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Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

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Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#61

Post by marknutter »

cromulent wrote: post #53
marknutter wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope Rohloff is aware of the irony that "No slogans, just facts" is a slogan. While I admire companies who make products that last forever, most people aren't that interested in spending a ton of money on something that will last forever. If you're sure you're going to be using your bike for 70+ years, $1000 isn't a bad investment. If you're like most people, you probably bike once every few months, if that, and th…

> It's not fair to compare companies that are competing on price with companies that are competing on quality. For this particular consumer, in the marketplace, it's fair enough :) And if it's unfair, bad luck.

Let me rephrase: it doesn't make any sense to compare a company that's competing on price with a company that's competing on value. They are both filling different niches in the marketplace.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#62

Post by FrojoS »

franze wrote: post #19

ok, as i'm currently starting my business in austria (that's in europe) i want to add my 2c. the biggest obstacle is that the government won't go out of your way. 1. i could start my company now 2. but it would be stupid, as i would miss out on the "unternehmensgründerförderung" (start up support) 3. for getting "unternehmensgründerförderung" you have to attend a sh#tload of courses (for about 2 months) which tell yo…

So who are your co-founders? Are there any? To me, the problem is finding co-founders not bureaucracy. As others have pointed out, you don't need to get the "Gründerzuschuss". None of the German founders, I know, says that bureaucracy is the biggest problem. Sure they complain and they might hire more if they could fire more.

But the real problem, as the article says, is culture. Germany was once the country of the "Gründerzeit". But thats more than a century ago. Indeed, most of the big companies in Europe are way older than the republics they are based at.

I'm currently graduating from one of the top tier [1] engineering schools in Germany. None of my classmates that I'm friends with is really interested in startups. They are all going for Big Car or a Doctorate. And those guys are already more ventures than average.

[1] Not, that this says a lot. University quality is still way more equally distributed than in the US. But at least, there is some competition now. Not just over research grants but also about talented students. Ironically, my university is pushing entrepreneurship a lot. They even changed their slogan to "The Entrepreneurial University" http://portal.mytum.de/welcome/

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#63

Post by afterburner »

anamax wrote: post #45
jbooth wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the European problems right now are problems that the US just plain cannot have -- Greece, Spain and Italy running up huge debts because they have the credibility of the eurozone without any of the responsibility. America's different, we're one country. Those problems aside, we could do a lot worse than modeling europe, way less gas usage, higher health insurance coverage, 2 months of vacation a year. Sounds…

> Those problems aside, we could do a lot worse than modeling europe, way less gas usage, higher health insurance coverage, 2 months of vacation a year. Sounds a lot more stable to me. And roughly half the gdp/person of the US. The US govt already collects about as much (per person) in taxes as European govts. (It collects significantly more than Canada and, iirc, slightly less than France.) Yet, no one would serious…

You should be comparing government revenue as percentage of GDP. The US collects 30% less than Canada using this measure (about 24% of GDP vs 31% of GDP for Canada). European nations come in at even higher.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#64

Post by zwieback »

forkandwait wrote: post #27
davidw wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> any serious Oregonian owns a Stihl chainsaw. Well, depending on which bit of Oregon they're from, they might abhor the idea of a device to "denude mother gaia's old growth forests" or something to that effect... Said as someone who grew up in Oregon.

I think about 53% of OR wants to dance naked in the old growth forests, and about 47% wants to cut it all down and go to church 3 times a week. Said as someone who has lived in Oregon and absolutely LOVES both its hippies and its hicks.

Brilliant - my sentiments exactly.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#65

Post by [deleted] »

JanezStupar wrote: post #29
latch wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, what? I'm not anti/pro america/europe. I'm also not very good at geography, but are you talking about the same Europe as I think you are? Are you suggesting that Europe, as a whole, is an economic model to follow right now? Or when you say Europe do you really just mean Germany ?

Tongue in cheek - Europe could be defined as federation of countries striving to become like Germany. Like US could be defined as federation of countries striving to become like NewFornia.

[deleted]

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#66

Post by DasIch »

shareme wrote: post #36

A question for European readers: Do you see the culture of the Welfare State as an obstacle to changing culture to accept that being successful, doing new business ventures is a good thing?

I don't think the Welfare State is a problem at all nor do I think we have a problem in this culture with being successful. It is just that most people consider the risk associated with creating a startup and the probability of actually succeeding to low.

Being an employee is a lot simpler, quite safe and depending on your education is a lot more likely to get you a nice lifestyle.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#67

Post by rubashov »

jerf wrote: post #22
zwieback wrote: post #17

When I was growing up in Germany I remember hearing this exact same complaint about lack of entrepreneurship a good 30 years ago. My dad, who is a solid state physicist, was a kind of cheerleader for modern technology and was exasperated how companies were not adopting and adapting more quickly. His predictions that the economy was going to go down the tubes while the rest of the world pulled away still ring in my ea…

I am reminded of the concept of differential advantage. It's OK for the US to be entrepreneurial and for Germany to have a lot of craft-focused artisans who can take technology and refine it unto the nth degree. The world is richer for having the both. It's part of the reason I think a lot of people over the decades(/centuries) who call for the US to be more a clone of Europe are calling for a really bad idea; it's m…

This American mentality of "the big entrepreneurial idea" that produces some millionaires is why we have such a lousy unemployment rate and low skill workforce compared to Japan and Germany, not to mention huge trade deficits. The problem is that the first generation idea stuff isn't where the jobs and long term money are. The long term social benefits and sustainable jobs are in perfecting and iterating products and production methods.

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune11/manufacturing-finance6-...

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#68

Post by prpon »

franze wrote: post #19

ok, as i'm currently starting my business in austria (that's in europe) i want to add my 2c. the biggest obstacle is that the government won't go out of your way. 1. i could start my company now 2. but it would be stupid, as i would miss out on the "unternehmensgründerförderung" (start up support) 3. for getting "unternehmensgründerförderung" you have to attend a sh#tload of courses (for about 2 months) which tell yo…

An unrelated question. "unternehmensgründerförderung" is that a real word or you just made it up? I would make up such words when I am mad at something and can't express my frustation in real words :)

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#70

Post by icegreentea »

cheez wrote: post #56
WiseWeasel wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I visit family and friends in the old country, I always find people's attitude depressing. There is a universal sense of dependence on the state, stemming largely from the fact that over 20% of the population is employed directly by the government, but also from a widespread sense of entitlement to welfare and other support. The state is the source of and solution to all of their problems, and this interferes wi…

In Canada, 27% of the full-time workforce works for the government directly . This doesn't count contractors.

30% seems too high. We have ~3.5 million directly employed by all levels of government [1], and a labour force of ~19 million [2]

[1] http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/GOVT65A-eng.htm [2] http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/lfss01a-eng.htm

That's maybe ~15%.

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