<article>A new EY report warns that G20 leaders must better support young entrepreneurs through policies that ensure digital disruption enables rather than hinders their business development plans.</article>

A new EY report warns that G20 leaders must better support young entrepreneurs through policies that ensure digital disruption enables rather than hinders their business development plans.
Titled <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://xd.eyme.net/dev/db/pdf/Disrupting_the_disruptors.PDF" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en-GB&amp;q=http://xd.eyme.net/dev/db/pdf/Disrupting_the_disruptors.PDF&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1474251295895000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFPdckRmhm1b13iF_9pleHsRNINIw">Disrupting the disruptors: Disrupting youth entrepreneurship with digital and data</a>, was released to mark the start of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance (G20 YEA) summit in China.
The report notes: &#8220;Digital platforms are powerful forces for disruption. Most often, we think of entrepreneurs leading the charge and disrupting their industries through digital. Although this is undoubtedly the case, there is an important underlying story: digital is also disrupting entrepreneurs themselves, reshaping the nature of an entrepreneur’s journey from an idea to an established business. For young entrepreneurs &#8211; the “digital natives” &#8211; this demands a different approach to policy to drive effective support.&#8221;
Using a digital barometer to compare digital entrepreneurship performance of G20 nations and to identify leading practices and policies that allow young entrepreneurs to thrive on digital disruption, the report identifies key policy recommendations, including clear governance on data access and privacy; support for cross-border research clusters, and the establishment of a new G20 youth entrepreneurship mobility visa.
Countries that rank first in at least one key indicator for supporting digital entrepreneurship include Canada (access to finance); the US (entrepreneurial culture, digital skills and entrepreneurial education, digital knowledge base, and ICT market); and the UK (digital business environment).
Also Read: <a style="color: #ff0000;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/vani-kola-interview-33133/">Funding will continue. Bigger challenge is for entrepreneurs to manage VC expectations: Kalaari Capital MD Vani Kola</a>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Digital entrepreneurship policy</h3>
Commenting on this, <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohan-malik-86b25070" target="_blank">Rohan Malik</a>, EY Strategic Growth Leader – Global Industry and Emerging Markets Leader – Global Government &amp; Public Sector, says: “Entrepreneurs disrupt business practices and reshape behavior. And today, the world in which they work is itself being disrupted by digital technologies.&#8221;
&#8220;As G20 governments think about how to set up their economies to succeed in this digital environment, they must help equip young entrepreneurs for the age of digital disruption. Policy can play a critical role in turning digital disruption into a powerful opportunity for young entrepreneurs,&#8221; he continues. 
He adds, &#8221; Supporting an entrepreneurial environment that encourages young people to establish, grow and scale their businesses is a significant opportunity — even a responsibility — for G20 governments. It also creates opportunities to advance inclusiveness through entrepreneurship, particularly for young women. 
The report notes that business strategy and operations, characterised by the &#8220;integration of digital, data and analytics into the business model, are critical to an entrepreneurial firm operating under digital transformation.&#8221;Increasingly, business models are seeing a shift from a product approach to a client-centric approach that empowers consumers with more personalised services and sees the a need for increased transparency and trust to drive value for the business.Additionally, teaming and collaboration across different groups within an organisation are critical — sales, tech, marketing and customer relationship management are all interrelated &#8211; with a <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/silo-mentality.asp" target="_blank">silo mentality</a> often <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/993/1180" target="_blank">negatively impacting organisational performance and relationships</a>.
Across Southeast Asia, EY Asean Government &amp; Public Sector Leader, <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://sg.linkedin.com/in/sam-wong-2bb567" target="_blank">Sam Wong</a> observes that the diverse economic and business landscape in the region means that the digital environment has varying impact on entrepreneurial activity.
He says: “For countries that have a relatively more advanced digital landscape, such as Malaysia and Singapore, we are seeing more supportive physical, business and legal infrastructure for businesses to adopt these new technologies and platforms, which in turn spurs entrepreneurship.&#8221;
He adds, &#8220;For frontier countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar, the empirical observation is that digital readiness takes a slower pace, as the governments focus on other more pertinent issues”.
