I have just returned today from a short visit to South Korea where I addressed an international conference and met with various universities both in Seoul and Daejeon Valley – described to me by locals as Korea’s Silicon Valley.
Visitors arriving at Seoul’s acclaimed airport can only be impressed by its sophisticated application of technology into everyday lives. The train I rode from Seoul to Daejoen cruised at 300 Kilometers per hour, every taxi in Seoul was clean and paid for with a back seat touchpad card reader and the urban planning seemed super smart with local government being placed in beautiful floating structures on the river and national government being moved altogether out of Seoul. It is said that much of South Korean success is due to entrepreneurs who grew conglomerate companies like Samsung, Hyundai, and LG. And that is right; these companies’ high-tech goods constitute nearly one-third of South Korea’s total exports. Despite this history of growth entrepreneurship fueling the Korean economy, I found almost unanimous opinion that a negative attitude lingers towards “entrepreneurs”, “risk” and “failure”, which is blocking the emergence of new innovators.
To read the full, original article click on this link: A Silent G20 and the Need for Entrepreneurial Role Models in South Korea - Entrepreneurship.org
Author: Jonathan Ortmans is president of the Public Forum Institute, a non-partisan organization dedicated to fostering dialogue on important policy issues. In this capacity, he leads the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, focused on public policies to promote entrepreneurship in the U.S. and around the world. In addition, he serves as a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation.
