterns he observed in
earlier ventures. Now his company,
when recruiting, “selects people who
have an affinity for entrepreneurship,”
including a large number who had
already started their own companies
in the past. He describes the results
as “challenging but great”, with much
higher employee engagement and
ability to act autonomously. Not only
does this approach bring business
benefits, but the impact of an
entrepreneurial environment in which
to learn on the job can be profound.
The PayPal Mafia – a group of
individuals who worked with the
online payments business PayPal
when it was a start-up – have
famously gone on after leaving
to found a variety of companies,
including LinkedIn, Yelp and YouTube.
Business is a competitive world, but
an environment that is conducive
to entrepreneurship relies on those
who have gone before helping
new aspirants. Rather than an act
of altruism, however, such activity
brings existing entrepreneurs stronger
networks and potentially better
companies of their own.
Having corporate experience before becoming an entrepreneur is preferable (Entrepreneurs Survey)
70% Agree
19% Neither agree
nor disagree
11% Disagree

12
On the question of education, Kiran
Mazumdar-Shaw says: “I had a
very technically grounded higher
education. All that I do today has
been leveraged from that foundation.”
David Gorodyansky, by contrast,
who studied business, believes
that “nothing in my educational
background helped me start
AnchorFree.” These diametrically
opposed experiences may reflect
differences in personal histories,
but they are also emblematic of the
often hit-and-miss relationship that
currently exists between education
and entrepreneurship.
Our survey indicates that, on the
one hand, numerous entrepreneurs
have derived benefits from their
tertiary education: 79 per cent of
entrepreneurs say that it aided
them to start their own business –
a slightly higher figure than those
citing earlier professional experience
as a help (78 per cent). Many young
people are certainly hoping for
benefits as well: 49 per cent say that
an academic degree is important to
entrepreneurial success, and only
19 per cent disagree. Academic
research backs this up: a study
covering 20 years of American data
found a significant link between longer
time spent in education and average
income for entrepreneurs.4
However, 18-25-year-olds and
entrepreneurs are far from believing
that universities are delivering all
that they could. Only 19 per cent
of young people say their university
is very effective at giving the
academic knowledge needed
to start a business. Meanwhile,
78 per cent of those who have
started companies say education
systems need to give more support
to potential entrepreneurs.
What helps explain these
somewhat contradictory results
is that the benefits of education –
especially tertiary education – for
entrepreneurs tend to be indirect
rather than direct. Narayana Murthy,
founder and executive chairman of
Infosys, a provider of information
services and now India’s sixth-
largest publicly traded company,
notes that academic success gave
him the ability to work with, and
the confidence to compete with,
highly educated individuals. His
technical training further instilled
in him an appreciation of the value
of feedback and of simulation
exercises. These are not specific
business skills, but they were
essential to his company’s success.
Nicolas Brusson recalls that, when
he worked as a venture capitalist,
an analysis of his firm’s investments
showed that, while it did not actively
seek out entrepreneurs with an
impressive educational background,
most of the founders and CEOs of
companies in which it put money
had degrees from the top five to
ten universities in the country. In
that sense, he says, educational
achievement “matters, but it is not
the trigger” for success or attracting
investment. In fact, only 10 per cent
of entrepreneurs in the survey cite
having an academic degree as a key
requirement for investors.
Unfortunately, all too often these
indirect benefits from formal
education are accompanied by
elements which impede attitudes
conducive to starting a business.
Formaleducationandentrepreneurship:
a glass half-full
Another obvious potential source for the promotion of entrepreneurship
is the education system. Here, though, the results are mixed.
4: Mirjam van Praag et al., “Returns for Entrepreneurs vs. Employees: The Effect of Education and Personal Control
on the Relative Performance of Entrepreneurs vs. Wage Employees”, Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit,
Discussion Paper 4628, December 2009.
Entrepreneurship
education has grown
rapidly in recent
decades in many parts
of the globe.

