The power of some entrepreneur’s dreams enabled Japan to achieve an astonishing degree of economic success in the post-war years. Startups like Toyota, Sony, and Toshiba helped turn the country into the world’s second-largest economy. Yet we all know that Japan is now falling short by not addressing its anti-entrepreneurial culture. As a recent op-ed on the website for Japan’s Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) put it,

“It is certain that the post-war years were an entrepreneurial phase for Japan. Japan’s defeat erased existing ways of thinking and systems, with people starting over, from scratch. Individual entrepreneurs provided the underpinning for Japan’s economic reconstruction…. In time, economic prosperity fueled a desire for stability, however, and dreams became more modest. Talented individuals now preferred to work for established companies rather than face the risks of entrepreneurship. As the economy grew, the government and corporations looked for human resources that could fuel corporate expansion, and the decision-makers chose to stick to orthodoxy.”

Will Japan break away from this tendency and move toward a more dynamic view of economic growth and prosperity? At an event here in Tokyo during Global Entrepreneurship Week Japan tonight I chatted with a dozen young entrepreneurs who seemed to realize that the lifetime-employment system that guaranteed a worker his job from college graduation all the way through retirement is not such a sure thing and that starting their own firms was more than ever before an option.  We were also joined by others from outside Japan including baseball legend Bobby Valentine and creative visionary Patrick Newell who is starting so many ideas he carried a whole collection of business cards inviting you to pick.

By the sounds of what the Honda Foundation, the 20 partners in Japan and visionary entrepreneur William Saito coordinated and organized this Week, entrepreneurialism has a future.  There were events to celebrate the entrepreneur such as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Honda Prize.  And entrepreneurs such as Fujiyo Ishiguro, CEO of Netyear Group, Robert Hori, CEO of Cybird and Jun Furukawa, CEO of Capital Medica Co, Ltd. were highlighted on the opening day events last Monday.

Japan also used its ambitious goals of cutting 25 percent of its CO2 emissions by 2020 to drive a discussion around moving innovations into the marketplace.  Moderated by Dr. Seiichiro Yonekura, Professor of Innovation at Hitotsubashi University, a panel of experts saw this goal as a chance in a million to drive new open innovation strategies and initiatives all.  This discussion was set against the background of GEW marking father of modern management Peter Drucker’s 100th birthday. GEW Japan celebrated this with remarks from Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka from Hitotsubashi University.

Japan also participated in the Global Innovation Tournament this week, a competition that engaged young people in dozens of countries around the world to come up with an innovative and creative way to “make saving money fun.”

Japan ranks 15th out of 183 economies in the ease of doing business. While further reforms may improve the business environment, the greatest challenge for the government now is to support a behavioral and mindset change. The roadblocks outlined to me seemed to arise everywhere – from government, schools, peers, parents and society.  The Economist recently said of entrepreneurship in Japan,

“The brightest people want to work for large companies, with which the big banks work hand in glove, or for the government.  Risk capital is rare.  Bankruptcy is severely punished.  And the small business sector is wrapped in cotton wool encouraging “replicative” rather than ”innovative” behavior.”

Incentives must change for people to embrace entrepreneurship and seize business opportunities. For example, the lifetime-employment system must loosen to allow entrepreneurs to attract talent if Japan is to begin to catch up the other major economies in terms of rate of creating new businesses.  Several voices from those economies were on hand this week to convey their support, including John Roos, US Ambassador to Japan, Aren Walther, Norway Ambassador to Japan and Franz-Michael Melbin, Denmark’s Ambassador to Japan.

At the end of the day though, it is the budding entrepreneurs that GEW Japan is focusing on who will carry the message that to overturn Japan’s downward economic slide, society must allow entrepreneurs to take more risks and create a bottom-up economic solution to the problems facing Japan’s economy.

This is my last post from the road.  Stay with us at unleashingideas.org and entrepreneurship.org as we continue our work in stimulating and celebrating entrepreneurship.

