Risky e-business, green gurus and the Thinkers 50 – entrepreneur roundup

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 | Posted by: Fiona Cullinan
Categories: Environment | Tags: business, entrepreneurs, links, entrepreneur, awards, success, leaders, failure, gurus, CK Prahalad, thinkers

From the shocking failure rate of online businesses and the lack of ‘green’ entrepreneurs to the 50 most influential business gurus alive today, here’s what the Grant Thornton Elevate team has been reading about this week…

New survey reports 90% of online businesses fail: Business Matters reports on a new statistic that says nine out of every 10 online businesses fail – and how to be the one in 10 that succeeds. In the same publication, British entrepreneurs are said to be optimistic about new business growth. (There’s a short registration process to see these articles.)

O2 X Awards – Entrepreneurs of the Year: And the winners of the 2009 event, held in October, are… Male Entrepreneur of the Year is Sunil Kadri whose Optoswim technology improves fish farming by making salmon swim faster. Female Entrepreneur winner is Lisa Warner of Fink Cards, which makes packs of question cards designed to get parents and kids talking and bonding. And Young Entrepreneur of the Year is Rajeeb Day, whose company Enternships connects start-ups and small businesses with students and graduates looking for entrepreneurial work placements.

Future entrepreneurs lack ‘green inspiration’ from the leaders of today: More than 70% of young people in Britain believe there is a lack of inspirational green entrepreneurs for them to look up to, reports Business Matters. 

Today’s 50 most influential management gurus: Thinkers 50, a list compiled by leadership consulting firm CrainerDearlove, shows that only one of the top 10 leading business thinkers is British – and that’s Richard Branson, founder of Virgin. Other Brits on the list include London Business School academic Lynda Gratton, speaker and author Marcus Buckingham, Harvard and Oxford academic Niall Ferguson, and Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, both academics. Top of the list? CK Prahalad, a corporate strategist and business guru from India/US, and author of The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid about corporate innovation from the global poor (see video).

See more links in our innovation roundup.