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13
Professor Yong Zhao explains:
“In traditional education, success
requires a different set of skills
than those needed for being an
entrepreneur.” An emphasis on the
acquisition of a specific body of
knowledge and the ability to get a
right answer, rather than on solving
problems in new ways, creates a
mindset appropriate for an employee,
he believes. More important still, he
says: “Traditional education does
not encourage failure. We want
straight-A students all the time. We
don’t reward people,” when they take
risks but fail. Narayana Murthy also
thinks that in practice an advanced
formal education is not necessary
for entrepreneurship. Although it
gives “the ability to do more and
more and deeper and deeper
analysis, entrepreneurship is all about
synthesising solutions and walking the
road less or untravelled.” Education
systems are attempting to respond.
Entrepreneurship education has
grown rapidly in recent decades in
many parts of the globe, so that now
45 per cent of 18-25-year-olds in our
survey report that their universities
offer some form of entrepreneurship
education, a figure which varies little
by geography.
Providing academic content
relevant to entrepreneurs in
traditional courses holds out some
benefits. What most of those who
set up their own business wish
they had had when starting out, for
example, is better financial advice
(53 per cent), something which
could form an element of such a
course. That proportion rises to
63 per cent in the UK.
Merely treating entrepreneurship as
another subject, however, is likely to
only prove partially effective. Strong
academic skills are seen as an
important attribute for entrepreneurial
success by just 17 per cent of
entrepreneurs in our survey and
12 per cent of young respondents.
What Professor Zhao says of courses
at Chinese universities applies more
widely. All too often these become
limited offerings in a traditional
academic mould. More generally,
he adds: “Just because you can
teach an entrepreneurship course,
it doesn’t mean you can [make
people successful entrepreneurs].
We talk about teaching them, but it is
something we have to cultivate. It is a
paradigm issue.”

14AveragePISAScore
Perceived Entrepreneurship Ability
570
560
550
540
530
520
510
500
490
480
470
460
450
440
20 4010 15 25 35 45 55 6530 50 60 70
• Croatia
• Lithuania
• Poland
• Japan
• Portugal
• Slovenia
• Singapore
• Greece
• Czech Republic
•
Belgium
• UAE
• Hungary
• Germany
• Slovak Republic
• Chinese Taipei
• Spain
• France
• Switzerland
• United States
• Denmark
• Finland
• Russian Federation
• Sweden
• Netherlands
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• Ireland
• Norway
• Korea
• Latvia
Source: Yong Zhao, Associate Dean for Global Education, University of Oregon.
PISA 2009 maths scores vs perceived entrepreneurship capabilities

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15
Which of the following do you wish you had had more of when starting your own business?
Select all that apply (Entrepreneurs Survey)
Better financial advice
Better access to company
schemes when in education
Support from friends and family
Access at school or university
to practical information
on entrepreneurship and
networking events
Better access to public
funding schemes
Targeted courses at school /
university on entrepreneurship
Early-stage entrepreneurial
support such as incubators
and business accelerators
54%
35%
46%
35%
40%
20%
38%

16
Instead, individuals need a way to
put this information into a range of
contexts. As David Gorodyansky puts
it: “It’s time to evolve education from
just being information-driven to being
experience-driven and personalised.
If you are going to be an entrepreneur,
it’s a lot more important to understand
the world and different cultures,
people and mindsets.”
Even more important, say
entrepreneurs, is developing the
ability to make practical use of
information in new and innovative
ways, or, as Rob Law puts it:
“What to do with that information
when you’ve got it. In general,
we need to teach more creativity
and problem-solving techniques.”
Narayana Murthy agrees: “The first
requirement for all of us to become
more entrepreneurial is the ability to
relate what we learn in the classroom
to finding solutions to our problems
around us.” He believes that even
greater use of practical examples by
teachers in explaining formal ideas
would go some way in this direction.
An emphasis on using information
to solve problems, however, will
ultimately have little effect if the
goal remains to find a single right
answer. Narayana Murthy says: “Our
teachers should be encouraging
children to take more risks –
whether in sports or conducting
lab experiments, or solving more
difficult problems – so that they
realise there is nothing wrong in
failing. That is extremely important.”
A final area in which many
entrepreneurs wish educational
institutions could inculcate better
skills, largely through providing
practical experience, is networking.
One of the most frequently
mentioned options which those
surveyed wish they had had when
starting out is access at school or
university to practical information
on entrepreneurship and networking
events (selected by 35 per cent).
Similarly, the most frequently
mentioned change young people
would like to see in education is
better contact with the professional
world (47 per cent). This is not simply
about providing contacts who might
offer work: having a network and the
skills of knowing how to use it are
critical to entrepreneurial success.
According to entrepreneurs, a strong
network of contacts for mentoring is
the second most important factor for
their own business success (33 per
cent), after personal determination,
which tops the list for entrepreneurs
based in Western Europe (42 per cent),
particularly in the UK (53 per cent).
However, creating institutions that
inculcate abilities such as problem-
solving and networking, as well as
an understanding of the rewards
of risk and its dangers, will require
substantial changes of attitude and
approach within many educational
systems. In the words of a recent
European Commission report,
entrepreneurial skills “are difficult to
teach through traditional teaching
and learning practices in which
the learner tends to be a more or
less passive recipient”.5
The key,
as Britain’s National Centre for
Entrepreneurship in Education
(NCEE) has found in recent years,
is for these institutions themselves
to become more entrepreneurial
[see case study].
Making education entrepreneurial
What, then, would entrepreneurs consider a more effective education?
Those interviewed for this report stress the need to go beyond imparting
a given body of information, especially with data so easy to access in
today’s digital age.
5: Entrepreneurship Education: Enabling Teachers as a Critical Success Factor, November 2012.

