[2008.08.02] 创业精神：图穷匕见，展现真理

Entrepreneurship
创业精神

Spreading the gospel
图穷匕见，展现真理

Jul 31st 2008 | MEXICO CITY AND NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition

An effort to promote entrepreneurship in the developing world is bearing fruit
一项致力于在发展中国家推动创业精神的努力即将取得成果

EARLIER this year Mario Chady faced a crucial decision. Having built up Spoleto, his chain of casual Italian restaurants, to 150 outlets in Brazil, and opened in Mexico and Spain, the time had come for Mr Chady, based in Rio de Janeiro, to choose between expanding into America or putting the idea on hold for at least 18 months. To help make up his mind, he asked for help from an organisation called Endeavor, which had chosen him as a potential “high-impact entrepreneur” in 2003.
Mario Chady 在年初的时候面临着一个非常关键的抉择。他创建的意大利风味快餐连锁店–Splleto，已经在巴西、墨西哥和西班牙开了150个门店；总部设在里约热内卢的Chady先生需要在下面两个方案作出选择：向美国市场扩张，还是把这个想法雪藏至少18个月。他向一个叫做”奋斗”的组织寻求帮助来作出最后的决定，他本人在2003年被该组织选为潜在”高影响力企业家”。

Endeavor is a non-profit group based in New York dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship in emerging economies. It had already supplied three teams of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to help Mr Chady craft a strategy for America. But as he spoke to members of the Endeavor network, ranging from leading Brazilian business tycoons to fellow up-and-coming entrepreneurs, he became convinced that it was the right strategy but the wrong time. Mr Chady decided to concentrate on expanding even faster in Brazil, and leave America for later. “The US economy is not at a very good stage, whereas Brazil is very hot now. Endeavor helped me see this,” he says.
Endeavor是总部设于纽约的一个非营利集团，致力于在新兴经济地区推动创业精神。它已经为Chady先生抽调了三组由麻省理工学院学生组成的团队，帮助他设计进军美国的策略。他与Endeavor网络成员进行了交谈，对象包括巴西商业大亨的领军人物以及其他同样积极进取的创业者；会谈后他相信扩张的策略是正确的，但是时机并不合适。于是Chady决定集中精力加速扩张在巴西的业务规模，进军美国的计划暂时搁置。他指出”美国的经济状况不是很理想，但是巴西目前确是热点国家，Endeavor帮助我认识到了这点”。

It is routine for entrepreneurs to consult their networks of mentors in Silicon Valley. But in much of the world, such networks are notable by their absence-and so, too, are examples of Silicon Valley-style successful entrepreneurship. Changing this was why Endeavor was created in 1997.
在硅谷，向导师团队进行咨询已经成为创业者们的例行方式。但在世界更多的地方，这种咨询网络却鲜为人知，硅谷型的成功创业案例也同样不为人知。1997年Endeavor的创立也就是为了改变这种状况。

“Why can’t the next Silicon Valley pop up in Cairo or São Paulo or Johannesburg?” asks Linda Rottenberg, who co-founded Endeavor with Peter Kellner, a venture capitalist. Fresh from Yale, she was working in Buenos Aires for Ashoka, an organisation that supports social entrepreneurs-people with innovative, usually non-profit ideas for solving social problems-and concluded that ordinary entrepreneurs needed a similar support system. Much of the difference between countries such as America, where entrepreneurship thrives, and those where it does not is cultural rather than regulatory, she believes. In many emerging economies, business tends to be dominated by a closed elite hostile to new entrepreneurs-and failure is stigmatised, rather than being a badge of honour, as it is in Silicon Valley.
“为什么下一个硅谷不能出现在开罗、圣保罗或者约翰内斯堡呢？”Linda Rottenberg不禁发出这样的疑问。她本人是风险资本家，并且同Peter Kellener共同建立了Endeavor。 耶鲁大学毕业后，她就职于布宜诺斯艾利斯的一个向社会创业者提供支持的机构。所谓社会创业者就是那些富有创新精神，通常不以营利为目的或者以解决社会问题为己任的人。多年的工作使她认识到普通创业者同样需要一个类似的系统来提供支持。创业精神在类似美国这样的国家非常兴旺发达，而在有些国家却截然相反；她相信这些不同的大部分原因来自文化，而不是法规。在很多新兴经济国家，生意被一些精英人物控制，他们对创业者持敌对态度；而且失败在这里是令人蒙羞的事情，而在硅谷却是荣誉的勋章。

