Entrepreneurs Share Aspirations, Experiences at Obama Summit
Washington - In some countries and communities, entrepreneurship is not deeply ingrained. Sandiaga Uno, of Indonesia, said he first heard the word "entrepreneurship" when he was in college. Since then, he has started a private equity company in Indonesia.
A favorable business climate doesn't always go far enough for entrepreneurship to thrive. "You have to have a culture ... willing to accept entrepreneurs as change agents," said Jerry Yang, chief executive of the Internet portal Yahoo.
Uno and Yang are participating in the April 26-27 Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship ( http://www.america.gov/entrepreneurship_summit.html ) in Washington, which aims to promote entrepreneurship as the most effective way to tap energy and skills of people, who, as Pakistani-born entrepreneur Naeem Zafar put it, "don't wait for the government to create a job for them."
When the White House cast a net to different corners of the world for delegates to invite to the summit, it didn't quite expect that the group that would come to Washington would be so diverse in so many ways. After hearing from about 7,000 people, the Obama administration invited 250 delegates from roughly 60 countries to make good on the president's promise, made in a June 2009 speech in Cairo, ( http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/June/20090603171549eaifas0.6576807.html ) to host a summit on entrepreneurship "to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world."
In the end, the invitees also included entrepreneurs from non-Muslim communities. But the diversity of their backgrounds doesn't end there. Delegates range from international and regional stars such Muhammad Yunus ( http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2004/January/20040108182753atarukp0.664654.html ), the father of microfinance, and Mo Ibrahim, the founder of the most successful telecom company in Africa, to people who are known only in their local communities. Delegates work as business consultants, social entrepreneurs and educators. They range in age from people in their 20s to a 79-year-old veteran business owner. Some send tweets and write blogs; others can solve problems in their local communities by sitting down with tribal elders and leaders.
Most of the delegates came to Washington with similar expectations - to learn from each other, to exchange ideas, to network with their American counterparts and to obtain support for their enterprises. For Amadou Baro, who established a nonprofit group in Mauritania, the summit is an opportunity to do all these things. Usually, "we don't even know what people in Senegal, our neighbor, are doing," he said.
Zafar, the Pakistani-born entrepreneur who started six high-tech businesses in California's Silicon Valley, said that these entrepreneurs will connect. "All you have to do is put them in the same room and leave," he said.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, who is attending the summit, said, "If you connect people and keep engaging them, you follow through and you keep doing more of it, eventually things can grow from the grass roots."
Many delegates started their enterprises for more than just profits, and sometimes with only the public good in mind. From delegates' conversations and questions to panelists, it is clear they share a mission to make positive changes in their communities. Those who work to empower women and tap their entrepreneurial potential have been particularly vocal about their case even before the summit. (See the New Enterprise blog ( http://blogs.america.gov/ip/category/presidential-summit-on-entrepreneurship/ ) to read some of their views.) Women entrepreneurs from countries as different as Afghanistan, Albania and Qatar say that Islam does not prevent women from playing a more active role in their business communities.
Successful women entrepreneurs at the summit are talking about creating educational opportunities for girls, helping women start businesses and serving as mentors and role models. Nuria Farah is one of the delegates. She became the first woman from the volatile and impoverished North Eastern province of Kenya to attain a university degree. Later, with other prominent women, she started a boarding school for girls from that region.
The success of many women and men entrepreneurs in emerging-market and developing countries often is hard-earned. Nasra Malin, who co-founded a major telecom company in Somalia, has to deal regularly with extortion attempts and threats of violence directed at her business. A brother of Masooma Habibi, who co-founded a consulting firm in Afghanistan, was kidnapped by the Taliban while on a business trip.
But many of the entrepreneurs at the summit have been able to turn failures or obstacles into opportunities. Tri Mumpuni, who created an enterprise that brings renewable energy - and often the first reliable electricity of any kind - to villages across Indonesia, trained former rebels to install power-generation equipment and transmission lines.
Special correspondents Christopher Connell and Katherine Lewis contributed to this article.
