NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, October 29, 2012

With the world changing at a radical pace, the 21century will need more entrepreneurs than ever in all domains. While the need to create more jobs is becoming imperative against an uncertain global economy, it is equally important to ensure that the jobs are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. To achieve this goal, an entrepreneurial ecosystem is the future roadmap.

With this in mind, the fifth edition of the World Entrepreneurship Forum, held in Lyon, France (October 24-27), brought together social, business and institutional entrepreneurs, academicians and policy-makers , among other stakeholders, to focus on a new development model, which reconciles wealth creation with social justice. As Caroline Le Brun, director, emphasised, the strength of the forum lies in bringing together people from all walks of life.

How do ecosystems adapt, depending on the abundance or scarcity of resources in their environment? Can an innovative idea that functions in one ecosystem be transplanted to another? How to foster needs-driven entrepreneurial communities at the base of the pyramid? These were some of the issues discussed by the delegates at the forum from around 59 countries.

The forum was born in Evian in 2008 from a simple idea – there will be an increasing need for entrepreneurs in the years to come. As Tugrul Atamer, vice-president , EMLYON Business School, France, and one of the founding co-presidents of the forum pointed out, “In the coming years, the world will be facing the most important discontinuities and challenges of our history since the first industrial revolution and only entrepreneurs can turn these challenges into opportunities.”