The making of a start-up
启航

Getting Endeavor started required some classic start-up doggedness of its own. At first, the philanthropic foundations Ms Rottenberg courted regarded the project as too elitist. “They complained that we were only trying to build a middle class, not to help the poor, despite all the academic evidence that a strong middle class is essential to prosperity,” she recalls. Eventually Stephan Schmidheiny, a Swiss industrialist who has given away a large chunk of his fortune in Latin America, was persuaded to provide some seed capital, and Endeavor was up and running, initially in Argentina and Chile. Today it operates in 11 countries, including South Africa, Turkey and, most recently, Jordan.
推动Endeavor这个组织运转起来需要一些来自内部的顽强动力。首先，Rottenberg女士争取到的博爱基金会认为这个项目太过精英化，她回忆道：”尽管所有得研究结果都可以证明发达的中产阶级对于社会繁荣是至关重要的，但是他们仍然在抱怨我们只是在构建中产阶级，而不是在帮助贫穷的人” 瑞士工业家Stephan Schmidheiny在拉美地区投入了大量的资本，在别人的劝说下他最终向Endeavor提供了原始资本，于是该组织开始在智利和阿根廷运转起来。目前该组织的业务范围扩展到11个国家，包括南非、土耳其和约旦。

Endeavor’s magic works most powerfully in its selection process. Entrepreneurs are screened first by a national panel of successful businessmen, and then, if they are short-listed, by an international panel. So far over 18,000 entrepreneurs have been screened but fewer than 400 have been chosen. The aim is to identify those who can succeed on a scale that will make them into national role models, and then provide them with every possible support. But the process is designed to benefit all entrants, by helping them define their visions more clearly.
Endeavor魔术般的工作成果主要得益于其强有力的筛选流程。创业者们的初选评审团由全国杰出的企业家组成，首轮胜出者将接受国际评审团的考察。因此超过18000名的创业者参与了评选，但是只有不到400人成功过关。如此流程的目的是甄别出那些可以取得成功的人选并培养他们成为全国行为榜样，然后从各个方面向他们提供所有可能的支持。该流程的设计还可以让所有的参与者都能受益，帮助他们更清晰的明确各自的愿景。

Endeavor’s national boards are rosters of leading tycoons-the founders of InBev in Brazil, Jennifer Oppenheimer in South Africa and Lorenzo Zambrano, boss of Cemex, in Mexico, for example. The international board, chaired by Edgar Bronfman Jr, boss of Warner Music, is even more august. At a selection meeting in Turkey in June, the panel included Daniel Och, a hedge-fund boss, Naguib Sawiris of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom, Brian Swette, the chairman of Burger King, and Ali Koç of Koç Holdings. “It is a lot of fun. You go to all these nice places in the world, find all these young enthusiastic people, who you get to help. Sometimes you invest, maybe make some money,” says Ali Mehmet Babaoglu, a Turkish textile tycoon.
Endeavor 国家委员会的名单上都是领袖级的企业大亨–例如居住在巴西的全球第二大饮料公司InBev的创建者，生活在南非的De Beers公司董事章Jennifer Oppenheimer，墨西哥Cemex的老板Lorenzo Zambrano。全球委员会则是在华纳音乐老板Edgar Bronfman Jr.的领导下，成员背景更加雄厚。6月份在土耳其举行的一次选举会议上，委员会成员包括对冲基金老板Daniel Och，埃及Orascom 电信公司老板Naguib Swwiris，美国汉堡王董事长，Brian Swette以及土耳其工业集团Koç Holdings 的Ali Koç。 土耳其纺织业巨头Ali Mehmet Babaoglu这样评价道：”这很有趣，你来到全球很多地方并且发现这些热情洋溢但需要你帮助的年轻人；有时候你的投入还会带来一些回报。”
Once the selection process is over, these business figures then become mentors to the entrepreneurs. “Endeavor’s genius has been to get the establishment in these countries together, not to kill these entrepreneurial companies but to support them,” says Bill Sahlman, a professor at Harvard Business School who was recruited as an adviser early on.
一旦选择流程结束，这些业内的重量级人物就转变角色成为创业者们的导师。”Endeavor的天才之处在于在这些国家内一同建立，目的不是为了扼杀这些富有创业精神的公司，而是为了帮助他们”哈佛商学院的Bill Shalman教授这样评论，他本人近期也被聘请为顾问之一。

