Glenn Tilton delivers the Democracy that Delivers for Entrepreneurs opening address.
Creating a society that encourages entrepreneurship and makes it easy to start and grow a business requires more than just money and a good idea: it requires a whole network of interlocking institutions, policies, and cultural attitudes collectively known as the “entrepreneurship ecosystem.”
Today in Chicago — one of America’s great entrepreneurial cities — policy experts, educators, and business leaders from around the world came together for Democracy that Delivers for Entrepreneurs, a unique conference on building and strengthening these entrepreneurship ecosystems.
Kicking off the conference, Glenn Tilton, Chairman for the Midwest at JPMorgan Chase (which is hosting the event), explained why a large, established company like his is concerned with promoting entrepreneurship. For one thing, developing the economy is good for every company, and entrepreneurs drive growth and create jobs.
Tilton also noted that many of the problems entrepreneurs deal with in the developing world also exist, in one form or another, even in economically successful cities like Chicago. Companies like JPMorgan can both learn from the way organizations in other countries deal with these issues and share their own solutions.
The opening panel looked at the specifics of some of these solutions. Amy Wilkinson, a public policy scholar at the Wilson Center who studies entrepreneurship, argued that successful entrepreneurial ecosystems may look different depending on their specific local context. Her advice: “stop emulating Silicon Valley” and look at ways to build on an area’s unique strengths and opportunities.
One issue that all of today’s panelists all agreed on was the importance of the rule of law. Aurelio Concheso, former president of the Center for the Divulgation of Economic Information (CEDICE) in Venezuela, noted that laws and regulations which protect existing businesses at the expense of new ones can create an economy that is “more mercantilism than capitalism.” Wilkinson added that strong rule of law can actually be a competitive advantage for countries seeking international investment.
Michael Hershman, co-founder of Transparency International, also noted that multinational companies can create a positive multiplier effect through their extensive international supply chains.
These issues were echoed by the second panel, moderated by Tilton, where successful Chicago-area entrepreneurs and business leaders F.K. Day, Betsy Shields, and Dean DeBiase talked about the institutional environment and support that helped them grow their businesses and how to extend such support to future entrepreneurs.
One of the most important forms of support was the idea of working with other companies, both fellow startups and more established firms. In the Chicago area, the Chicagoland Entrepreneurship Center is attempting to formalize these relationships through its 1871 center, a co-working space where startups can develop their products and services, network, and meet with more experienced mentors or potential funders. (On Monday, conference attendees had the opportunity to tour the space.)
DeBiase also pointed to the importance of culture and mentality in fostering entrepreneurship. After the technology bubble of the late 1990s, DeBiase said, words like “technology” and “startup” were frowned upon by the business community in Chicago. Changing that mentality was the first step towards turning the city into a destination for entrepreneurs.
Creating this culture of entrepreneurship is a key part of entrepreneurship education and policy — and the topic of tomorrow morning’s blog post. Stay tuned!
Find out more about the conference at democracythatdelivers.com.
