Articles
May 2008 | The Australian Financial Review | Future Tense With Gen X On The Rise
The failure of corporate Australia to keep up with the changing demands of its employee base is fuelling business start-ups at an unprecedented rate as people work for themselves. Within five years, one third of generation X will be self employed. Gen X is the first in history to have more knowledge than its leaders due to better access to information Australian study has placed a question mark over traditional thinking that entrepreneurs are made, not born.
May 2008 | ABC Catapult - By Rebecca Martin | First Born Entrepreneurs
An Australian study has placed a question mark over traditional thinking that entrepreneurs are made, not born.
The Sensis Business Index surveyed more than 1800 small business owners about their family dynamics. Nearly 60 per cent of those surveyed said their parents were not small business owners, casting doubt over the idea that those with an entrepreneurial family are more likely to be entrepreneurial.
"People often think that if you have an example of entrepreneurism growing up, you are more likely to run your own business," says Christena Singh, author of the Sensis report.
"But it doesn't seem to be a family attribute."
The Sensis report also found that, contrary to popular belief, it is the oldest child, not the youngest child, who is more likely to become an entrepreneur.
More than 41 per cent of the survey respondents said they were the oldest child, followed by 29 per cent being the middle sibling, 25 per cent as the youngest and just 5 per cent who said they were an only child.
"[Our findings] have gone against the general theories," says Singh. "Birth order theories have talked about the youngest being less cosseted and more likely to be risk takers and [therefore] entrepreneurial.
"[It raises questions] about whether risk taking is one of the attributes needed to run your own business."
However Professor Murray Gillin, department head of management and entrepreneurship at Swinburne University, says the new statistics need to be treated with caution.
"There has been a lot of work done with trait analysis [of entrepreneurs], and it clearly demonstrated that it is hard to find a good correlation [between traits and entrepreneurs]," he said.
"There is also a big difference between a start-up that is needs based, and an entrepreneurial business, which can be defined as something that is going to have significant growth."
Gillin said passion and commitment, not birth order, would have the greatest affect on a would-be entrepreneur, and that the role of family could not be dismissed.
"One can say fairly clearly that if there is an entrepreneur in the home, they are likely to give support to someone with an entrepreneurial bent."
Female entrepreneurship
Gender can also play a role in success, said researchers at the recent International Entrepreneurship Research Exchange at Swinburne University.
Patricia Buckley, associate professor at the Australian Graduate School of Management, said the female knack for communication and organisation was a strong advantage for women entrepreneurs.
"Women are also better at setting up networks that are effective at getting information," said Buckley, one of the co-ordinators of research exchange.
"However they don't tend to set up networks that challenge them and connect them to other sources. You have to make sure your network doesn't become self-endorsing, and stops you from moving to the next level."
Buckley said the papers presented also suggested female entrepreneurship was being aided by the digital economy.
"The digital economy reduces the importance of location and a 'standard' day, which makes the sector more attractive to female entrepreneurs, many of who juggle home and family responsibilities," she said.
March 2008 | The Australian Financial Review | Goo-ing Over Google
It started with two students in a garage and became a $US200 billion giant relied upon by 60 per cent of he world's internet users.
February 2008 | Forrester.com
by Bobby Cameron | IT Can
Help Accelerate Business Innovation
Innovation has reached the level of near-meaningless cliché, with execs wishing they were engaged in more of it — even though these execs are unclear about what they want. For their part, CIOs want to create a greater role for IT in business innovation, but it's no longer appropriate for IT to have a separate IT-enabled definition. Why? Innovation is a company challenge, given that technology is increasingly embedded in every aspect of an enterprise. Instead, CIOs should work with their peers to adopt a five-step innovation pipeline process to accelerate the pace of innovation, including: invention and discovery; validation of viability; incubation and investment; implementation and commercialisation; and monitoring, measurement, and reward. .
January 2008 | AFR Boss | Getting Exercised About Age-Proofing Your Brain
Cognitive fitness is critical to protecting against senility, but do we resist exercising the brain as much as we avoid working out the body ? Roderick Gilkey.
February 2008 | The Australian Financial Review | Big Questions In Policy Reviews
The Rudd Government is making its first clumsy foray into industry policy, writes economics editor Alan Mitchell.