www.gov.uk/ukti
17
What would you say is key to your business’s success today? Select up to two (Entrepreneurs Survey)
My plans and
determination
Strong network
of contacts/
mentoring
My start-up team Access to finance
The current
economic
environment of the
country in which I
reside
Ability to leverage
the technology
infrastructure in my
country
Other (please
specify)
33%
30%
22%
51%
32%
29%
1%
One obvious objection to such
thorough-going change, though,
is the fact that education systems
cannot be designed solely
with entrepreneurship in mind.
Inculcating an employee mindset
is no bad thing if most graduates
will end up as employees. A more
entrepreneur-friendly education,
however, is also consistent with
much recent thinking about
education reform in general.
Problem-solving and the ability
to work in teams – or networks –
are two of what are increasingly
being described as essential skills
for the 21st century. David Frost,
the executive chairman of the
NCEE, points out that transforming
education in this way “is not all
about starting a business.
Employers say that a lot of young
people lack enterprising skills: the
ability to communicate, work as part
of a team, take initiative rather than sit
and wait to be told to do something.”
Rob Law adds: “Problem-solving
and creativity are the future needs
of industry and business.” Indeed,
entrepreneurs cite passion,
determination and creativity as
the most important attributes for a
successful entrepreneur. When asked
about the keys to their own business’s
success, they point to determination
(51 per cent) and a strong network of
contacts / mentoring (33 per cent).
The intention of the OECD’s
Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA) to
add in 2015 a problem-solving
test to its long-standing reading,
writing, and science tests shows
just how mainstream this thinking is
becoming. If entrepreneurs do not
think academic skills are important
to success in their field, it is because
up until now those skills have been
conceived too narrowly. A broader
definition will lead not just to an
environment more supportive of
entrepreneurship, but one where
everyone is better prepared for the
challenges of the future.

18
The evolution of Britain’s National
Centre for Entrepreneurship
in Education (NCEE), based at
Coventry University, reveals a
widening understanding of how
education can best contribute
to entrepreneurship. It was
established in 2004 to deal with
a specific problem. The NCEE
executive chairman, David
Frost, recalls that at the time
the government was concerned
because, although the country’s
“young people appeared to
be entrepreneurial, something
happened in the three years at
university where the entrepreneurial
spirit was lost, not stimulated”.
The NCEE’s original task was
therefore understandably narrow:
to raise the profile of graduate
entrepreneurship and increase the
number of students and graduates
seriously considering engaging in
business start-ups.
It quickly became apparent,
however, that success in this
specific aim required a broad
approach. “Simply hectoring
people to start businesses isn’t
the way to do it,” says Davd Frost.
“You can’t expect entrepreneurial
individuals to come up through
higher education if the institution
itself is not entrepreneurial. You
must develop an ecosystem that
understands and supports the
entrepreneurial spirit.” The NCEE
now, therefore, has a far wider remit.
In addition to its original goals, it
aims to bring about cultural change
and build capacity so that colleges
and universities themselves
become entrepreneurial.
An entrepreneurial tertiary
institution takes an entrepreneurial,
decentralised approach to decision-
making and operations. This means
encouraging individual initiative and
innovation in the face of various
challenges facing such institutions
today, from research and teaching;
through knowledge transfer and
engagement with a range of
stakeholders, including government
and business; to responding to the
challenges faced by the communities
in which these schools are based.
To help bring about the necessary
cultural shift in universities,
says David Frost, the NCEE’s
programmes target three broad
groups: university leaders,
academics more generally, and
students and recent graduates.
Efforts to help the latter are
certainly effective. The NCEE’s
‘Make It Happen’ programme,
which provides resources, tools
and online mentoring for graduates
starting up a company, has helped
with the launch of 1,900 new
businesses since 2009.
Meanwhile, programmes aimed at
the other targets are also having
an important impact. The NCEE’s
International Entrepreneurship
Educators Programme, designed to
train and support those providing
enterprise education at the university
level, has been copied in the EU
and China, and an independent
assessment by the consultancy
EKOS estimates that it generates
very roughly £20 of economic
activity for every £1 invested. David
Frost, though, believes that so far
the most successful programme
has been one aimed at heads of
institutions, the Entrepreneurial
University Leaders Programme.
He explains that the cultural shift
needed to create the conditions
favourable to entrepreneurship “has
to come from the top. Things will not
change unless leaders believe it is
appropriate to do so.”
The collective impact of the
NCEE’s approach can help create
institutions with impressive results.
The NCEE and the Times Higher
Education Supplement present an
annual Entrepreneurial University
award in Britain. The 2013 winner,
the University of Strathclyde, has
in the last decade seen 50 spin-
off companies and 84 student or
alumni start-ups creating total
employment for over 900 people.
Case study – The National Centre
for Entrepreneurship in Education:
Getting the culture right

