This word ‘cultural’ in the phrase ‘cultural entrepreneur’ really tripped me up, and this is problematic because our class has been tasked with trying to define what a cultural entrepreneur is.

I found myself wondering why it was there at all, this word cultural because don’t businesses have some kind of social impact anyway? Doesn’t it somehow affect the surrounding culture and if it is a very successful business, like Coca-cola (and the re-invention of Santa Claus) it can impact culture in a huge way. Any successful individual makes an impact right? and they don’t have to be in business at all. Then I thought, well I can’t be the only person in the whole wide world to think this, and the fact that the term exists means there is a distinction somehow.

So I did the only thing I could: I turned to ‘The Independents,’ the Demos report on how creatives work and why cultural entrepreneurs matter. According to the reoprt ‘Over and above their role in generating new jobs and economic growth, and in promoting social cohesion and a sense of belonging, they have been seen as providing a ‘new’ model of work and creative production.’

Well, the more I read refreshed my memory (I had read this before you know) and I remembered Annette saying not to assume that business practise in the creative sector was normal i.e. collaborative approach for specific projects, not necessarily knowing or being deliberate about business etc…by doing so I was able to reign myself in.

Entrepreneurial traits, I find are easier to distinguish I guess partly because of how popular the term is nowadays you’ve got everyone from Kimora Lee Simons to Philip Green to Bill Gates being described as one (at some point there was joke that anyone who said that was basically unemployed).

I decided to go with Oprah Winfrey.

She is constantly in the top 10 Forbes Rich list or other, her show which is watched in 144 countries has been the number1 talk show in the U.S for 22 years. There definitely is a strong cultural impact there! Especially in daytime television which so many women tune into on a daily basis, phrases like having an ‘aha moment’,  or ‘live your best life’ are part and parcel of the culture. She owns the studio that produces the show (making her the third woman to do so in American history) and she produces films, has 2 magazines, a radio show and related products like her book club. All these things help create ‘The Oprah Effect‘ where whatever she backs up becomes a success. She is also about to launch, if she hasn’t already, her own network OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) and ofcourse the philanthropy.

People’s feelings vary from extreme adoration to annoyance but the steady and decided way in which she has built her ‘empire’ over the years and maintained it demonstartes a strong entrepreneurial trait. I would say she ticks all the boxes when it comes to a cultural entrepreneur, what do you think?