Innovation, Russia and the Entrepreneur

Edison was a 19th century US entrepreneur. Above is his desk in his office, a place where he worked and struggled for decades. The US has a long history of entrepreneurs, people who have a dream and struggled against many odds to see it in reality. In the 19th century we had our oligarchs, today we also have them, but the game does have some rules. The FT describes the current status of the intended "Silicon Valley" in Russia. They conclude:

Kristina Tikhonova, head of Nokia Siemens Networks in Russia, says the group decided to invest in Skolkovo because it appeared to offer more transparency and eliminated some logistic barriers. The company considers Skolkovo a “great project”, she emphasises, but also one “that needs the next generation of political leaders to continue and support ...”.

Whether Russia can create the next Silicon Valley is another question. While the country has exported some of its best talent there, including Mr Galitsky, an old friend of Google’s Eric Schmidt from Sun Microsystems, with the current legal environment it is doubtful the Kremlin can replicate the same thing back home, Mr Lasov says.“It’s not going to be like Silicon Valley in five to 10 years. But it could be a place like Bangalore was a decade ago,” he says.

As one who has been both an entrepreneur and an entrepreneur in Russia I find the intent to become another Silicon Valley as somewhat a wishful thinking. Russia has always been creators of fundamental technology, great research, but the linkage between that and its implementation has been lacking to say the least. I find the very individualism that is the core to the American entrepreneur is totally absent in Russia. The oligarchs are examples of that. They did not create anything but for the most part via their contacts and associations managed to grab wealth.

So will Russia become a Bangalore? Not really, Indians have along culture of study and business expertise, albeit lacking in the individualism of the US. China, albeit a communist state by name has in the core Chinese soul the independence of the entrepreneur. The Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the US and elsewhere went out and struck gold with their businesses, independent of any government. The Russians have done so here in the US but nor in Russia. Thus in many ways the Russians in Russia may be akin to the Greeks in Greece. For the Greeks who leave often become quite successful, the leave behind the burden of Greece, and prosper on the soul of the Greek. The same for the Russians.

 Entrepreneurism must at its core be organic. It must come forth from the driven individualism of the inventor, the drive that takes that one person forth as a dream merchant, as the executor of the dream, and generate a following to make it real, a following of workers, customers, and financial backers. This is what Russia, not Russians, lack.The bed above is that of Edison, again an exemplar of what it takes, the 24 hour day, the seven day week, not the 35 hour week of the French, but the full commitment to create, to bring dreams to reality. No Martha's Vineyard here.

My Russian partners were innovative, hard working, honest, but always working around the system. It was the system which in many ways was the problem, as we are seeing today in the US, the burden of too many people who want to promulgate rules rather than create.

So will Russia create a Silicon Valley by mandate, doubtful. But it will get a lot of money flowing into someone's hands.