In September 2014, experts on entrepreneurship including among others,
Daniel Isenberg (Professor of Entrepreneurship Practice, Babson), Fadi
Ghandour (Founder, Aramex) and Linda Rottenberg (Co-Founder and CEO,
Endeavor), drafted a Global Scale-Up Declaration
1
. Its aim was to draw
attention to those crucial players which tend to be discarded in discussions on
entrepreneurship: the scale-ups.
Entrepreneurship is often associated with new businesses and statistics on
start-ups used to evaluate the performance of economies. However, research
has repeatedly shown that growing businesses, or scale-ups, are often the
ones that positively impact societies
the most
2
.
Scale-ups, or high-growth companies, are defined by the OECD and other
organizations based on their employment and/or revenue growth over a three
year period
3
.
While job and wealth creation are essential components of scale-up
entrepreneurship, and highlighted in the Global Scale-Up Declaration, the
document also stresses the importance of other elements such as innovation
and even philanthropy.
Endeavor has been a pioneer in recognizing the necessity of supporting High-
Impact Entrepreneurs who scale their companies, and distinguishing them
from other entrepreneurs who do not have the same growth ambitions.
"WHILE OF COURSE HEALTHY ECONOMIES INCLUDE ADEQUATE
NUMBERS OF START-UPS (AS WELL AS BIG COMPANIES, FAMILY
BUSINESSES, AND MICRO-ENTERPRISES), WE BELIEVE THAT
ENTREPRENEURIAL SCALE-UPS DESERVE MORE ATTENTION THAN
THEY'RE CURRENTLY GETTING."
Daniel Isenberg and Fernando Fabre
Don't Judge the Economy by the Number of Start-Ups,
Harvard Business Review, October 1, 2014
(1) Daniel Isenberg, Fadi Ghandour, Gregoire Sentilhes, Sherry Coutu,
Calestous Juma, Linda Rottenberg et al, "The Global Scale-Up
Declaration", change.org, September 4, 2014, https://www.change.org/p/
the-global-scale-up-declaration-join-the-scaleupdeclaration-conversation
(2) Daniel Isenberg and Fernando Fabre, "Don't Judge the Economy by
the Number of Start-Ups," Harvard Business Review, October 1, 2014,
https://hbr.org/2014/10/dont-judge-the-economy-by-the-number-of-
start-ups/
(3) OECD-Eurostat, 2008, "Chapter 8: High-Growth Enterprises." In
Eurostat-OECD Manual on Business Demography Statistics, http://www.
oecd.org/industry/business-stats/39974588.pdf
IMPACT REPORT 2014 – 2015 7
