At the dawn of time, mighty Zeus distributed capabilities to all the animals that inhabited the earth. So the tigers were given their fierce teeth and claws, the birds got to fly on their wings and the fish drew breath through their gills. But when all the attributes were distributed one animal was yet to receive any. Zeus shrugged his shoulders and left man without the capabilities to defend himself. Prometheus saw this and took pity on man; he stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to our ancestors.

Plato told this myth more than 2000 years ago and while the outcome was bad for Prometheus, who was chained to a cliff and had his liver eaten every day by Zeus’ eagles, it was a blessing for mankind.

The fire in the story represents the human capability to use the forces of nature. With our creativity we have not only survived but have become the dominant species on earth. We have even turned a small cold country like Denmark into a place of ingenuity and prosperity. The ability to find creative solutions and specialise ourselves was vital in our first competition against the better equipped animals. Today we are not competing against real tigers but against the tiger economies of the newly industrialised countries.

This is a competition for mutual benefit but it under lines our need for continued specialisation, and the development of our ability to come up with new creative solutions. When the size of the market grows the need for specialisation rises, Adam Smith said in 1776. Globalisation has indeed made the market grow very rapidly. As a small country Denmark has been dependent on foreign trade for a long time and has a strong tradition for making specialised products.

The structure of corporate life in Denmark is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, which cannot compete on price and mass production. Instead, these businesses have to find their own niches and make world-class products with that little something which makes it special.

Flexibility, creativity and innovation are keywords in the business world of today. A country with high production costs like Denmark needs a dynamic business life and people who can create the unexpected. They have to come up with ideas that at first glance might seem a little bit crazy. And when met with resistance, they might answer like Yoassarian in Catch-22 “Of course it’s crazy.... That’s why it’s the only reasonable thing to do”.

Innovative capacity is, of course, already present in existing companies, but the crazy ideas that turn out to be not so crazy after all often comes from entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is playing an increasing role in modern society and this makes it all the more important for society to facilitate the process of creating new enterprises.

In Denmark, the start-up process is quite easy. The costs of starting a new business are not high and the registration process can be completed in three days. The risks, meanwhile, are low. An analysis from the Kauffman Foundation show that the risk of starting a new business is eight times as high in Germany as it is in Denmark. The security of the Danish welfare system ensures that an entrepreneur has a strong chance of getting back on his feet should things go awry. If you start a new business and afterwards realise that the idea will not fly, you can quite easily get a regular job and get rid of debt. The social responsibility of the government ensures that nobody will starve or lack medical assistance. This allows everyone to take a chance. And taking chances are what entrepreneurism is all about.

But making an environment hospitable to entrepreneurs is not enough. The real agents of change are the entrepreneurs who create growth. These are the people with innovative ideas who create change and development for themselves and for society as a whole. While Denmark has many entrepreneurs, the number of entrepreneurs who create growth is less impressive. The real challenge for Danish society is to spawn the ambitious entrepreneurs who can ensure growth in the future. Here the double-edged sword of the welfare system shows its face. While it ensures that you can try and fail, the security of the system also gives the individual less incentive to change his secure lifestyle. It is not starvation that drives Danes to leave their job and try out new ideas. Neither is it ambitions of success or big bucks. Research shows that the primary incentive for Danish entrepreneurs is plain and simply that it should be fun to run your own business.

This is also part of the Danish success. When having fun is the primary incentive for running your own business, you will be more inclined to try out ideas that would be considered odd or crazy. Ideas that only real “go-getters” have the courage and ability to realise.

Ever since Prometheus gave the fire to man, he has striven to fulfil his creative potential. In Denmark and all over the world, the challenge of the future is to ensure that the creative fire given keeps burning strong. We have to make it easy and fun for people with ideas to realise them and create growth. These ideas fill out the niches we did not even know were there.

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