December 2007 | The Australian | New Minister Votes For Innovation
The federal Government would review research and development tax concessions to encourage more collaboration between industry and universities.
Summer 2007 | Fast Thinking | LEARN To Conform
Children are the world's great innovators - at least until they go to school. Geoffrey Maslen looks at the effect of the classroom on young minds.
Summer 2007 | Fast Thinking | The Next Stage Is The Hardest
Robyn Williams is concerned at our ability to follow-up on great Australian innovations.
November 2007 | Financial Review | Wrong Route to Innovation
"Like a doting dad who recreates the model train set of his childhood for a son who remains stubbornly loyal to computer games, Labour's Kim Carr has been toiling to create a national innovation system that no one needs."
October 2007 | Financial Review | Nation Of Entrepreneurs Deserves Better
"Governments can best help small firms by getting out of the way" writes Michael Schaper.
July 2007 | BRW The Innovators| Not So Clever
"No Matter which way you look at it, Australia's self-image as a smart country appears to be built on self-delusion ... Each year, more than $10 billion is wasted on research that will never be commercialised."
June 2007 | Fast Thinking | Learn To Be Lateral
"Parents and teachers tend to straight-jacket children's minds, reject unconventional behaviour and ideas while insisting on conformity to their standards. Take, for example, the ordinary classroom with its 20 to 30 pupils. Sitting in rows, often in uniforms, with limited freedom of movement and expression, the children are subject to didactic lessons that serve to reinforce the convergent reponses and provide little scope for orignal ideas ".
June 2007 | Fast Thinking | Think Small
"All the politicians giving money to big business - they like to cut ribbons in front of big factories. They should be giving all of their money to small business. They're the only people who give them a return on investment".
May 2007 | Lyndall Crisp | Creative Mission To Save The World
Witout creativity there is only repetition and routine. Merely being competent is the kiss of death in business !
May 2007 | Brian Toohey | Capital Idea
Lists of facts are not the way to stimulate young minds, but this is the slant in education policies ... why ?
May 2007 | Walter Isaacson | Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge
Smart folks are a dime a dozen. What truly matters is creativity. As Albert Einstein put it, "Imagination is more important than knowledge".
April 2007 | Jonathan West | Strategy To Accelerate Innovation In NSW
The NSW Government should place innovation at the centre of its economic
strategy because innovation — the development of improved products, services, and
processes, the creation of new markets, and the use of new products — is critical to
productivity advance.
March 2007 | Murry Gillin | Entrepreneurial Intuition
What makes a successful entrepreneur? Is it nature? Is it
nurture? Are entrepreneurs born out of circumstance or are
they just born?
Summer 2007 | Beverly Hadgraft | Good Luck Club
From The Luck Factor book by Richard Wiseman |
There's a reason why some people seem to bathe in the glow of good fortune, while disaster follows others at every turn.
30/11/06 | Andrew Burrell | Reviving a Float That Never Was
Australian Financial Review
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After years of delay, a former WA Inc. insider expects 'world impact' with a biotechnology venture
22/11/06 | Sophie Morris | Innovation Policy Plea
Australian Financial Review |
Business has called on fedeal and state leaders to make innovation a national priority by setting up a high-level agency to co-ordinate their efforts.
22/11/06 | Rebecca Martin | Innovation Gets Overhaul
ABC Online Catapult | Innovation should be hardwired into the Australian economy, says an Australianbusiness taskforce, and they've come up with ways to do it.
20/11/06 | Rebecca Martin | Funding Woes Kill Off Report
ABC Online Catapult | Australia may be the only country in the OECD to not participate in an international entrepreneurship report due to funding woes.
Winter 2006 | Francesco Guerrera, NY | R&D Spend Doesn't Translate To Profits: Study
16/4/05 | Peter Roberts | Research Needs Looking Into
Australian Financial Review | Universities are under pressure to show commercial success from their activities
8/4/05 | Mike Hanley |Training Needed In Entrepreneurship
Australian Financial Review
Autumn 2005 | Professor Tom McKaskill | Developing An Entrepreneurial Capacity
Swinburne News
May 1999 | Denis B.Kilroy | Creating the future: how creativity and innovation drive shareholder wealth
The KBA Consulting Group, Melbourne, Australia Suggests that in many companies that have adopted value-based management, there is a need to shift the focus of management attention from the measurement of value, to the creation of wealth.
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