20
Conclusion: A more entrepreneurial
society’s wider benefits
Economies would benefit if there
were more entrepreneurs, and
supporting entrepreneurship
therefore seems like an obvious
course for governments and
societies. Finding the right way to do
so, however, is complicated because
success in this activity revolves
closely around personal qualities and
choices. As Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
of Biocon puts it, whatever help is
given, “at the end of the day, the
individual entrepreneur has to run
with the idea, make his or her own
mistakes, and so on.”
Whether entrepreneurs are born or
made, they cannot be manufactured
out of whole cloth. They can,
however, be cultivated by creating an
environment where those who wish
to are better able to take the risks
of starting a company. This might
involve anything from TV shows
which help shift cultural attitudes
to any number of potentially helpful
government policies. This report,
however, has concentrated on two
areas vital for shaping the capacity
of interested individuals to become
entrepreneurs: the work environment
and education.
Business has a key role to play.
Mentorship networks are essential
for new entrepreneurs as they seek
to navigate the numerous challenges
facing any start-up. Although many
do so out of a sense of giving back,
established entrepreneurs also stand
to benefit from being a mentor by
building up and renewing their own
networks. Similarly, a company
that teaches entrepreneurship by
example can have a dramatic impact
on the ability of its employees to start
companies in the future even while
remaining innovative itself.
Education can also be of help but too
often universities and schools actually
impede entrepreneurship. This is not
for lack of trying: entrepreneurship
education has expanded dramatically
in recent decades. Rather, it is the
traditional academic format which
blinkers students and instils a fear
of risk-taking and a search for
single right answers. Overcoming
this requires a shift in how teaching
takes place in order to build up their
problem-solving abilities, networking
skills and willingness to search
for the creative approaches that
entrepreneurs need. In doing so,
educational institutions will inculcate
attitudes and skills that help not just
entrepreneurs but a broad range of
people across society.
Creating an environment more
conducive to entrepreneurship, then,
is not just about helping the minority
who start businesses. It will let many
individuals reach their full potential.
Although the exact figures are rough, a significant proportion of the world’s
adult population is already engaged in entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs can be
cultivated by creating
an environment where
those who wish to are
better able to take
the risks of starting a
company.

© 2014 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd.
To find out more, scan this
code with your smart phone.
www.gov.uk/ukti
+44 (0)20 7215 5000
Copyright
UK Trade Investment is the
Government Department that helps
UK-based companies succeed in
the global economy. We also help
overseas companies bring their high-
quality investment to the UK’s dynamic
economy acknowledged as Europe’s
best place from which to succeed in
global business.
UK Trade Investment offers expertise
and contacts through its extensive
network of specialists in the UK, and in
British embassies and other diplomatic
offices around the world. We provide
companies with the tools they require
to be competitive on the world stage.
UK Trade Investment is responsible
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Business Grow Internationally.” These
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Unit nor its affiliates can accept any
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