Colombia may be associated with violence and drugs in popular culture, but it has recently been strengthening its entrepreneurial base, says the Kauffman Foundation’s Policy Forum Blog. The Colombian government has been removing barriers to starting businesses, educational institutions have been adding more entrepreneurship courses and programs, more business incubators are cropping up, and there is an increased focus on entrepreneurship in the media. Certainly there are still problems with drugs and violence, creating a chaotic environment that discourages many potential entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, some entrepreneurs have found creative ways to respond, such as a company that produces bullet-proof underwear.

Read more at the Policy Forum Blog.

In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Eduardo Marty, Founder of Junior Achievement Argentina and former host of Buenos Aires’s major television talk show Boom—Politics and Economics.

Also featured in Kaizen are student essay contest winners Kathleen Simmert, Nathaniel Branch, and Amelia Franceso, and guest speaker Nimish Adhia.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Mr. Marty.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.

Ken Phillips, in an article for Independent Contractors Australia, analyzes the failure of Australian government programs to nurture more entrepreneurship and innovation. The problem, he says, is that society is structured in a way that discourages self-employment. This decreases the amount of innovation in society because the experience of self-employment engenders a psychology of innovation. The self-employed person must constantly come up with new, creative ways to please clients. Phillips contrast self-employment to standard employment, which fosters a psychology of obedience to superiors and thus a lack of creative thinking.

Read the article here.

It’s easy to understand the importance of innovators and entrepreneurs to the economy, but it’s much harder to figure out the best ways to encourage more entrepreneurship. In an article for TechCrunch, Vivek Wadhwa explores Start-Up Chile, a program that he calls “Chile’s Grand Innovation Experiment.” Most initiatives to create the next Silicon Valley have failed, Wadhwa argues, because they use a top-down approach that fatally leaves out the most important ingredient — the entrepreneurs themselves. Start-up Chile is therefore unique because, rather than building office parks and partnering with VC’s and universities, it focuses on attracting innovators and entrepreneurs from all over the world to Chile, where they will start their own businesses.

Learn more about how Start-up Chile plans to achieve this goal and watch a video about its first crop of participants here.

Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation recently launched its first Women in Science and Engineering Business Idea Competition. “We know that more women than ever are leading U.S. businesses and hold a nearly three-to-one majority in undergraduate and graduate education, but too few pursue the path of high-growth entrepreneurship,” said Lesa Mitchell, vice president, Kauffman Foundation. “The Women in Science and Engineering Business Idea Competition is designed to illuminate world-changing concepts that have significant commercialization potential, and to escalate their visibility so that more female scientists and engineers are encouraged to pursue their entrepreneurial ideas.”

Learn more about the competition at the Kauffman Foundation’s website.

Also, be sure to read our fascinating Kaizen interviews with two highly-educated female entrepreneurs, Reena Kapoor and Judy Estrin. Both women share their thoughts on the effect of culture on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Last week, Big Think started a ten day series on the future of capitalism. Through articles and videos, the series examines the impact on capitalism of technologies such as 3D printing, virtual products and currencies, data analysis, and the relationship between governments and markets. Also featured is an interview with John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods and co-founder of Conscious Capitalism with recent CEE guest speaker Michael Strong.

Michael Strong and Magatte Wade, CEE’s final Fall 2010 Guest Speakers, discuss with Dr. Stephen Hicks the social and lifestyle benefits of entrepreneurship, as well as what type of society best promotes entrepreneurship. Mr. Strong and Ms. Wade gave talks in conjunction with Dr. Hicks’s Business and Economic Ethics class.

Watch Part I

Watch Part II

Global Entrepreneurship Week starts November 16. From the website: “For one week, millions of young people around the world join a growing movement of entrepreneurial people, to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Countries across six continents come together to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. To think big. To turn their ideas into reality. To make their mark.”

Find out about Entrepreneurship Week events in the United States here.

On Wednesday, November 3^rd CEE’s final Fall 2010 guest speakers, Michael Strong and Magatte Ward, will each give a talk at Rockford College.

Michael Strong: “Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World’s Problems”

Michael Strong is the co-founder (with John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market) and Chief Visionary Officer of Conscious Capitalism, Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes Conscious Capitalist solutions to world problems. Michael’s work is featured in academic journals (The Journal of Business Ethics, Economic Affairs, Critical Review, etc.) and in media reaching popular audiences (The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Huffington Post, RealClearPolitics, etc.). He is author of The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice and co-author of Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World’s Problems.

Magatte Wade: “How an African Entrepreneur is Working to Solve African Problems”

Magatte Wade is a serial entrepreneur who was raised in Senegal, educated in Germany and France, and began her entrepreneurial career in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she co-founded Adina World Beverages. Her current project is The Tiossano Tribe, Inc., a high-end skin care products line. Magatte writes and speaks for many audiences, and is on the boards of several non-profits that support African causes, including Afropop Worldwide, the SEEDS Academy, AllforAfrica.com, and ASNAPP.

Michael and Magatte will give their talks in conjunction with Dr. Hicks’s Business and Economic Ethics class on:

Wednesday, November 3

11 am, SCAR 220

All who are interested may attend.

FUTURALLIA 2011 will take place in Kansas City from May 18-20. From the event’s website: “Over two days, this international business development event will allow business leaders to have up to 16 personalized and pre-scheduled, 30-minute, face-to-face meetings with partners of their choice. FUTURALLIA is a springboard toward making new international partnerships, in addition to informal meetings in a professional and friendly environment.”

Find out more about FUTURALLIA 2011 here.