Jonathan Ortmans is the President of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Despite being one of the most powerful emerging markets (9% GDP growth in 2008), being an entrepreneur in China can be a challenging endeavor.  According to the Index of Economic Freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, and property rights are all relatively weak.  And the World Bank outlines many challenges of doing business in China from starting a new business (it takes 37 days), to paying taxes (businesses spend on average 504 hours on preparing, filing and paying taxes), to enforcing commercial contracts (expect 406 days until payment).

My visit to China for Global Entrepreneurship Week suggested things are changing fast.  While the state still guides and directs much economic activity, especially concerning key infrastructure industries, efforts to embrace market principles are clearly being made to allow more response to market forces by enterprises and individuals.  Entrepreneurship is most certainly encouraged by the government which is eager to turn China into a global leader in innovation. R&D expenditure is high (1.4% of a $4.402 trillion GDP), ranking the country 18th on this variable in the 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index. Another optimistic trend is a recent infatuation among the Chinese to embrace individual entrepreneurial activity.  According to 2007 Gallup polls, more than one in four Chinese, including almost 3 in 10 urban dwellers, expressed an interest in starting and owning a business.

I am a witness to this fascination. This week’s participants in Global Entrepreneurship Week activities have been eager to embrace a more open source, risk-tolerant culture. One event included an impressive celebration of entrepreneurial spirit that engaged over 1,000 young people and a number of VIPs from the Chinese government. Amidst speeches and accolades, it also served to debut the Music Drama “Forever the Moment”, which was composed and directed by undergraduate students. The drama embodied the theme of the event – to deliver inspiring stories of entrepreneurship in an artistic form with the goal of rooting the entrepreneurial spirit in society.  While GEW in China has been slow and cautious to go to the scale of say Brazil, activities in more than 20 provinces this showed momentum is building – especially among universities.

To end the Week, I addressed a summit of leading entrepreneurial venture capitalists, scholars and policy makers, as well as many SME owners in China, who gathered for a day of in-depth, path-breaking discussions on the entrepreneurial economy society in China. The event was co-hosted by The Founder, China’s most influential magazine on entrepreneurship, who while I was there also launched a Founders Club of Chinese start-up entrepreneurs who used their own money and Founded an effort not initiated as a state enterprise. Discussions held worth noting include everything from the future of clean technology, to developing the second board market in China, and unleashing the power of entrepreneurial cities. Several keynote speeches were on the agenda here today, including Yan Junqi, vice chair of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress and chair of Entrepreneurship Foundation for Graduates, and Wu Jinglian from the Developmental Research Centre of the State Council and member of CPPCC Standing Committee. Following my address to this final celebration of China’s Global Entrepreneurship Week was a dinner and awards ceremony, where I handed out an award to the winners of “China’s Future 50 Entrepreneurs.” The sheer scale of the enterprises these entrepreneurs are building is astounding.  When Chinese entrepreneurs succeed, they do it big.

For example, I spent a great deal of time with Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Chairman and CEO of Suntech Power Holdings now listed on NYSE Euronext who has from scratch using his own money at the outset built one of the first successful Chinese brands in the US in the solar power industry.  Feng Jun is doing the same in electronics with Algo – a start up that not only sponsored the Beijing Olympics but was also the first Chinese company to sign up to sponsor London coming up.  And there is Victor Koo who founded Youku.com, the You Tube of China and Wang Wenjing the CEO of Ufdia Software which was described to me by several people independent of each other as the SAP of China.  I could describe so many more “founders” I met from David Zhu, CEO of SNDA the new gaming company to Fan Bao, CEO of China Renaissance.  China is breeding entrepreneurs and the more than 1,000 people that attended the GEW Closing Ceremonies were all encouraged not just by but by the government that sets the tone, to puruse entrepreneurial activity,

President Obama’s visit this week to China has clearly set a positive tone for China’s relations with the rest of the world and that speaks well for entrepreneurship.  This economy will continue to soar as barriers to business creation and growth are slow removed and managers are encouraged to take more risks both in state-owned and private enterprises. With the right ingredients, and a fostering of these components, China’s growth rates even during the recession have been envied around the world.  It is now emerging as a nation that can also be proud of having a new wave of high impact entrepreneurs.  Given all boats rise on an incoming tide this is good news for the global economy.

