Matt Johnson is chief executive of Mando Group

BACK in 2004, our economy looked a little bit different. Pre-banking sector crisis, global recession and the near collapse of so many international markets, the global marketplace was indeed a different place.

At that time, a group of people with a passion for identifying and nurturing the types of enterprise that are the hallmark of successful economies, started an event in the UK called Enterprise Week.

Their initial endeavours were, by any measure, a phenomenal success.

This was in no small part due to the fact that they were turning the spotlight on success – often, it should be noted, on business success that had been achieved against the odds.

Success sparked by people with a vision, that same passion and an unswerving belief in what they wanted to do and how they were going to do it.

Much has been said and written about what contributes to a successful culture of enterprise.

Back in the UK in 2004, it took Enterprise Week – and those driving it beyond the boring boundaries of being just another week in a crowded calendar of themed and designated weeks – to focus minds on what was being achieved in a very vital part of the UK’s economy.

Six years on, the UK’s Enterprise Week has become Global Entrepreneurship Week. When news of the success of Britain’s Enterprise Week spread around the globe, lots of other countries started to show an interest in what had been achieved and began looking at the possibility of achieving something similar themselves.

Thus in 2008, Enterprise UK and the world’s largest entrepreneurship foundation based in the US founded the first Global Entrepreneurship Week.

By last year, there were over 32,000 events run in 88 countries attend by an estimated 7.5m people.

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010 started on Monday.

Full details can be found at www.gew.org.uk

During last year’s event in the UK, almost 530,000 involved themselves in 4,812 events.

The event is even more important this year because many more people will be starting their own businesses as a reaction to the expected wave of public sector job losses.

Entrepreneurs brimming with ideas and enterprise can add their weight to this great balancing act.