You know you’re in the presence of a truly natural entrepreneur almost instantly: twitchy, hyper, bright-eyed & bushy tailed, sharp as a razor – ringing any bells? Ok, so maybe I’m generalizing, but there is some hard scientific evidence that rounds up some of these collective behaviours and finds them uniquely activated in an entrepreneur’s brain.

Peter Bryant is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. He earned his PhD in Management from Macquarie University in 2006. industries. During the preceding fifteen years, Peter worked as a manager in the airline, banking, consulting and venture capital industries. He also worked at The University of Sydney during 2002-2006, where he managed the commercialization of new technologies through the creation of startup companies. Peter now researches and teaches in the fields of entrepreneurial management and strategy, and their relationship to the evolution of organizational capabilities.

Bryant's recent research in ‘neuro-entrepreneurship’ combines our knowledge of how entrepreneurs behave with an understanding of how their brain works. The research programme initiated at IE Business School aims to understand how entrepreneurs see new business opportunities, how they differ from non-entrepreneurs, and how we can train non-entrepreneurs to be better at recognizing opportunities. Preliminary results show that entrepreneurs, when faced with opportunities, are faster and more accurate than non-entrepreneurs, therefore able to seize opportunities the non-entrepreneurs can't.

A talk taking place in Tokyo next week will present the fascinating neuro-entrepreneurship study from IE Business School. If you’re in the area we strongly recommend you sign up and go along! 

October 8, 2011, 12:00 | Neuro-entrepreneurship: understanding the entrepreneur´s brain, and how we can learn to become one with Professor Peter Bryant | Hotel Seiyo Ginza, 1-11-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-0061 | Tokyo, Japan. Register here