Entrepreneurs are made, not born - Ernst & Young
- Nearly 60% have worked in a corporate environment and 33% of entrepreneurs say working in a corporate environment was key to the success of their business
- 45% of entrepreneurs start their first business after the age of 30
- 10% of entrepreneurs have started ten or more companies
An Ernst & Young report released recently, Nature or nurture: Decoding the entrepreneur, based on survey of 685 entrepreneurs worldwide and in-depth interviews with winners of the Entrepreneur Of the Year award, provides insights into the shared characteristics, frustrations and career goals of some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs.
The top five key findings of the report:
1. Entrepreneurial leaders are made, not born
Entrepreneurial leader may be made rather than born, but a large majority of the most successful embarked on their first ventures at a young age. Among a survey of 685 leading entrepreneurial leaders conducted for this report, 45% said they had started their first company before the age of 30.
2. Entrepreneurship is rarely a one-off decision
For the majority of entrepreneurs launching only one business venture is clearly not enough. 60% had started three or more companies, 20% six or more and 10% said they had founded more than ten companies in their career to date.
That doesn’t mean that having created these companies they automatically cut all ties with their previous interests. Among the survey respondents, 45% say that they have retained some ownership in each of their previous ventures, and 28% say that they have retained a stake in some of them.
3. Funding, people and know-how are the biggest barriers to entrepreneurial success
Among the six out of ten respondents who experienced obstacles in their ventures, the most common barrier to future growth cited (33%) is the lack of funding or finance. This reflects the current environment, where many entrepreneurs said they continued to experience problems with accessing finance, despite a gradual easing of credit conditions in many countries. The two other most-cited obstacles are recruiting the right people with appropriate expertise.
4. Entrepreneurs share common traits
While our research suggests that Entrepreneurs are made, rather than born, the survey did find entrepreneurs will typically exhibit a combination of behaviors and attitudes that are likely to be different from many of their peers in more well established corporate organisations. When asked what the top three most important qualities of an entrepreneurial leader are, over three quarters of the entrepreneurs identified ‘having a vision’, 73% ‘passion’ and 64% ‘drive’. The scores for flexibility (33%), relentless focus on quality (18%) and loyalty (14%) were much lower.
5. Traditional companies can learn from entrepreneurial leaders
There is much that traditional companies can learn from growth companies led by entrepreneurial leaders. Companies need to foster a culture in which entrepreneurship is celebrated and rewarded.
