The long-awaited The change in the productive model must be reflected in an intense and differentiated activity in the creation of new innovative companies, new business mechanisms, generation of new business ideas, etc., which feed the consolidation of high-value activities from the base of the economic engine added and contribute to the development of emerging sectors.
For this, it is necessary to overcome the current brakes and barriers in entrepreneurial activity. We have to learn to undertake more and above all faster, in such a way that, despite the possibility of failure that always exists, we try to abandon the tail wagons of the follower economies and try to get as close as possible to the true locomotives capable of generating trends and innovative exportable models.
The first pillar on which action must be taken is the stimulation of the entrepreneurial condition. Despite the efforts that have been made by local and regional administrations, it is not easy to dismantle the myth of the official who runs through this country sowing his spores everywhere. Perhaps the key, in this case, lies in promoting initiatives that familiarize the youngest with business activity, entrepreneurship, creativity and the generation of ideas; all this through workshops, talks and group games. Without a doubt, its effects will be observed in the long term.
The second pillar based on support for entrepreneurial initiatives, and with short-term effects, must be led by local administrations and organizations that, due to their proximity to the entrepreneur and businessman and knowledgeable about reality local, are empowered to incubate such initiatives with special affection. Among the support channels for initiatives, we can highlight the High Business Performance Centers that actively support entrepreneurship processes. For example, facilitating temporary installations while the business model is defined and the business activity begins. Offering effective, innovative and up-to-date training on management, communication, advertising, Web 2.0, emerging business models, etc. Weaving a network of relationships with world-renowned Technology Centers, as well as with universities that can complement the R&D work that, otherwise, an embryonic micro-SME could not support. In this sense, the support given to entrepreneurial initiatives from institutions, such as Barcelona Activa or Göteborg Business Region AB, are illustrators of the possibilities and instruments that can be implemented from the local administration.
In fact, many of the entities that currently offer their support to entrepreneurs limit it to a large extent to advising on the business plan. Something should evolve in the entrepreneurship process, relegating the business plan to the background and promoting as a priority the construction of a network of alliances, suppliers, followers, potential clients and specialists. This approach to the real business world would allow the definition of a feasible business model, thus ensuring the start-up of the business activity with chances of success.
In addition, the companies themselves and the administration also have to take a qualitative leap in terms of their attitude towards intrapreneurship, promoting from their structures the generation of new ideas, projects, products or processes capable of ending in a new line of business or in a satellite company or spin-off. In this sense, we can start by extrapolating attitudes and adapting the programs launched by large multinationals such as Philips to SMEs and the administration itself.
It seems unlikely that the favorable circumstances that surround entrepreneurs in regions with a great capacity for business creation, such as Silicon Valley, can be found in other smaller regions that do not have the necessary resources. Trying to replicate the structures that these reference nuclei have can consume too many efforts and resources, so it would be much more interesting to favor the systematic calling of meetings, conventions or rallies attended by the great gurus and where the trends detected in those can be transmitted. referent nuclei. In sectors such as the world of the Web, there are already forums that allow this exchange of information, as well as forging a network of contacts. For example: events such as First Tuesday in Madrid and Barcelona with the aim of connecting entrepreneurs with Business Angels. Gradually other events, such as the Initiator, which do not require a intensive presence of top-level investors, they are being replicated throughout the rest of the geography, fostering the creation of collaboration networks among their attendees. The maturity that these events are reaching, as well as their success, can be a good excuse to start exporting them and adapting them to other sectors.
On the other hand, it would be an interesting bet to install observatory offices in international reference centers such as the well-known Silicon Valley or the Île de France region at a European level, which facilitate the presence of entrepreneurs in this dynamic environment during a stay. of time that allows the configuration of a network of alliances. It can also help facilitate the timely movement of entrepreneurs for events or meetings. A far from vain objective of these centers would be the transfer of information from the highly innovative centers to their region of origin.
In this sense, an interesting effort that local administrations can undertake is the attraction of human capital that stimulates entrepreneurial activity. As we have said, the structures cannot be replicated, but it is possible that, temporarily, these structures move around the Spanish geography and not only reside in the great economic epicenters. In such a way that investors, business angels, SCR, can not only give their help to provincial entrepreneurs, but also be impregnated with the advances, ideas and means that they have.
The third pillar should be based on the creation of a favorable legal framework. As a first initiative in this sense, it would be convenient to replicate the model of Ventanilla Única Empresarial, which offers an integrated service in the processing of the constitution of the company, and extends it to other areas of entrepreneurship, such as the request for subsidies, aid, reports or audits, thus avoiding the entrepreneur having to go through all and each of the corresponding organisms. In such a way that a single interlocutor channel would be created before the entrepreneurs and the rest of the organizations.
In this sense, when it comes to facilitating procedures, without a doubt, the digitalization of all administrative processes, whether they are constitution, aid applications or others, with the competent administration, is especially important.
On the side of aid and subsidies, it goes without saying that they should not constitute an objective in itself in the decision to launch a business activity. But it also seems sensible to think that it should not impede an obstacle to the entrepreneur or become a labyrinth that distorts the reality of business activity, so it would be interesting for grants and subsidies to have permanently open calls, avoiding their temporary nature. Local administrations, aware of the real fact and as the closest link to the citizen, have to avoid, as far as possible, the duplication of said subsidies and aid. Surely the help that a local administration can offer an entrepreneur, in terms of advice, clearly identifying the aid to which his business project can qualify and facilitating its processing, is of much more interest to the entrepreneur than an offer of aid that in many cases they are already accessible through other supralocal channels.
It is, without a doubt, the author’s opinion, which he hopes will be shared and enriched by the avid reader, that the long-awaited economic reactivation, the change in the economic and productive model, as well as a solid commitment to an awake, innovative and creative society capable of managing its present and to write their own future, they have to go through greater entrepreneurial dynamism and for this we must work to shore up the three exposed pillars, capable of enabling a favorable environment.