Season 2, Episode 11 - Global entrepreneurship rising

On The Heels of Innovation with Ted Zoller

With Elmira Bayrasli global entrepreneurship author, CEO and co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted, and professor at Bard College

Picture an entrepreneur in your head, and you probably place them somewhere in Silicon Valley – or at least somewhere in the United States. Yet, there are now more entrepreneurs in countries outside the U.S. than inside. And while many of these individuals have traditionally been “necessity entrepreneurs” – those who create ventures to live and survive – a growing number are now scaling up their businesses to operate like the ones we see in Silicon Valley: solving problems on a mass scale, employing thousands of people and attracting major investments. What’s behind the rise in global entrepreneurship? Elmira Bayrasli, author of From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places, discusses what she’s learned by studying the stories of entrepreneurs in different cultural contexts and geographies around the world. Are there characteristics that all entrepreneurs share that help them succeed wherever they live? What roles do technology and economic globalization play? Do entrepreneurs in the non-Western world respond to setbacks more effectively? And what’s the potential for entrepreneurship to influence foreign policy and help solve economic and social challenges on a global scale?