BBC Learnings · Section 7

Millennials and business

Have you got a business brain, Sam? Would you like to start your own business?

Level: C1 · 112 sentences

Transcript

  1. Have you got a business brain, Sam?
  2. Would you like to start your own business?
  3. It sounds good, Rob.
  4. I like the idea of being my own boss.
  5. Well, that's the dream for many millennials –
  6. the name given to the current generation
  7. of young people aged between 24 and 38.
  8. Some of the millennial generation are dissatisfied
  9. with the old ways of doing things.
  10. For example, how big business uses data from social media
  11. and the negative impact of companies on society and the environment.
  12. In today's programme, we'll look at why millennials
  13. are so attracted to starting their own businesses
  14. and asking whether this really is the way
  15. to make the world a better place.
  16. And of course, we'll be learning
  17. some new vocabulary on the way.
  18. But first, it's time for today's quiz question.
  19. At 79 years old, Muhammad Yunus is hardly a millennial,
  20. but he's a hero to many young business people.
  21. In 2006, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
  22. But what for?
  23. Was it for A, offering microfinance to low-income businesses,
  24. B, starting the first business to earn
  25. £1 million in under a week,
  26. or C, developing a progressive model of taxation?
  27. Hmm. I know millennials like starting businesses,
  28. so I'll say b – earning one million in under a week.
  29. OK. We'll find out later if you were right.
  30. Now, whether it's TV shows like The Apprentice
  31. or the big success of companies in California's Silicon Valley,
  32. the last decade saw a huge growth in 20-
  33. and 30-year-olds starting their own businesses.
  34. BBC World Service programme The Y Factor
  35. asked business professor Ethan Mollick to explain how this situation came about.
  36. There's all these platforms that let you
  37. build entrepreneurial ventures much more easily.
  38. The growth of things like crowdfunding have helped make entrepreneurship
  39. more accessible and led to tons of new startups.
  40. So there's a lot of new methods
  41. for launching businesses and the cost
  42. of launching a new business has dropped at the same time.
  43. Ethan lists some of the reasons
  44. why it's now easier to become an entrepreneur.
  45. someone who starts their own business,
  46. often after seeing a new opportunity.
  47. Entrepreneurs see opportunities for products and services
  48. not being supplied by existing companies,
  49. so they create start-ups – newly formed businesses intended to grow rapidly
  50. by providing for a particular market gap.
  51. One of the main problems to starting up your own business
  52. used to be getting the large amounts of money needed.
  53. But nowadays this can be solved with crowdfunding –
  54. getting the funding for a new business
  55. by asking a large number of people to give small amounts
  56. of money, usually via the internet.
  57. But while start-up success stories have made
  58. going into business a good option,
  59. for many millennials it's not just about making money,
  60. but also about being socially responsible and doing good.
  61. However… Others argue that most big changes
  62. for the better have come from governments, not millennial businesses.
  63. Here, former World Bank economist Charles Kenny
  64. cautions against over-emphasising individual business over governments.
  65. If you are working in a place
  66. with a corrupt and inefficient government,
  67. one of the best ways you can push
  68. development in your country is to try
  69. and make that problem a little bit better.
  70. It's not something that any one individual can do.
  71. It has to be a collective effort.
  72. But the more we have young, committed,
  73. smart people who want to make the world
  74. a better place working in government,
  75. the more likely government is to start delivering the kind
  76. of services we need in order to ensure
  77. a high quality of life in that country.
  78. So, Charles mentions the problem that governments can be corrupt –
  79. act in morally wrong or illegal ways,
  80. often in return for money or power.
  81. The talent and passion that millennials put
  82. into starting their own business could instead be used
  83. to improve governments through collective effort –
  84. a group of people acting together to achieve a common goal.
  85. It's this working together that can raise people's quality of life.
  86. level of personal satisfaction and comfort.
  87. Something that Muhammad Yunus was doing.
  88. Ah yes, that's today's quiz question.
  89. I asked you why Muhammad Yunus
  90. won the Nobel Prize in 2006.
  91. I said that b he started the first business
  92. to earn one million in under a week.
  93. But in fact it was a offering microfinance
  94. to low-income businesses – a way for anyone,
  95. rich or poor, to run a business in a positive way.
  96. OK. So today we've been talking about why young people
  97. in the millennial generation want to be entrepreneurs –
  98. people who start their own business.
  99. Many millennials create start-ups – newly formed businesses
  100. intended to grow rapidly using a method called crowdfunding –
  101. getting the funding for their new business
  102. by asking large numbers of people
  103. on the internet to each give a little bit of money.
  104. But it's not only about making profits.
  105. Millennial startups can help solve many of the developing world's problems instead
  106. of governments which may be corrupt,
  107. acting immorally or illegally for money or power.
  108. What's needed more than individual businessmen and women is collective effort,
  109. a group of people acting together to achieve a common goal.
  110. And one important goal is to improve the quality of life,
  111. the level of satisfaction and comfort
  112. that a person or group enjoys.