To raise the profile of entrepreneurs, the European Commission should create a new, high-profile award for the best entrepreneurs in Europe. For this to be effective, the EU award should be positioned as a sort of Nobel prize for innovation and entrepreneurship.
This award should be given to the person and not the company. It should be given away at the time of a very public and prestigious event such as a European summit when a lot of press is gathered. They should hire a proper PR agency to set this up and define the criteria and the process.
Another option is for the Commission to just piggy-back on existing events (Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, or Europe 500 listing, or Fast 500), and help these events gain in visibility with financial backing and the presence of senior-level people from the Commission – such as President Barroso himself.
There could be two or three categories but not too many to avoid diluting the event:
- Spin-off from a university or a public lab
- Spin-off from a private company
- Standard company
Or it could revolve around the type of sector in which the entrepreneur is active such as:
Biotech
- IT
- Clean tech
But this could reduce a bit the impact of the award. Innovation and growth can happen virtually in any sector.
Denis Payre is a French serial entrepreneur – cofounder of Business Objects, the software success story of the 90s, and now CEO of Belgian Internet-logistics company Kiala.
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