Endeavor’s entrepreneurs-who collectively now control companies with combined revenues of $2.4 billion and 91,000 employees, earning on average ten times the minimum wage in their country-rarely say they would not have succeeded without Endeavor. But they all believe they got bigger much sooner thanks to its endorsement and support. Leonardo Shapiro of VeriFone, a maker of online credit-card payment systems, describes as “priceless” the advice he got from Pedro Aspe, a former finance minister of Mexico, before he flew to meet a potential American buyer of his firm, and the legal help Endeavor arranged from White & Case, which although not pro bono “was at a very interesting discount, and pay it when you can.”
Endeavor的创业者们所经营的全部公司年营业收入达到了24亿美元，员工数量更是达到9100人，工资收入超过当地最低水平的10倍。虽然这些创业者很少提及他们的成功与Endeavor之间的关系，但是他们相信很快就可以向Endeavor表达更加真诚的谢意。VeriFone的Leonardo Shapiro创立了信用卡在线支付系统，他用”无价”来形容墨西哥前财务部长Pedro Aspe在他即将赴美与潜在买家会谈收购时给出的建议；同时Endeavor还安排了来自White&Case的法律协助，虽然这不是免费的公益事业，但是结果是”收取最低廉的费用，并且在你可以负担得起的时候才支付。”

One of Endeavor’s earliest successes was Wenceslao Casares, who sold Patagon, his Argentine internet brokerage, to Banco Santander for $705m at the peak of the dotcom bubble. He believes Endeavor has started to change cultural attitudes in the countries where it has been active for a while, mostly in Latin America. “When I said I was going to start a business, it was against everyone’s advice, from my family to my university,” he says. “Now, go to the same university and the same professors will tell you that one of their goals is to produce good entrepreneurs.”
Endeavor早期的成功案例之一是在互联网泡沫的巅峰时期将互联网中介公司Patagon以7亿美元的价格出售给Banco Santander的阿根廷人Wenceslao Casares。他相信Endeavor开始改变了这个国家的在拉美地区已经比较活跃的文化态度，”当我决定开始做生意的时候，从家人到学校没有一个人支持我”他说到”但是现在同样学校的相同教授却以培养出创业者为目标。”

Brazil is perhaps most vibrant of all. Endeavor’s successes include Leila Velez, who grew up in a favela and whose beauty salon firm, Beleza Natural, now has revenues of $30m, and Bento Koike, whose wind-turbine-blade manufacturing firm, Tecsis, recently struck a $1 billion deal to supply mighty General Electric.
巴西也许是这些国家中最为活跃的。Endeavor在这里的成功中包括目前年收入达到3000万美元的美容沙龙公司Beleza Natural，它的创始人Leila Velez崛起于巴西郊区的贫民窟。还有Bento Koike创建的风力涡轮叶片制造公司Tecsis，该公司最近与美国GE公司签订了货值10亿美元的供货合同。