The Dubai School of Government hosted the ‘Best Practices in Entrepreneurship Policy’ (B-PEP) for Arab-regional practitioners and scholars on November 19-20 in Dubai.

The annual BPEP conference aims to help improve the policy climate for entrepreneurship
in the Arab world. Participants were asked to identify the five policies that they see as most helpful and the five specific laws or regulations that they see as most in need of reform, implementation,
or repeal, for the country that they know best.

Mr Fadi Ghandour (center)

Seven teams received awards today at the closing ceremony of Global Entrepreneurship Week Singapore. These teams had participated in two competitions, the inaugural Asia Pacific Enterprise Experience (APEE) and the Global Innovation Tournament (GIT). These two competitions were co-organised by NUS Enterprise and Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), under the umbrella of GEW. Some 40 local entrepreneurial activities took place in Singapore thoughout the week.

Clearly, Singapore is a great place to learn about building a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem. Since 1965, when Singapore separated from Malaysia, the country has managed to turn its small territory into one of the world’s most prosperous and entrepreneurial places.

The National University of Singapore is actively engaged in promoting entrepreneurship, and NUS Enterprise serves as the official Host of Global Entrepreneurship Week in the country in conjunction with Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE). Although I was only able to witness a few, throughout this Week they conducted dozens of effective events at engaging young people.  For example, Entrepreneurs Unplugged gave its audience a chance to get up-close and personal with top-notch successful entrepreneurs from the local scene. Led by a young entrepreneur and featuring a dynamic duo each in a different stage of their start-up experience, this event offered a thought-provoking and entertaining way to live the life of an entrepreneur vicariously. There was also the nEbO Challenge, Leave Only Ur Design -  L.O.U.D – which provided a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs from Temasek Junior College to battle it out in a competition of creativity, management and budgeting of their business idea through scrapbook-making.

And then there was Dividends, which taught students how to navigate the financial market by using an interactive board game about stocks, shares, dividends and profits.

I also decided to drop by and see Ms. Ng Hau Yee running one of the Junior Achievement activities – the JA Titan of Industry which provides practical information about business and the economics of life.  I found a room full of computers and teams of kids trying to run virtual companies and competing in a computer simulated business environment. While I was there, some teams has run their business into the ground while some achieved what I am told was the highest scores ever seen based on the quarterly business decisions they made about product price, production level, marketing, R&D, charitable giving and more. Sink or swim, the kids walked away better understanding critical business practices and the effect management decisions have on a company’s success.  I did not stay for the crowning of the Titan of industry but I would have put my money on one 16 year old who confidently told me he was there as part of a gradual sharpening his entrepreneurial skills in long-term preparation for becoming a real entrepreneur in medical innovation once he got past his PhD.

The Closing Ceremony I spoke at tonight brought together many of the important leaders and organizations that make Global Entrepreneurship Week in Singapore happen.  At the event we handed out awards to the winners of the Global Entrepreneurship Week Global Innovation Tournament winners after viewing their video submissions.  We also heard music from an entrepreneurial Viola player who is building on his string quartet’s international fame by starting additional string quartets with very young talented players from the music school.  This event showed how much emphasis the country places now on innovation and entrepreneurship education. I learned at that dinner that the Singapore government even offers start-up capital up to $50,000 to qualified citizens and up to $300,000 for a social venture.

Clearly rock star street wear entrepreneur Elim Chew, honored at the dinner who runs Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) and the Social Innovation Park has been pivotal in advancing entrepreneurship in the country.   Singapore can boast having smart people at the top of it’s hyper effective entrepreneurial support organizations including Tan Kai Hoe at Spring Singapore, Kelly Teoh at the Spirit of Enterprise program and Dr. Lily Chan and Prof Wong Poh Kam at NUS Enterprise.  My favorite title for the night though went to Adeline Tan at Singapore Management University’s Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IEE) whose card simply says “Evangelist”!

Among others I met earlier today was Koh Hock Tee from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) which is a research-intensive university ranked among the world’s top 100 universities. It offers one of Asia’s best science and technology learning environments, as well as world-class entrepreneurship education. Doing so, NTU has been making significant contributions to the nation’s renewed drive for research and innovation.

