National Brand Day – November 24, 2025

History of National Brand Day

In the Ashanti Empire of Ghana, successful entrepreneurs who accumulated lots of wealth and slaves, and distinguished themselves through heroic deeds received social and political recognition. They were given the title ‘Abirempon,’ which means ‘big men.’ By the 18th and 19th centuries A.D., the title ‘Abirempon’ was formalized and politicized to include those who conducted trade that benefited the whole state. The empire rewarded entrepreneurs who attained such accomplishments with ‘mena’ (‘elephant tail’), which was considered a heraldic badge.

Today, entrepreneurship ranges in scale from solo, part-time projects to large-scale undertakings that involve a team and create many jobs. Many high-value entrepreneurial ventures look for venture capital or seed money from angel investors to raise capital for building and growing the business. Businesses also receive financial and other support from specialized government agencies, business incubators, science parks, and non-governmental organizations such as charities, not-for-profits, foundations, and business advocacy groups. One of the most recent significant developments in entrepreneurship is the rise of millennial business owners. They are well equipped with the knowledge of new technology and new business models and have a firm grasp of such business applications. Many breakthrough businesses have come from millennial entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.

The study of entrepreneurship goes back to the work of Adam Smith and Richard Cantillon in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. However, entrepreneurship remained largely ignored theoretically until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 20th century, the understanding of entrepreneurship grew due to the work of economist Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930s and other Austrian economists such as Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich von Hayek, and Carl Menger.