Amway Managing Director Jim Ayres recently appeared on Bloomberg TV’s “Money Moves” to discuss Amway’s 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Report. Amway began publishing the report four years ago, looking exclusively at Europe. For the first time this year, the company took the study global, surveying 26,000 people in 24 countries.
The Global Entrepreneurship Report found the United States to be the country most friendly to entrepreneurship. The report also reveals that, among Americans, older generations are more likely to become entrepreneurs. The Hispanic population responded with the most favorable views on self-employment.
“The trends show a positive association [with entrepreneurship] in countries with a really strong sense of individualism—rugged individualism—and also where the government works to enable entrepreneurship,” Ayres notes.
He also explains what prompted Amway to conduct its own large-scale study on entrepreneurship. “We have over 3 million independent distributors around the world. They’re all entrepreneurs; they’re all starting their own independent businesses. We’re very interested in understanding the climate around the world for entrepreneurship, and how we can foster it and help entrepreneurs of all stripes be successful,” Ayres said.
When asked what companies can do to help individuals become successful entrepreneurs, respondents said that the most valuable support they could receive in their efforts would be education, training, financing options, and government and familial support.
