Accelerate Psychological Fitness for Entrepreneurs

Measuring mindset in the ecosystem

Authors:

Dr Anna-Rosa le Roux, Yolande Coetzee, Charles Maisal

The reality

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) states that many of the world’s governments, think tanks, non-governmental and international organizations now look towards entrepreneurship as a key part of the solution to ending poverty and social inequity, promoting women’s empowerment, and implementing business solutions to the world’s environmental challenges, including climate change (GEM 2019,2020 report).

Elsewhere there is a growing emphasis and focus on entrepreneurship as a vehicle to develop sustainable economies and livelihoods. For organisations to thrive in volatile and disruptive environments requires them to increasingly operate with the agility of the entrepreneur. How do we develop and sustain the entrepreneurial spirit at scale? (University of Cambridge Business School, May 2021) Higher education institutions recognise that a greater focus is needed on nurturing entrepreneurship and innovation to drive economic growth and spur the creation of jobs, either in building entrepreneurs for start-ups, scale-ups, in existing (large) organisations. Incubators and accelerators focus to get entrepreneurs market ready and realise the importance of ecosystem development in providing startups and scale-ups with resources that they need to grow, including access to experienced mentors, sources of funding and a supportive community

In Europe, Entrepreneurial education is one of the three key areas targeted by the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan (“Promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship in schools and universities”), which the European Commission adopted in January 2013.

In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa, Chairperson of the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation, is deeply committed to the idea of development of entrepreneurs, a sector he has identified as critical to the empowerment of historically marginalised South Africans. (Black Umbrellas, 2021)

The need

South Africa faces deep economic challenges, and it needs entrepreneurs to contribute to solving these issues, however, the level of entrepreneur success is still very low. According to the latest GEM report, pre-pandemic South African entrepreneurs' intention to start a business was well below the figures for the rest of Africa and other efficiency-driven countries.

Our niche focus

The South African context necessitates a resilient and uniquely tough entrepreneur.

According to research, entrepreneurs’ personal characteristics may be one of the most important sets of factors for business success. The entrepreneur integrates human and financial resources to organise, produce, and market products and services that yield value for customers and employees.

Recently, a growing cohort of psychology-based researchers has renewed interest in entrepreneurs' personal characteristics as predictors of success by moving beyond the previous requirement criteria.

Research into what makes the SA entrepreneur uniquely successful is much needed. 

When we peeked into the entrepreneur ecosystem

In a series of conversations with angel investors, programme leads at business schools and higher educational institutions, Heads of Innovation/ Sustainability in Corporates, Incubators, Youth development agencies and NGOs we realised that:

• Often our funding decisions, lack consideration of the entrepreneur mindset, putting us at risk when we rely on colloquial, opinion or anecdotal evidence
• Funding programmes don't differentiate between a small business owner and an entrepreneur
• We are lacking entrepreneur role models that could inspire young entrepreneurs to follow in their footsteps

Using Entrepreneur Psychology

Worklife Digital and Work Psych aims to use Entrepreneur Psychology to strengthen the Entrepreneur ecosystem in South Africa.

Our goals are:

• To identify entrepreneurs in South Africa and differentiate them from the general population.
• To accelerate the psychological fitness of Entrepreneurs

How

We measure the personal characteristics of the South African entrepreneur that has been identified by researchers as predictors of entrepreneurial success. Working scientifically informed with a holistic theoretical model that is inclusive of multi-dimensional entrepreneurial characteristics. The theoretical model shows predictive validity with entrepreneurial success over 7 years. Our survey items are designed to present a sample of entrepreneurial characteristics in the theoretical model, easily identifiable by entrepreneurs and/ or a third party.

Where to from here

Given the challenge of the South African economy, President Cyril Ramaphosa has emphasized the importance of South Africans to embrace a culture of entrepreneurship as the country attracted R1.2 trillion in investment over five years.

• Value South African entrepreneurs of all races, cultures and locations and set them apart from the “other” ordinary business people by valuing their business, personal brand and setting them apart as role models
• Government and financial institutions should identify and fund/resource them with much flexibility to risk aversion
• Give emerging South African entrepreneurs exposure to advance their enterprises and cross-pollinate ideas
• Provide basic courses and mentorship on entrepreneurship in all schools and tertiary levels of education.
• Reward successful South African entrepreneurs to aspire to follow in the footsteps of great SA entrepreneurs (Adapted from an IOL article by Bheki Mfeka, 2020)

What is our call to action?

We invite role players to join us to become part of the national ecosystem in creating the South African Entrepreneurial spirit. We aim to help identify Entrepreneurs in various spheres of society, whether this is at community, school, workplace and tertiary institutions.

Ultimately, our call to action is to stimulate generational entrepreneurship through identifying people with the greatest chance to become successful entrepreneurs.

To participate contact us at journeys@worklife.digital