What business lessons can we learn from the USA?

I’ve just got back from a business trip to the USA, and I’ve realised how much we can learn about entrepreneurship and business.

Here’s why.

After attending a 5 day marketing and tech conference in Las Vegas, followed by a string of meetings with business leaders and VC’s, I am blown away by the difference.

So what makes America great?

Here are just some of my observations:

✅ The American’s are fiercely proud to be American

✅ They are freakishly polite with good manners

✅ Positivity exuded from everyone I met

✅ So helpful – they go out of their way to assist

✅ Anything is possible – ambition is off-the-scale

✅ Sales assistants in shops are just incredible – it’s a joy to buy!

The yanks attitude to entrepreneurship is completely different. They cheerlead, empower and back start-ups and scale-ups.

The appetite to risk is completely different – VC’s and PE go all-in yet understand many ventures won’t succeed, and the Government offer all sorts of incentives.

They think big. Really big (and not just in food portion sizes!).

And they dream big. Whether it’s creating a new shopping mall that is just jaw-dropping in design, or imagining the next wave of generative AI.

And one major takeaway for me – they love to buy. I can see why the USA is the biggest consumer market on the planet (it was great to see British celebrity chef Gordan Ramsey having no less than 6 different restaurants on the Las Vegas strip).

Of course, it’s not all a bed of roses.

The U.S. has its problems – national debt, health issues, crime and a culture of litigation.

But in the USA entrepreneurs are rockstars, and that’s how it should be.

Yes, we can proudly claim a vacuum cleaner from Dyson. But where is the British Google, or Microsoft, Apple, Tesla or Facebook/Insta? Or Britain’s answer to Black Rock? Or our LLM AI to compete with ChatGPT or Claude?

It doesn’t have to be this way. Britain is the 6th biggest economy on the planet.

If the Government will listen and entrepreneurs are cut free from the shackles that hold us back everything could change.

I would encourage more British start-ups and scale-ups to visit America, especially the tech and business centres. Once that spark is ignited, there will be no going back. 🔥

Be more like Gordon Ramsey.

Whats next for me? I think it’s time to visit Dubai to compare the business culture and entrepreneurial attitude in the UAE.

 

#Business #Vision #BiggerThinking