About The Entrepreneurial Imperative

A timely, new, spirited book, The Entrepreneurial Imperative: How America's Economic Miracle Will Reshape The World - And Change Your Life (Harper Collins, October 2006), adamantly shows how America can lead itself on a secure path for long-term expansion, primarily by supporting its number one, but underutilized, resource: entrepreneurial capitalism.

Author Carl Schramm, the president and CEO of the nation's largest foundation to promote entrepreneurship, The Kauffman Foundation, has a vision of seeing entrepreneurial capitalism reign in the United States and abroad. Not only is it his passionate goal to see a greater expansion of start-ups domestically and globally, he feels the promotion of entrepreneurial capitalism is the only formula for bringing about peace, prosperity, and stability in the world. He outlines, in his lively and debate-inspiring manifesto, why and how significant changes in government, education, and major corporations will be needed in order to promote an entrepreneurial ecosystem that keeps America on top.

"For America to thrive, or even survive, we must see expanding entrepreneurship as our nation's competitive advantage that needs to be fully exploited," champions Schramm. "Nothing else can give us the necessary leverage to remain an economic superpower and allow us to continue to enjoy our standard of living. We either support and nurture increasingly entrepreneurial activities in all aspects of our society and around the globe, or run the risk that we'll become progressively irrelevant on the world stage and suffer economically at home."

The Entrepreneurial Imperative emphatically:

• Explains why America is so good at entrepreneurship and details how we can increase the number of start-ups and move the economy further away from depending on the failed trifecta of big-government, big-business, big-union.
• Shows how exporting entrepreneurship overseas is vital to America's continued economic growth, opening markets abroad while increasing a healthy competition at home. He shows why spreading entrepreneurship must be a pillar of our foreign policy - above military and political solutions.
• Details how we're in danger of stifling our entrepreneurial economy and shows what the government should do to nurture it.
• Identifies the crucial role start-ups play in Corporate America, detailing a symbiotic push-and-take relationship between the younger, brighter, eager rookies and the conservative, bureaucracy-riddled industry leaders.
• Complains about business schools and universities failing miserably. Schramm says universities should teach courses on entrepreneurship for non-business majors. Schools should also be more entrepreneurial themselves, owning and operating businesses, especially high-tech businesses, much like medical schools own hospitals.

"We must take that which we have perfected since our nation's founding, our economy's entrepreneurial ecosystem, and push it for all its worth!" says Schramm. "If we don't, the U.S. will not only fall behind the rest of the world, but also the vital link between economic growth and the preservation of individual freedom will be damaged."

This calls for a reshaping of society's values and norms so that each of us steadily and subtly feels the entrepreneurial imperative. Everyone will need to take more control and own more of their working and personal lives as a result. But Schramm never bets against the American system, and he encourages everyone to never count on anyone but themselves to create their destiny.

Though Schramm recognizes the economy can't afford for everyone to be an entrepreneur, nor is everyone fully capable of starting and running a successful business, he believes many more people should be encouraged and shown how to build a new venture. Too much is at stake otherwise.

So, are entrepreneurs born or made? For Schramm the question is irrelevant. "Our nation has no choice but to nurture and exploit its greatest resource, entrepreneurial capitalism. Developing and spreading entrepreneurial capitalism will revolutionize the world - providing jobs, growth, and global stability."

Publication Data: The Entrepreneurial Imperative: How America's Economic Miracle Will Reshape The World (and change your life) by Carl Schramm; Harper Collins; Oct. 9, 2006; Cloth; $24.95; 192 pages; ISBN: 0-06-084163-X

Contact Information: Planned Television Arts Brian Feinblum 212-583-2718 feinblumb@plannedtvarts.com