A recent publication of Ernst&Young (EY) on Megatrends highlights the importance of entrepreneurship: “The growth and prosperity of all economies, rapid-growth and mature, remain highly dependent on entrepreneurial activity… they provide a source of income, and employment for themselves, create employment for others, produce new and innovative products or services, and drive greater upstream and downstream-value-chain activities.” I would call those people “project managers”. However, most of nowadays project managers do not perceive themselves as entrepreneurs or are not seen as such in their organisations.

Entrepreneurship implies qualities of leadership, initiative and innovation in business. It is about managing change and moving things forward. Entrepreneurs are powerful people and able to overcome resistance. They are creative in finding new ways to do things, they certainly see the risks but better balance those with the opportunities. Especially in the developing economies, the entrepreneurs are young and female, recent surveys show this fact.

Whilst entrepreneurs are seen very positively for their contribution to the economic growth, within organisations they are often seen as threat. They do not work according to the rules, they, they often need to break the rules in order to be successful. They are powerful with their ideas, other people in the organisation may feel offended and try to hinder an entrepreneur in moving forward. In case an entrepreneur is successful, there are all doors open for a fast track career. But that´s exactly, why other people, waiting for their careers to progress, by all means try the entrepreneurs to be successful.

In essence, we need to allow for more entrepreneurship in our society, economy and especially in our organisations. Otherwise the entrepreneurs will leave the country or start on their own. We would lose the innovative capacity to move our economies fast forward. Project managers need to embrace entrepreneurship in order to add value to our society. The society needs to allow for more entrepreneurship by fostering a entrepreneur-friendly culture. A win-win for both sides!