Business start-ups take flight in Glasgow

SCOTLAND is a country which too often finds itself stuck in the past - dwelling on former glories and tales of great Scots from days gone by.

It's heartening then to discover that many modern inhabitants of this small nation are prepared to live in the here and now; to take a risk in the present and imagine a prosperous future.

Despite a recent gloomy report produced by the Hunter Centre for entrepreneurship at Strathclyde University which claimed that Scotland ranked 29th out of 37 major countries in an entrepreneurial league table and found the country's rate of start-ups to be below par for smaller nations, a new study commissioned by the Bank of Scotland offers up a somewhat brighter picture.

According to the study, Glasgow has been developing the highest proportion of high-growth new businesses in the UK outside London. Amid all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the apparent inability of Scotland to be entrepreneurial, and the squabbling about how Scottish Enterprise should carry out the difficult task of developing the country's economy, it seems that people have just been getting on with the challenging activity of building businesses. Many of these, according to the study, also have the potential to be high- growth businesses.

Perhaps given the current harsh economic conditions we should not be too surprised to hear this news. Historically, downturns prove to be a fertile breeding ground for start-up ventures. With corporate cutbacks inevitably taking their toll, ambitious employees are tempted to go their own way and use their skills to hopefully create wealth for themselves and others. And yes, shock horror, there's actually nothing wrong with such a motivation.

As easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou told a group of business leaders gathered at the Bellshill Hilton (now there's ambition for you) 10 days ago, he is addicted to business. This addiction, he also hopes, is the "acceptable face of global capitalism". And Stelio's (pounds) 890 million no-frills airline, lest we forget, made its maiden flight to a rainy Glasgow in 1995. The rest is history.

Copyright 2003 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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