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Mr. Etuk Anietie

Key points:

1. The socioeconomic development of any given society is greatly enhanced by the positive development of entrepreneurs in that society.

2. Difficulties abound for entrepreneurs in the quest for solutions, but challenges are opportunities in disguise.

3. To really harness the relationship between entrepreneurship and society, youth must be increasingly informed and integrated in whatever strategy that will be deployed.

History has made it clear that different generations in different communities face distinct societal challenges. Solutions to challenges can be benchmarks in defining generations’ rate of development because breakthroughs in design revolutionize the expertise of a generation and create value. The socioeconomic development of any given society is greatly enhanced by the positive development of entrepreneurs in that society.

A challenge will continue to be part of a given society until a solution is developed. In essence, growth is not so much in the state of challenges to a society’s democracy, power, economics, or structures; but growth is the rate of developing and implementing solutions to society’s challenges.

Not only is history recorded in challenges but also in the dynamism of these challenges. Twenty-four hours will always make a day but the society we are part of is dynamic – everything will continue to change. People’s needs will grow; their desires will change; and their mindset, principles, beliefs, relationships, and quest for understanding will never be the same.

It is this dynamic nature of man that results in the dynamic nature of his society. That is why the search for solutions will never be finite. For example, the need for mobility gave birth to automobiles. When automobiles’ speed reached a limit, airplanes were built. The need for information management gave birth to computers, and when this need metamorphosed to information interchange, networks and the internet were developed. Since this search for solutions will never be finite, the need for solution providers can never be exhaustive. Inherent in the study of societal challenge and providing solution is the theory of how value is created within society.

Every generation has produced its own unique set of entrepreneurs. They all have had divergences in quest, methodology, concepts, and products they offered. Despite these differences, there exists a common thread that runs through all of them – the quest for relevance. The definition of this quest has always centered on creating value by providing solutions that people happily pay for. The basic difference between the natural solutions provider and the entrepreneur is that while the former specializes in just developing solutions, the entrepreneur not only develops solutions but knows how to make people pay for the solutions he developed.

This quest for relevance governs the mind of an entrepreneur irrespective of the size of his business. This quest is what led Bill Gates to develop a version of the programming language BASIC for the first micro computer, the MITS Altair. That simple act changed the way society managed information and replaced the filling cabinet. It is this same quest that led William Clay Ford Jr., board chairman of Ford Motors and great grandson of founder Henry Ford, to concede for the first time that sport utility vehicles (SUVs) emit more pollution than cars and can be dangerous to others on the road. He pledged to make these SUVs, which accounted for twenty percent of the company’s sales and most of its profit, cleaner and safer. Automobile manufacturers worldwide have adopted this concept and it is changing the way they design cars.

It is this quest that makes us look beyond the dictionary definition of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are much more than risk takers – they are value creators whom people pay to provide solutions to their needs. They are troubleshooters who know how to make money from the issues they resolve. Every generation known to man has had their own set of entrepreneurs. Thus it is not wrong to assume that for every generational challenge a generational entrepreneur is born. That is why a direct relationship exists between the development of entrepreneurs and the growth of society.

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This essay was a winner in the Center for International Private Enterprise's (CIPE) 2010 International Youth Essay Contest. For more information on the essay contest and to read the rest of the winning essays please visit www.cipe.org/essay

By Etuk Anietie
Project Development Officer
Quantum Entrepreneurial Development Foundation
20 Rumuola Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, Africa
2348067778800
[email protected]