World-class entrepreneurs have reached critical mass in some surprising places – and their number is growing quickly.
These innovators just might revive the global economy.
Boston, Mass., August 17, 2010 – Global investors searching for high-potential entrepreneurial ventures usually pay little attention to countries in the Middle East and Africa where historically economies have been directed from the top down rather than from the market up. But “The High-Intensity Entrepreneur” by Deirdre Coyle and Anne Habiby in the September issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) contends that a growing number of high-intensity entrepreneurs can drive new growth. Click here to read full article
The authors argue that lack of awareness of emerging market growth entrepreneurs prevents them from getting to true scale and prevents international firms from identifying growth channels. “In our three years of research on entrepreneurs in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia we found hundreds of rapid growth ventures led by experienced entrepreneurs who are adapting ideas from developed markets to emerging markets,” said Deirdre Coyle, Jr. co-author of the article and co-founder of AllWorld Network, a global firm building the largest entrepreneurship network and information system in the world.
“AllWorld has identified hundreds of fast growth entrepreneurs from emerging countries that meet global standards of performance,” added Habiby. “They look almost identical to their U.S. counterparts on the Inc. 500 list, the platinum standard of growth entrepreneurship, except they demonstrate higher levels of “entrepreneurial intensity,” forming more companies which tend to succeed, and they expect to form a greater number of companies in the next two years.”
The ventures that AllWorld uncovered in their research generate far more jobs and wealth than typical businesses do, and they often create new industries or open new markets. Like UAE’s Bayt.com, the leading Middle Eastern job search site, which attracts 4.5 million jobseekers; Jordan’s Aramex, the FedEx of the Middle East and beyond, which has honed its edge by making deliveries to places global distribution companies avoid; and Meeting Point, launched by Christine Sfeir, who at 22 opened the first Dunkin’ Donuts store in Beirut and 10 years later runs 30 stores that, unlike any Dunkin’ Donuts you have ever seen, are elegant hot spots for young professionals. These businesses are scaling up at dramatic rates and introducing exciting new product-market combinations. A case in point is Rumman, the first events and publishing company focused on Saudi Arabia’s large youth market. Operating with a team of 30 recent college graduates, it has become so successful that brands such as MTV now work with it to market to young Saudis.
AllWorld, co-founded by Coyle, Habiby and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, aims to find and advance all the scalable growth companies of the emerging world by 2015. AllWorld has launched the Arabia 500, Africa 500 and Asia 500 and eventually, similar lists will be published in Eurasia and Latin America. AllWorld finds, credentials and ranks fast growth private companies and puts them on the global radar screen so that markets come to them. AllWorld’s model of opening up global markets for entrepreneurs is called Visibility EconomicsTM.
“For multinationals and investors, [the fast growth companies] presents immediate channels for growth,” the authors write in the HBR article. “For governments and foundations, this new breed of innovators provide the path to progress and prosperity.”
On October 21st, during the annual AllWorld Summit at Harvard University, there will be a public forum entitled If High-Intensity Entrepreneurs Ran Economic Development which will be moderated by Habiby with AllWorld winners and will address the following questions: What if this new breed of entrepreneurs ran economic development? What new ideas do they propose for creating jobs? What policies would they implement to spark economic momentum? Where do they see opportunities in the global economy going forward?
For more information Contact: Deirdre M. Coyle, Jr., 617-504-4547, dcoylejr@allworldlive.com
AllWorld’s mission to make visible ALL the scalable growth entrepreneurs of the emerging world, creating the largest information system and network of growth entrepreneurs.
