An Engine For Change

Milena Glimbovski runs the first supermarket in Berlin to do away with disposable packaging, Original Unverpackt. For her, being an entrepreneur means, “working according to my personal values. My decisions, even with whom I work, are based on those values.”

She is not alone, though. For Pakistani Faizan Aslam, owner of Pakistan’s leading online ticketing platform, covering transport, cinema and events, Bookme.pk, “Bringing a positive impact to people around you,” makes a real difference in what you do as “nothing feels better than identifying a problem and then developing a solution that everyone starts using in their daily life.”

“Entrepreneurs are the engines of society’s sustainable economy,” echoes Haide Shirzady owner of The Recycling and Composting Kermanshah Company, a business which undertakes waste processing and recycling planning in the Iranian city of Kermanshah.

#GEM2020: “This calls for entrepreneurial behaviour and for an entrepreneurial society that nurtures and rewards such behaviour.”

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The Research

These voices talk about values, impact, sustainability. These stories come from the new generation of entrepreneurs that, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s (GEM) latest Global Report, is willing to make a difference.

Indeed, data confirm that more than 40% of entrepreneurs in 35 of 50 countries agree or strongly agree that their motivations to launch a business are to make a difference in the world.

Women starting a business are more likely to agree with the motivation of making a difference to the world.

Download Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2019/2020 Global Report

The Call For Policymakers

“This gives hope for the future, but also underlines the urgency to keep improving conditions that lead to those forms of entrepreneurial activity that can be productive for society.”

Niels Bosma, Chair of GEM, addressing policymakers across the world.

In other words, this is an opportunity to reverse thing and rejuvenate capitalism as entrepreneurship appears to be a uniquely powerful mechanism for economic and social development, truly an engine for change.