Debate Topic
California, the manifest is online at http://www.entrepreneurshipparty. com. There is also the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Ukraine, which would seem to be a contradiction, but at least the language has entered the debate. A more realistic scenario is that entrepreneurs would get involved in politics by joining a political party. A clear distinction needs to be made here between businesspeople (I’m thinking here of Meg Whitman now of HP or Carly Fiorina, also previously of HP) and a start-up entrepreneur such as Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg. As both Whitman and Fiorina failed to be elected as California Governor and the US Senate respectively, its unfair to judge them but based on their campaigns the skills that made them millions as CEOs did not transfer seemlessly to politics.
In contrast, Bloomberg was not just elected, but re-elected as Mayor of New York. It helps not only that New Yorkers have a can-do attitude but also that as a billionaire, campaign funds are always available. He turned up at a TechCrunch Disrupt conference to unveil NYC’s new Entrepreneurial Fund and has championed open data initiatives. Whether he is responsible for or just representative of, New York has advanced as a start-up hub while he has been in office.
CEO Fallacy
This debate touched on the “CEO Fallacy”, the notion that CEOs are just so wonderful that there is nothing they cannot do, including running a country. In an article in the FT last April, Simon Kuper gave an excellent round up of why this thinking is something we should be very careful with: “The analogy fails for many reasons, but above all, running an economy – let alone a country – is of a different order of complexity to running a firm. A CEO typically only has one target: to make a profit. A president has many targets.” He spoke to a researcher in complexity who added: “Companies try to get the best deal, the best bang for
the 38 entrepreneurcountry buck, but that’s not really
what being a president is about. He’s the strategic force. Those efficiency skills would be great to have in the middle management of the
federal
bureaucracy”. In his eyes, Mitt Romney from Governor to President is better than Mitt Romney from Businessman to President.
While in the US, the rule of “make money first then go into politics” just about remains, elsewhere the trend is more to make money by going into politics or worse keep money by sending your family into politics. An encouraging sign was reported last month by The Economist who noted how “Political outsiders are challenging Asia’s traditional elites.” From South Korea to Japan to India to Indonesia to Pakistan to Malaysia, a new species of “non-politician” are transforming politics. As with the Arab Spring, their tools are the engagement with the social media generation by which it is possible to compete without a big party organisation. Unfortunately the article notes that while an anti-corruption message makes a great campaign tool, grubby compromises become necessary the nearer a candidate gets to power.
Which is why the best contribution an entrepreneur can make is to stay out of politics and improve lives through specific initiatives rather than through the existing bureaucracy. I´m thinking here of the work that Michell Zappa is doing in Brazil in areas such as traffic, healthcare, banking
and
housing. This plays to an entrepreneur’s strengths in achieving outcomes as opposed to a politician´s objective which is often just to survive.
It is also frustrating to see yet another government report (the latest being the Restart Italy) that identifies the problems, and recommends the solutions yet gathers dust on the bookshelves of ministry.
some economic
Beyond that, a further opportunity may lie if, as predicted by many political scientists, the two party system that applies in most countries comes to an end. These third parties, certainly initially, will be likely to be headed by a charismatic figure. As entrepreneurs tend to be disproportionally interested in social issues and not afraid of a challenge, we may well see a new party which champions entrepreneurship, even if they do not formally call themselves by that name. So there is grounds for hope that the systems can heal itself and that a higher priority will be assigned. Even if the delay will continue to cause frustration, this is probably for the best.
Michael Bloomberg
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