Printed in June 2011 in The Economist

1. The Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project
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The Green Shoots of an Entrepreneurial Spring
Daniel Isenberg, Professor of Management Practice, Babson Global and
Leonard Schlesinger, President, Babson College
June 8, 2011
As the G8 last week pledged $10 billion to aid the Arab Spring to support the building of economic and
political institutions, the May 24th NASDAQ debut of Russia’s $10 billion Yandex was but one of many
green shoots of an equally significant Entrepreneurial Spring blossoming out from Chile to China, and
Israel to India. Led by two brilliant entrepreneurs who knew how to take native search engine
technology and implant it in the emerging Russian marketplace, for over a decade, Yandex, a Moscowbased Internet venture, had been growing inside of its language-walled garden. Finally, after a planned
2008 IPO was foiled by the economic crisis, this ambitious venture burst onto a global stage with the
largest NASDAQ Internet offering in recent history.
Like its Middle East counterpart, the Entrepreneurial Spring is a grass roots movement, and, although
fertilized by innovations originating in the United States, it is fundamentally global and only loosely
connected to America. China’s RenRen, Estonia’s Skype, Japan’s Rakuten, and Bangladesh’s
GrameenPhone represent ripe fruits of the last decade’s entrepreneurial investments in environments
outside the U.S.
Also similar to its Middle East counterpart, the global Entrepreneurial Spring can lead to the
democratization of opportunity and increased control by citizens over their own economic fates.
However, just as the Arab Spring is a first fraught step on a long, even treacherous, path, so is the
Entrepreneurial Spring neither a panacea nor a fait accompli. Left unaided, exposed to the vicissitudes of
climate and availability of resources, the fragile shoots can easily be stunted or trampled. To take root,
they will require enlightened leadership and the patient cultivation of a rich environment of institutions
and norms in order to become part of a self-sustaining ecosystem.
To sustain and spread these new ventures, like political democracy, leaders everywhere—not only
publicly elected leaders, but a broad base of leaders of public and private, formal and informal,
institutions—need to democratize the entrepreneurial choice without over-controlling it. That will
require deliberately fostering an entrepreneurship ecosystem that (a) is conducive to increasingly broad
numbers of citizens making the choice to take their economic futures into their own hands, and, (b)
after that choice is made, facilitates the broad, merit-based access to the resources—capital, human,
cultural, institutional, educational, and legislative—required in order to be successful. The helping hand
and the invisible hand must clasp each other.
Fortunately, there are also green shoots of such enlightened leadership. StartUp America, StartUp UK,
StartUp Africa, and StartUp Chile are but a few outward manifestations of the new national priority that
leaders are assigning to entrepreneurship. Kauffman Foundation-initiated Global Entrepreneurship
Week, launched less than three years ago, already conducts 100,000 discrete activities in more than 100
countries. In four years, StartUp Weekend has spread to more than 100 cities in 30 countries with
________________________________________________________________________
revolution@babson.edu
+1 (781) 239-6290

2. The Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project
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30,000 participants. These two private initiatives, impressive by themselves, show that leadership of the
Entrepreneurial Spring can and must go beyond government.
The bubbling up of the Entrepreneurial Spring shouldn’t be confused with the capital market bubble of
social media valuations. Up-and-coming next generation stars from Lebanon (SABIS; management of K12 schools in 15 countries), to Slovenia (Studio Moderna; multi-channel retailing in 20 countries), to
Brazil (Tecsis; wind-turbine blades for the US and Europe) to Iceland (Actavis; generic pharmaceuticals in
40 world markets) show that entrepreneurship spreads far beyond the latest Internet technology. These
rapidly growing, high potential ventures -- and thousands like them -- may still be under the public
radar, but they are already having huge impact in their respective fields; no less importantly, they are
making their economies more competitive, their citizens more prosperous, and they are creating jobs
for many and inspiring further entrepreneurship in others.
For those countries not yet blooming with new ventures, get ready. As the successes become more
visible and prove that value-creating entrepreneurship can and does happen anywhere and everywhere,
the cultivation of a conducive ecosystem will not be a “nice-to-have” opportunity but a “must-have”
necessity. Citizens everywhere will expect and demand the equal access to the possibility of prosperity
that entrepreneurship can provide.
Daniel Isenberg is the founding Executive Director of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project and Professor
of Management Practice at Babson Global. Professor Isenberg has taught at Harvard, Columbia, INSEAD, Technion,
and Reykjavik. From 1987-2004 he lived in Israel and contributed to the entrepreneurial revolution there as an
entrepreneur, venture capitalist, consultant, and educator. A frequent Harvard Business Review contributor, in
June, 2010 Harvard Business Review featured Professor Isenberg’s “How to Start an Entrepreneurial Revolution” as
the “Big Idea” lead article. His popular blogs have appeared in Forbes, Huffington Post, Economist, and Harvard
Business Review Online.
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Leonard A. Schlesinger became the 12 president of Babson College on July 1, 2008—bringing to the College a
blend of leadership experience in academia and industry, particularly in the retail and service sectors. He came to
Babson from Limited Brands, based in Columbus, Ohio, where he served in executive positions from 1999–2007,
most recently as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. From 1985–1988, he was Executive Vice President and
Chief Operating Officer at Au Bon Pain. President Schlesinger served for over 20 years as Professor at the Harvard
Business School.
________________________________________________________________________
revolution@babson.edu
+1 (781) 239-6290