Job Summit - Representing Entrepreneurs, innovation and Small Business

UPDATE:

The Job Summit was a really good day of having a whole lot of business, government and community all working on ideas, and syncing up with people who want to make it happen.

• John Key - watch video of John key
• Bill English - watch video of Bill English
• Pita Sharples - watch video of Pita Sharples

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We’re off to Prime Minister John Key’s Job Summit tomorrow with the StartUp and Made From New Zealand film crew covering it from a entrepreneurial, innovation & small business perspective. There’s a few solutions/angles we’ll be trying to get discussed:

4 Solutions / Angles we’ll be taking

1. Connect and Promote our global entrepreneurial community
2. Create a self-responsibility and entrepreneurial culture - Sure some people are a long way away from having their own business, or being in a position where they can take a lead in someones business, but we need to focus on building the massive layer of people who are able to reposition themselves to be more valuable in this environment instead of helping the employers retain them in their current capacity. No job can just be safe, there are hundreds of millions of people in this world with very little wanting a bit more, it is our responsibility to do something valuable in this world, not just expect to get paid for doing something we’ve always done.
3. Help our micro business owners become more innovative entrepreneurs who create unique value for the world (These hard working, highly motivated people already understand principals of entrepreneurship like self management, persistence and business management, but may have so far only run a simple conventional business like a dairy… untapped assets!)
4. Build an online economy - New Zealand business owners need to know how to use online for low cost global promotion and sales, increased productivity, increased network and shared knowledge. Whether it’s a TV series, Online Video Promotion, Business Communities that focus on building online capability, or a media campaign - word should be out and the wheels in motion - if we spend a small amount on educating and providing tools to help our businesses use the power of the online world to grow their business, we would see significant and ongoing organic growth in exports, productivity and innovation. Online is not about technology, it’s not a young thing, a high-tech thing, it’s just simply the lowest cost, highest yielding marketing, sales, networking and productivity solution available. We can easily be a smart, lean mean small country that comfortably kicks ass all around the world.

Big just doesn’t mean best

Big business might employ a lot of people, but they’re now the ones faced with laying many people off. We do need to figure out some tactical moves to help curb the otherwise significant amount of lay-offs they may need to make in the short term, but there’s a reason they’re in the position they’re in, there model, organisational and cost structures are sometimes just not right, we don’t need more of the same, things need to change.

We can’t just expect big business to be able to restructure their businesses quickly to meet the current environment of reduced capital, and the future of limited resources. Regulatory changes to assist in retaining cash in businesses is fine, but there’s a more fundamental issue, the world has changed, it’s not going through a dip, it’s changing, and the dip is just a signal.

The Entrepreneurs are ready and in progress

The environment of low capital and living on oily rags is not unfamiliar to entrepreneurs and small businesses. Entrepreneurs in New Zealand are used to dealing with limited capital, it’s our hood. We’re used to the idea of living off scraps while still building value and innovating. In fact we’re so used to it, that having less money has become one of the keys to driving innovation. In the world of the entrepreneur, innovation is not a luxury that you only afford when you’re flush with cash, it’s an essential. We know how to get people working with us for less than what they might get a corporate, because we create environments and opportunities were people can grow more as people, as professionals, as individuals. We create opportunities for financial independence and genuine wealth, to build equity, foriegn exchange, a future where there’s more than just a paycheck that rises by 4% every year.

If you want me to ask something of someone, take a position around this stuff, then give your support to the solutions above by following the links to Thinksmall, signing up and adding your support.