Entrepreneurs Interested In More Than Money

A story in today’s Scotsman points to an entrepreneurship study from Shell Livewire and the London School of Economics. The report author, one Don Slater of LSE, says:

I find some of these findings jaw-dropping. Who would have thought that creating fun environments is more important to entrepreneurs than making money.

I don’t find that to be particularly “jaw-dropping”. Indeed, all the companies I’ve worked in or been involved with have tried to create work environments that suit the company owners and the employees. It’s sort of a misleading quote as well, because what the report actually says is that 50% of entrepreneurs rank designing their work environment is more important than making money—that’s not to say that they don’t care about making money.

I do agree with the overall point, however, in that there’s a greater realisation from entrepreneurs that it’s possible to generate money in ways other than just going after the cheapest, nastiest pound. Many people (such as Jon Spoelstra) and companies have written and worked with this idea of “take care of your employees and the money will follow”. Given the availability of literature such Mavericks at Work, Maverick! and Let My People Go Surfing, I find it even less of a surprise that modern entrepreneurs are being influenced in this direction.