Dhakshinamoorthy Balakrishnan, known to his friends (and everyone else, for that matter) as 'Dash', is the head of Warisan Global, the host for GEW / Malaysia. The energetic leader was spotlighted recently in a New Straits Times article for his role in Global Entrepreneurship Week.
He outlined what he considered the three reasons to pay attention to GEW:
First, visibility is crucial for entrepreneurs and we provide that, both locally and globally.
Second is mentorship. All entrepreneurs need to grow to the next level and GEW's vast network of successful entrepreneurs provides that.
And third, it allows entrepreneurs to take their ideas and go global.
Demonstrating that second point, Dash was so successful in his campaign to inspire young people to pursue entrepreneurship that he has lost at least one of his own employees to the entrepreneurial bug. By the end of Global Entrepreneurship Week she had left to follow her own entrepreneurial ideas.
It was just one of many “a ha” moments that Dash talks about. Another came from the Ministry of Entrepreneurship.
“The most amazing thing was the Ministry, which is only focused on one type of entrepreneur, all of the sudden woke up and said, ‘Oh my god, there are so many people pursuing entrepreneurship. We want to become part of them. We are going to be relevant,’” Dash said. “It opened up the government’s eyes in looking at many different sectors of entrepreneurs.”
One of Dash’s goals was to connect these different sectors.
“What happened during GEW is it fostered to (bring people) together, to create what you may call a quilt of entrepreneurial activities,” Dash said. “People broke barriers between one another and big companies started to realize it’s important to look at Malaysia’s small companies as well.”