EY argues: &#8220;Building blocks for digital, data and analytics are ubiquitous, meaning real value creation for business needs to come through digital transformation.8 Businesses that can use these platforms in novel ways — to create new revenue streams, engage with stakeholders differently or transform their customer experience — can drive signi cant gains from digital.&#8221;
It notes that this specific area is where entrepreneurs arguably had a competitive advantage relative to incumbents, in terms of &#8220;challenging existing industry models and using digital platforms as a foundation for growth.&#8221;<a href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ey-digital-entrepreneurship.png" rel="attachment wp-att-53578"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter" src="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ey-digital-entrepreneurship.png" alt="Chart of digital entrepreneurship ranking from EY G20 report in 2016" /></a>
Also Read: <a style="color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/entrepreneurship-is-like-warfare-in-china-ku-kay-mok-gobi-partners-38657/">Entrepreneurship in China is like warfare, says Ku Kay-mok, Gobi Partners</a>
<h3>EY recommendations</h3>
Considering the centrality of the digital dimension to much of modern entrepreneurship and what is termed the <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2013/11/18/the-millennial-startup-revolution/#6a79460e6a63" target="_blank">Millennial Startup Revolution</a> this in mind, the EY report makes recommendations across four areas &#8211; financial access, entrepreneurial culture, digital business environments and digital skills &amp; entrepreneurial educations &#8211; aimed at mitigating the impact on digitisation disrupting the entrepreneurial process.In terms of finance, the report recommends supporting the development of early-stage financing and support schemes for young entrepreneurs, including incubators and accelerators, as well as reducing investment barriers to promote access to foreign capital for entrepreneurs.In conjunction it recommends embedding entrepreneurial culture via specialised streams in higher education institutions and engaging industry in the development and delivery of tech, digital and management-focused training, as well as providing protection for the intellectual property (IP) assets of young entrepreneurs&#8217; with targeted provisions to encourage innovation and collaboration with larger organisations and investors.Many of the other measures are rooted in the digital environment, with a G20 entrepreneur vis bring promoted to support the development of support networks for newly arrived entrepreneurs in G20 host countries, while establishing clear guidelines on data privacy and security, including usage, data rights and quality.There are also calls to start building digital skills and entrepreneurial education in schools from an elementary level through secondary education and focusing on science, technology, engineering &amp; mathematics (STEM), with a focus on women, in addition to promoting youth entrepreneurship mentoring and coaching programs within industry and entrepreneurship networks.
The report also calls for the development of a digital knowledge base and ICT market in G20 economies through the development of multi-stakeholder digital clusters and networks, including those with a sectoral or city-level focus, along with coaching and mentoring schemes, as well as supporting university-entrepreneur collaboration, including through funding incentives for universities.
<a href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ey-financial-access-G20.png" rel="attachment wp-att-53579"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter" src="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ey-financial-access-G20.png" alt="Comparison of financial access across G20 economies in 2016 by EY" /></a>
Also Read:
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/53556-53556/">Australia:$10m agtech innovation fund SproutX launches,Oddup opens Melbourne office, Deputy expands to SingaporeSTORY</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/vietnam-indochina-capital-teams-up-with-japans-kajima-in-1b-jv-53503/">Vietnam: Indochina Capital, Japan’s Kajima form $1b real estate JV</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/entrepreneurship-cant-be-outsourced-48969/">Rocket’s India setbacks show entrepreneurship can’t be outsourced</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/48312-48312/">Exclusive: Charting a new Growth Story, serial entrepreneur K Ganesh tests 3 new ventures</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/women-entrepreneurship-gets-more-notice-in-vietnam-47935/">Vietnam’s resilient women entrepreneurs are capturing the nation’s attention</a>

An EY report notes that digitisation is impacting entrepreneurship and business formation by young entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship disrupted by digitisation in G20 economies: EY

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief

Entrepreneurship disrupted by digitisation in G20 economies: EY

Start your deal-making journey now!

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief