Blog

Written by HARIS MAKRYNIOTIS*

Let's imagine that Greece does not have a population of 11 million, but of 100 people.
In this Greece, those over 65 are not working, either due to age (young or old) or due to unemployment.
Of the 35 employed, 6 are employed in the public sector. Of the remaining 29 private sector employees, 20 are employed in sectors that are not considered high value-added, do not produce internationally tradable goods and services, or do not exploit any of the country's strategic advantages.
This leaves 9 people, of whom 2 are underemployed, effectively leading to approximately 8 full-time equivalents. Of these 8, approximately half are over 50 years old, and therefore comparatively less flexible in adapting to the ever-changing economic and social data.
There are 4 people left out of 100, under the age of 50, employed in private businesses focused on sectors that make sense for Greece. Of these, three work for entrepreneurs with distorted business logic or are employed in companies that do not have the required scale for international growth.
What is left for us?
The one in 100 who is employed in a business with the minimum basic structures to produce internationally competitive products and services and who collaborates with an entrepreneur who has the willingness, mindset and maturity to invest in their human resources.
To this day, whenever we talk about growth, we are essentially referring to the ability of this one person to create new income and pull a cart carrying 99 people, each with their own burdens.
And to make it even more exciting, we add extra weights to the 99, so that the cart is more cumbersome, we add mud for greater difficulty, we load one person with 2-3 suitcases on his shoulder and ask him to pull the cart with one hand, so that with the other he can blow air into some of the 99.
Redistributing the burden among passengers – in itself – is not a sustainable solution. More opportunities are needed for those who can and want to come forward.
What does this mean in practice?
It means more businesses focused on strategic sectors, a minimum scale that allows for international activity, a very different entrepreneur profile from the one that has prevailed to date, and an education system that supports team thinking, creativity, and initiative. The ability of the state – any state, let alone the Greek state – to keep up with the speed of economic change is nil. However, it has a very important role in specific sectors (e.g. education, social protection) and in establishing the rules and boundaries of the playing field called “entrepreneurship”.
The bar must be set high. And the results of the efforts of each government must always be evaluated not in comparison with all sorts of predecessors, but against the bar that each of us sets for ourselves and society as a whole.
* Mr. Haris Makryniotis is CEO of Endeavor Greece.