Financial Times

Lessons in entrepreneurship and leadership
The first lesson comes from the Asian Entrepreneurs in the UK who have made millions of pounds to be listed in the Sunday Times survey of UK's richest citizens. Camilla Berens in an article in the CIMA Financial Management magazine of October 2004, attributes prudence, determination plus family cohesion to the financial success of Asian entrepreneurs. The Asian community comprising less than four percent of the total UK population had 30 in the UK top 1000 rich list.

The article goes on to describe some of these entrepreneurs and the foundations of their success. A pharmaceutical high-flying entrepreneur who came to UK as a teenager with five pounds in his pocket now assessed with his brother to be worth 425 million pounds attributes success singularly to determination.

A young entrepreneur in trading, worth 40 million pounds, attributes his achievements to unusual prudence. The top dog in the Asian rich list with a personal fortune of 3.5 billion pounds, believes that the diversified culture of India provided the back drop to flexibility in adapting to different ways of doing things within a philosophy of working in a global environment and looking for growth opportunities. An Indian origin Beer King believed to be worth 35 million pounds, attributes success to "aspiring and achieving against all odds and with integrity". A lady now worth 35 million pounds grabbed an opportunity in a niche market to make Samosa when she as a housewife found no decent quality offer within local supermarkets.

The second lesson comes from Athens where the Olympics was held recently. An elite group of sportspersons gathered to compete with each other for three limited medals in each category for themselves and their nations. The recognized hallmarks of Olympics are its traditions, gathering of the best in capability, integrity and fair play, determination, guts and grit, competitiveness, preparedness, fitness, endurance, acclimatization to new conditions, strength and weakness assessments, setting goals, recognition, cheering and motivation, sportsmanship and team spirit. Beyond the sportspersons on whom the cameras focus are those who support with proper gear, infrastructure, coaching, guidance, sports medicine support, mentoring, cheer squads, physiotherapists, psychologists and leadership devolved managers. Some sportsmen do not even compete after going to Athens.

Some others compete and fail but become determined to succeed the next time around. Some succeed and above all some succeed many times over in successive Olympics. Those who succeed many times over have all of the above qualities and support services but above all they aspire for high achievement and commit their energy unreservedly in the pursuit of same. In addition they plan a winning strategy having assessed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. They have the willingness to take risks in the pursuit the goals and the ability to practice different strokes for different modes. They also have a developed state of mind to commit to singularly focusing on success.

The third lesson comes from a group of International School kids in Colombo. They met and resolved that they will make the girls basket ball team a committed winning team. Towards this they resolved to seek guidance and mentoring from the coach and teacher in charge and pursue the "ingredients of a winning team" including commitment, regular practice, fitness, a game plan, assessment of own and opponents strengths and weaknesses, good gear, a cheering squad, support material, motivators and team spirit enhancers, continuous improvement plans for team work, captaincy, leadership and allocating responsibility action for strategy implementation amongst team members.

Their motto was " If we think we can - we can". Fourth lesson comes from Goethe, the German Poet (1749-1832), who said "whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic and power in it. Begin it now".

The fifth lesson comes from a free weekly inspiration offer on the Net which states "A person's state of mind is fundamental to their outlook on life. A healthy vibrant mind is as important as physical wellbeing. In an inspired state, the ability to achieve is greatly increased- there is greater creativity and a contagious excitement and joyfulness which often leads to others being inspired and uplifted."

Rise up! Those of whom are in leadership positions in private enterprise. The nation is looking up to you as role models in entrepreneurship and leadership to lead your teams and your enterprises to growth, productivity and quality improvements and thus global competitiveness and national economic value enhancement.

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