NTU was recently designated the first Kauffman Campus outside the United States. Five U.S. students have received a Kauffman Foundation grant to study commercialization and entrepreneurship at the university’s Technopreneurship Center. The scholars will learn how to build a startup business based on technology transfer on a global scale.

With an efficient business environment that is well maintained, Singapore has long benefited from a vibrant entrepreneurial economy. Singapore is a world leader in most facets of economic freedom , and is the world’s top economy in “ease of doing business” for the fourth consecutive year. It takes just three days to formally launch a business here and if you decide to export, you can get products on the international market in just five days. This contrasts with the East Asia and the Pacific’s regional average of 41 days to register a new business and 23 days to export.

Considering the strength of its physical and institutional infrastructures, it is no wonder that Singapore is among Southeast Asia’s top hi-tech countries and busiest ports. Real GDP growth averaged 7% between 2004 and 2007, but dropped to 1.1% in 2008 as a result of the global financial crisis. Prime Minister Lee and other senior officials are now searching for ways to make the economy more resilient, and they’re looking to innovation. The government has attracted major investments in pharmaceuticals and medical technology production and will continue efforts to establish Singapore as Southeast Asia’s financial and high-tech hub.  Although the Ministry of Trade and Industry revised up the inflation forecast possibly signaling the central bank to tighten fiscal policy, Permanent Secretary Ravi Menon estimated this week the Singapore economy will re-bound, expanding by as a much as 5% next year.

Global Entrepreneurship Week in Singapore is ensuring that the nation has no shortage of entrepreneurs to drive that growth.

Throughout the Arab world, policymakers have been paying attention to the power of entrepreneurship. Hundreds of initiatives are being launched to encourage youth to innovate, learn marketable skills and start their own enterprises. The United Arab Emirates and the Arab Republic of Egypt rank among the top 10 global reformers in 2008/09 (Egypt for the fourth time), according World Bank’s Doing Business in the Arab World 2010 report.

Countries more experienced in building entrepreneurial economies, like the United States, have been lending their expertise and encouragement.  The U.S. State Department’s Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative is working to encourage youth entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa and President Obama will lead an entrepreneurship summit focused on the Muslim world in March 2010. The World Bank and other development organizations like the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) have also focused on small and medium-size enterprise (SME) development in the region.

This week, leaders in the United Arab Emirates seized the opportunity to promote a culture of entrepreneurship among the young through Global Entrepreneurship Week. On opening day of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Forum began in Doha. For three days, decision-makers from governments, businesses, civil society, schools, media and international institutions exchanged experiences and identified new education techniques, players and technologies that will enhance human capacity across borders.

In terms of facilitating innovation in education content and delivery, speakers rightly emphasized that learning should not be confined to the classroom, but rather engage various other channels in society. I can’t think of a better way to connect society and education in the immediate and long term than through entrepreneurship educational experiences. Student-run businesses are an enriching educational experience and hold potential for impact on society through jobs, innovations brought to the market and much more.

Thought leaders from the private sector, government, NGOs/INGOs and academia also gathered this week in Dubai for an Arab-regional conference on Best Practices in entrepreneurship Policy (BPEP) – a Featured Event of Global Entrepreneurship Week. They explored not only the cultural aspects of entrepreneurialism, but also the incentive structures at work.

Conference participants identified policy challenges as well as an agenda of best practices in the many areas that affect young entrepreneurs, such as education, bankruptcy laws, and credit access. Proper examination of a wide range of policy areas is necessary. The World Bank found that successful Doing Business reformers are comprehensive. For example, Egypt implemented at least 19 reforms, covering 8 or more of the 10 areas measured by Doing Business over the past 5 years. Consistent reformers are also inclusive, involving all relevant public agencies and private sector representatives, and they institutionalize reform at the highest level.

One clear policy recommendation coming out of the BPEP conference responds to the issue of fear of failure. Participants called for the decriminalization of bankruptcy. According to Dale Murphy, Senior Research Fellow at the Dubai School of Government, “youth should not fear going to debtor’s prison if their legitimate business goes bankrupt.”

