While entrepreneurship has been a hot topic of discussion with the likes of Flipkart, Oyo rooms, Ola and several other Indian startups going global and being covered vastly in the media, here I would like to discuss what it would take to build an entrepreneurial culture in the country.

The fact that entrepreneurial culture leads to economic growth is a well understood fact, especially as we look at the entrepreneurial ecosystems in US, Israel or London and the growth in those regions. So, how does one actually build an entrepreneurial culture?

Lower the opportunity cost of failure.Whether it is through improved government regulation, evolution of a society that embraces failure or an investor community that invests in second- or third-time entrepreneurs, we need to lower the cost of entrepreneurial failure. By making failure acceptable we allow more people to take the risk of trying something new, whether as a start-up or as an employee within a firm.
Foster a culture of questioning.Entrepreneurship by its very nature is disruptive and bringing a culture of questioning what is the norm, has to start from our schools and carry on through our universities. We need to encourage young people to think out of the box and reward innovation of new ideas and concepts, rather than just reward top performance in grades. This requires a re-think of our entire concept of learning, and while there is a lot of work happening here, we still have a long road ahead to bring our entire education system in line with the needs of the industries of tomorrow.
Create more networks for mentoring.While there are several early stage investors in India, we still need more mentor speakers for entrepreneurs in the ecosystem. Mentors play an important role in encouraging entrepreneurship and guiding new entrepreneurs in their journey. Having more networks to connect mentors and entrepreneurs through our universities and organizations, will only lead to a better entrepreneurial culture being developed.
So, as we look at discussions on how to drive more growth in the economy, let’s also bring a part of the discussion into how to build an entrepreneurial culture, so we can continue to bring the more sustainable and long term growth that can come through disruptive entrepreneurial ventures.