Going global
走向世界

Endeavor has “created islands of hope,” says Mr Casares. Now it must find ways to “change continents, not just little islands.” This has been recognised by Endeavor’s global board, which recently adopted an ambitious plan to expand to 25 countries by 2015. Endeavor is confident that it now knows how to adapt its model to new countries, having learnt from early stumbles in Chile, South Africa and Turkey. Fadi Ghandour, the Jordanian boss of Aramex, a logistics firm, believes there is much potential in the Arab world, which is full of young would-be entrepreneurs who have “discovered the new thing, that it pays to have an idea, not rely on land or investing.”
Casares女士评价Endeavor 已经”创立了希望的岛屿”，现在它的目标是”不能满足于一个小岛，而是要把它发展成希望的大陆”。这个理想已经被Endeavor的全球委员会接受，他们近期采取了一些激进的策略，希望可以在2015年的时候将机构开设到25个国家。由于有之前在智利、南非和土耳其的教训,Endeavor现在对于在新国家推行发展模式表现得非常自信。Fadi Ghandour，一个约旦物流公司Aramex的老板，相信阿拉伯世界因为存在着很多可能成为创业者的年轻人而体现出强劲的潜力；他们发现了Endeavor这个资助新鲜观念而不是依靠土地或者投资运营的组织。

Funding has long been a problem for Endeavor. As a non-profit, it has to rely on donors-many recruited through a glitzy annual gala in New York-which has been tough at times, as in the months after the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001. Would it make more sense to be a for-profit operation? Endeavor has struggled constantly with whether to pursue profits, but each time has concluded no, says Ms Rottenberg, who also says she declined the chance to set up a $100m fund focused on emerging-market entrepreneurs. “If Endeavor had been an investor, rather than an independent, objective, non-profit enabler, it would not have been trusted by the business elite, or the entrepreneurs,” she insists. “Trust is everything.”
Endeavor一直以来总是被资金问题所困扰。作为一个非营利组织，它一直依靠捐助运营，其中大部分是通过每年在纽约举办的盛大捐助会筹集的；但是2001年911后的这段时间里捐助活动进展的非常艰难。是否把它变成盈利组织会变得更有意义？”在是否趋利的问题上Endeavor一直在进行思考，但是每一次都是以保持非营利性告终。”Rotternberg女士这样说到。同时她曾经拒绝过专门为新兴市场创业者立项的1亿美元资金。”如果Endeavor从建立之初就不是一个独立、客观、非盈利的缘梦者，而是一个投资者，那么它就无法得到商业精英们以及创业者们的信赖”她坚持说”信赖以为这一切”。

Happily, Endeavor has high hopes of moving onto a stronger financial footing. In some countries where it operates, starting with Brazil, successful entrepreneurs are signing up to a “give back” programme, donating 2% of their equity to Endeavor. With luck this could soon make the national operations self-sustaining. Moreover, on July 31st Omidyar Network, the philanthropic organisation set up by Pierre Omidyar, who made his money in Silicon Valley by founding eBay, announced a $10m investment to build up the capacity of Endeavor’s global operations. “Endeavor is already having a significant impact,” says Matt Bannick, managing partner at Omidyar Network. “Given capital, it could grow rapidly.” Watch this space.
值得庆幸的是Endeavor有望得到更强的金融基础。在它从事经营活动的所有国家内，从巴西开始，成功的创业者们就签署了回馈协议，将可分配价值的2%回馈给Endeavor。如果足够运气的话，这样的方式可以让这个全国运营的组织自给自足。更好的消息来自7月31日，资助eBay而在硅谷取得巨大收益的Pierre Omidyar表示通过他建立的慈善组织Omidyar Network向Endeavor投入1000万美元用以建立全球运营的能力。”Endeavor已经拥有了强大的影响力，”Omidyar Network的管理和作者Matt Bannick评价到”只要提供足够的资本，它可以高速的增长”。留意它的发展吧。

译者：tidehunter   http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13245&extra=page%3D1