The spirit of entrepreneurship is an essential element for building Korea’s envisioned “creative economy,” but that element may be exactly what the nation lacks, experts said last Friday.

“Being able to take risks, being okay with failing multiple times, and learning from each failure and mistake are essential ingredients of becoming a successful entrepreneur,” said Net Jacobsson, a former Facebook executive and entrepreneur, in an interview with The Korea Herald on the sidelines of the first annual Next Conference organized by SparkLabs.

Jacobsson raised concerns about Korea’s conservative tendencies and their harmful effects on the potential growth of the IT sector.

He cited countries such as Israel that have a much more favorable environment, saying that it was because the culture of Israel always questions authority: “Although there are many common denominators between Korea and Israel, such as strong emphasis on education and the fact that we both live right next to hostile neighbors that constantly threaten us, the difference is the ability to think critically, whether it’s in the government sector or in the private companies. And cultivating innovative minds starts from there ― being more skeptical and challenging conventional wisdoms.”

A mentor to SparkLabs, Jacobsson has helped companies around the world innovate and become more successful.

With regard to the government’s initiative to increase jobs based on a creative economy, however, he expressed concerns, saying that while the government should help stimulate the economy when it’s in bad shape, “it cannot be in the driver’s seat down the road.“

The ex-Facebook executive’s chief concern was that when companies lack a strong foundational structure but get funded anyway, they inevitably crash and the money goes to waste.

Eiji Uda, CEO of Salesforce.com Japan, one of the fastest-growing companies in the cloud computing sector, meanwhile emphasized the significance of innovation in self start-up businesses.

“By providing cloud computing services for both government and private companies in Japan, we’ve revolutionized the industry and changed the way businesses are operated,” he said. “In order to succeed as a start-up, having a customer-oriented mind, ceaseless effort to come up with innovative solutions to many different business problems and acquiring new skills are essential.”

A group of some 20 top entrepreneurs and industry leaders from around the world gathered last week to discuss innovation and convergence for a creative economy.

“As the Korean government plans to lower regulations and taxes for start-ups and implement more favorable policy toward creating new businesses, now is the perfect time for this event. We will lead in developing a Silicon Valley-style start-up ecosystem in which young entrepreneurs, start-up accelerators and investors can come together more frequently,” said Bernard Moon, cofounder of SparkLabs.

Speakers representing diverse industries ― from health care, gaming and online education to cloud computing, software development and mobile technology ― talked about the interplay between technology and business and the changing industry environment in front of more than 400 participants.

By Kwon Bum-joon (bjkwon@heraldcorp.com)