The leaders of entrepreneurship in the Arab world can only uphold the promise of job and wealth creation if they continue to build a policy environment that is supportive of youthful enterprises. These knowledge and idea exchanges have built momentum this week towards institutionalized commitments to entrepreneurial cultures and economies in the region.

Entrepreneur-In-Residence from the Kauffman Foundation, Mr. Michael Levin, gave an interview on Malaysian radio with GEW Malaysia Country Host Mr. Dash Balakrishnan. Hear the interview here:

A ‘Global Insights-Taking the Local Global’ session held on 18 November provided interesting perspectives on doing business in both the East and West. Two seasoned entrepreneurs came forward to share their insights in doing business outside their own country: Mr Nigel Cumberland, founder and CEO of St. George’s Consulting – an award-winning recruitment firm – and Mr Jimmy Yeoh, CEO of Magic Gamewerks Sdn Bhd.

Mr Cumberland, whose company is based in Hong Kong, gave an inspirational speech less on what he had achieved as a successful entrepreneur but more on the mistakes and misjudgments that he had made while establishing himself and his company. Mr Cumberland is a firm believer that mistake is a seed to plant success.

Mr Jimmy Yeoh shared his experience in how he has successfully taken his board game idea from concept to completion and expanded his business to Europe. He also shared the resistance he faced when he initially approached people with his idea to promote educational learning through board games. Unlike Mr Cumberland, Mr Jimmy Yeoh prefers doing his business alone because of his previous bad experience with his former business partners. He admitted that “one man shows do not make big money” but he gained satisfaction from doing his business and he also has more freedom in making decision.

He shared a story of his persistence in bringing two cartons of his board games all around Europe for toy fairs and book fairs that he participated in. Mr Yeoh also touched on the Malaysian entrepreneurs’ mindset on the concept of competition where they often see each other as competitors instead of collaborators. He mentioned that business opportunities could be seized more if entrepreneurs in Malaysia connect with each other while competing globally in a healthy manner.

The session was kept interactive with many questions from the audience for the two very engaging speakers.  The session continued onto a networking session while the participants enjoyed refreshments from the sponsor, Kelantan Delights.

Through the launching of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the Bahrain Chapter of Young Arab Leaders (YAL) has embarked on its quest to foster and encourage an entrepreneurial culture in the Arab World.

YAL, Zain, the Bahrain Development Bank and 02 Marketing Communications have partnered to increase the scale of GEW in Bahrain. Events taking place in the country this year include:

• Inspirational lectures by local successful entrepreneurs
• Intensive workshops designed by Bahrain Development Bank and 02 Marketing Communications specifically geared toward building businesses
• A student business challenge, where student groups will pitch ideas to a judge panel with the chance to win the Zaim Dream Award on GEW’s final day

The opening ceremony for GEW Bahrain took place on Monday at the Zain E-Learning Center, University of Bahrain Sakheer Campus.

Rural Internet Centres in Malaysia – locally known as Pusat Internet Desa (PIDs) – are making their mark on GEW Malaysia 2009. Another PID Social Entrepreneurship Fair has been organized this year in partnership with the Social Entrepreneurship Clubs (SE Clubs) and local communities in 38 villages across Malaysia.

More than 400 activities are being organized across the country as part of the GEW Malaysia 2009. Activities include entrepreneurship workshops, ICT (Information & Communication Technology) trainings and workshops for entrepreneurs, sharing sessions on entrepreneurships, games and competitions, bazaar and exhibitions, site visits to grassroots businesses followed by sharing sessions, and local content development.

To inaugurate these activities, the PID Social Entrepreneurship Fair 2009 was launched on 17 November at a PID in Hulu Langat in Selangor District. The event was launched by the local Parliament representative YB. Tuan Ismail bin Sani Nor. The event was broadcast live and participated in by 16 other PIDs.

Members of Hulu Langat’s Social Entrepreneurship Club participated in the launch event, opening 20 booths displaying various local products and services such as handicrafts, beauty products, fruit juice, and clothing. The launching was livened up with performances of a Kompang – a ten-people music team with small drum – and silat, a traditional martial art, by the local youth.