I received for Christmas a book on new entrepreneurial practices. I won’t name the authors so as not to drag them out of the legitimate anonymity in which they remain. More professors theorizing about business, entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurs, without ever having dipped so much as a toe into business.
Among the major discoveries in this unforgettable work, we learn, in no particular order, that “DIY” in business is growing (5 pages on that, bravo), that all entrepreneurs need personalized support (those who work with the Chambers of Commerce know just how effective that is…) and that, as the high point of some lofty thinking, the Internet and “Web 2.0” (him again) are going to change the business world.
Besides stating the obvious, this book is already outdated. If only on the three aforementioned topics, it merely watches the train go by. I will skip over the pathetic digressions about “DIY” and focus instead on two points that seem essential to me:
Support
When I created my first company in 2006, I discovered that many public organizations wanted to help me. In the end, only one organization (private) enabled me to see the project through and went beyond the mere stage of “talking about method”: Réseau Entreprendre. Let’s stop looking in crazy theories for the reasons behind this effectiveness: here, you are supported by business leaders, people and projects are assessed against real-world conditions, and in the end, we talk money (Réseau Entreprendre grants interest-free honor loans, their website is here). Business needs money to grow. Cash, money, dough, bucks.
Fewer words, more resources. Less paperwork, more commitment. Fewer sole proprietorships, more ambition. Is that too much to ask?
Changes brought about by the Web
“Internet users are now active participants on the web”, “we’re in the era of the empowered consumer”… my God, during this holiday season, protect us from all these hollow and sterile thoughts.
A little bird tells me that the real revolution lies elsewhere: beyond all the words that score big in bullshit bingo, the web is simply bringing down, one by one, the barriers that have structured our commercial societies: producers now have access to consumers. And that can change everything. On that subject, one could surely write a (good) book.
