Portugal Entrepreneur |

Portugal faces the great challenge of becoming an Entrepreneurial Nation. This is a unique challenge, which must be based on a true collaborative dimension of mobilizing change actors (Businessmen, Academics, Entrepreneurs) for collective action to strategically reinvent the national competitive base. This is a contribution that is intended to have leverage effects in the perception of the need to reinvent the national economy.

The aim is to consolidate a brand idea, solidify the foundations of a project, lead new solutions with new answers to questions that persist in being the same as they have been for a long time. Portugal Empreendedor is the new answer to the questions that exist in Portuguese society today.

Portugal must know how to read successful experiences like Silicon Valley. It is a fundamental ambition in this phase of change in times of crisis. The traditional model of value creation has completely changed and in this critical phase of the Portuguese economy the commitment must be clear – supporting new Companies, preferably technology-based, based on strong articulation with Competence Centers and capable of gaining global dimension. Winning the challenge of an Entrepreneurial Portugal is to a large extent a demonstration of the capacity of a new agenda, based on innovation, knowledge and creativity as factors that make a difference, on a broad collaborative and participatory basis.

Companies play a central role in creating wealth and promoting a sustained culture of value generation, in a logic of permanent articulation with Universities, R&D Centers and other relevant actors. Therefore, companies are essential in the task of endogenizing Entrepreneurial Capital assets with a structuring social effect and reading their operational practice should constitute a profoundly demanding exercise in terms of analysis. As companies have been one of the actors heavily involved in community financing dynamics over the last few decades, there are signs of a lack of corporate capital in many of the protagonists involved.

Portugal as an Entrepreneurial Nation is a response to the challenges that lie ahead. This agenda is intended to bring to light two central ideas for a New Ambition in Portugal – profound organizational and structural renewal of (mainly) industrial sectors and an integrated focus on the use of Innovation as a leveraging factor for creating market value. An agenda that is based on five critical competitiveness factors – Open and Efficient Institutions, Talents and Excellence, New Business Models and Global Networks, Entrepreneurship and Innovative Capacity, Ethics and Sustainability. They are the basis of a New Strategic Bet for Portugal.