Nova Scotia risks hurting its entrepreneur community by focusing too much on existing businesses, says an Acadia professor.
“My fear is that entrepreneur education is going to be wiped out,” said Chris Pelham, executive director of the Acadia Centre for Social and Business Entrepreneurship.
Pelham said training and funding should centre around helping existing business be competitive on a global scale.
“Which is great. I’m all for that. But it’s a short-term, save-the-world-now kind of solution as opposed to developing a culture change that can move us forward,” he said.
He said entrepreneurs help drive economies while keeping local character. He worries about a lack of balance between keeping local businesses going in the short term and building new ones in the long term.
“We want to maintain our cultural identity, our sense of community. But we need to move ourselves forward in a more enterprising way,” Pelham told Metro Halifax.
He said fostering an entrepreneurial atmosphere will take government leadership and co-operation.
