1 of 5 Collaboration Case Study: Cisco

CASE STUDY: CISCOHelping Cisco understand the U.S. Social Incubation landscape

PROJECT NEEDS Cisco Corporate Affairs is committed to creating long-term impact globally. Part of that endeavor revolves around entrepreneurship support, skill development and job creation. As the number of social incubation programs increased in the global incubation sector, Cisco recognized the need to help programs improve and help others start. With that in mind, Cisco reached out to UBI Global, a thought leader in performance analysis of business incubation around the world, with these 3 aims specifically for the US:

Benchmarking can help understand best practices across social incubators and, in turn, incite them to improve and create more jobs. Establishing a benchmark also enables the surfacing and sharing of data-driven best practices in order to catalyze a network of incubators for social innovation.

MAP THE SOCIAL INCUBATION ECOSYSTEMS IN THE U.S. – UBI Global would present a social incubation landscape: number of social incubators in the U.S., their focus and structure

IDENTIFY THE TOP PERFORMING SOCIAL INCUBATORS – UBI Global would analyze data collected from key social incubators and assess their performance to identify the top social incubators

HIGHLIGHT THE TOP SOCIAL INCUBATORS AND THEIR BEST PRACTICES – Highlight the top incubators at the Social Capital Markets Conference 2015 and share their best practices & knowledge

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WHY BENCHMARK?

In 2015, UBI Global developed a social benchmark in partnership with Cisco Corporate Affairs. The main goal of this benchmark was to better

understand and measure the success of social incubators using over 40 key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate success factors such

as the value generated for the participating startups as well as the economic and social impact.

UBI Global is thought leader in performance analysis of business incubation around the world. We help business incubators and business accelerators become more efficient and competitive through a comprehensive benchmark

2 of 5 Collaboration Case Study: Cisco

PROJECT OUTCOMES

1. A NEW FRAMEWORK UBI Global research team pioneered a new research framework designed specifically to assess social incubators.

2. BENCHMARK OF SOCIAL INCUBATORS Over 50 social incubators in the U.S. were identified - in-depth performance data collected and analyzed from at least 20 of them to generate insights.

3. RECOGNITION EVENT Recognition of the best performers in the Social Innovation space and presentation of the best practices on social innovation at SOCAP 2015.

4. BEST PRACTICES REPORT All the key insights from the benchmark were compiled into a best practices report in order to provide an overview of social incubation landscape in the U.S. and in-depth case studies of selected social incubators.

PROJECT BUDGET

KEY FIGURES

DURATION

DELIVERY

$ 250 000

9 Months

1. A NEW FRAMEWORK

EconomicImpact

SocialImpact

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPACT

VALUE FOR CLIENTS

Competence Development

Access to Funds

Access to Network

MEASURING SOCIAL INCUBATOR PERFORMANCE

In order to create a new framework, UBI Global research team conducted extensive desk research combined with discussions with industry experts. Together, UBI Global and Cisco co-created a pioneering research framework. It measures the social and economic impact of the social incubator and its client startups – but it also assesses the value provided by the social incubator to its client startups.

This framework will help social incubation programs, their support organizations and governments to understand the relevant performance indicators in a systematic manner Cisco Corporate Affairs Team

On time, On budget

3 of 5 Collaboration Case Study: Cisco

Research designJanuary 2015

Kickoff meeting held to define benchmark objectives, measures and metrics

2. BENCHMARK OF SOCIAL INCUBATORS

Data collectionFebruary - March 2015

UBI Global activated a dedicated team to map and collect data from social incubators in the U.S. 40+ social incubators were assessed: 24 of them provided in-depth performance data

AnalysisApril - May 2015

As the data was gathered, early insights were shared regularly with the Cisco team. Performance analysis conducted of the participant incubators

InsightsJune - July 2015

After the analysis of participating social incubators performance data, the results were compiled and the most relevant insights were identified

Top list October 2015

Based on the insights workshop held with Cisco, top performing social incubators were identified. A detailed case study was also written on all top-performing incubators

3. RECOGNITION EVENT: SOCAP 2015

HIGHLIGHTING THE TOP INCUBATORS AT THE SOCIAL CAPITAL MARKETS CONFERENCE 2015 AND SHARING BEST PRACTICES More than 2500 participants attended SOCAP15 (Social Capital Markets), the world’s leading conference on impact investing and social enterprise. Together with Cisco Corporate Affairs, UBI Global presented the framework developed to measure incubation performance on social innovation. Furthermore, 6 social incubators standouts were given the ‘High Impact Social Incubators in the U.S. 2015’ award.

UBI Global and Cisco representatives conducting a workshop. SOCAP 2015 main hall.

Client involvement:

UBI Global and the Cisco team worked jointly to take key decisions

Client involvement:

UBI Global took lead on this step and kept Cisco informed about the data collection status

Client involvement:

UBI Global research team took charge of this step and involved Cisco team for key decisions

Client involvement:

UBI Global took the lead in compiling and curating key insights, which were presented to Cisco during a workshop

Client involvement:

UBI Global played an active role at this step and consulted Cisco team along the process

4 of 5 Collaboration Case Study: Cisco

The main goal of this social benchmark was to better understand and measure the success of social incubators. Over 40 key performance indicators (KPIs) were used to measure success factors such as the value generated for the participating startups as well as the economic and social impact.

These best practices included in this report would not only help the participant incubators, but everyone associated somehow to the social incubation ecosystem: from governments, supporting organizations to investors, coaches and incubator managers.

PROJECT OUTPUT - THE SOCIAL BENCHMARK REPORT 2015

Download the report for free @ ubi-global.com/social

4.BEST PRACTICES REPORT

PARTNERSHIP EVALUATION

Amanda CumberlandResearch Lead Cisco Corporate Affairs

UBI Global provided us great insights and helped us understand the social incubation landscape in the U.S. The best part they did it on time, on budget and as per our specifications

In short, the benchmark was incredibly useful in guiding us toward the right direction. We’re a reasonably new organization with plenty to learn, and having numbers to back up what we need and don’t need is vital to future growth

Social incubators that participated in the benchmark were extremely satisfied with the experience:

86%85% 87%86%86% of the participants have

shown interest to participate in the benchmark again next year

85% were fully satisfied with the overall benchmark process

87% of them would recommend the benchmark to their peers

and colleagues

86% of participants were satisfied with the quality of

the results

PARTICIPATING INCUBATOR FEEDBACK

Kevin Liu CEO - Princeton Social Innovation

5 of 5 Collaboration Case Study: Cisco

UBI GLOBAL UBI Global is a thought leader in performance analysis of business incubation globally

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, we help university managed and affiliated business incubators and business accelerators become more efficient and competitive through a comprehensive benchmark including more than 500 incubation programs in over 70 countries. http://ubi-global.com

The UBI Global methodology offers detailed comparative performance information on the world’s top performing university business incubators and accelerators. A broad range of performance indicators is measured using a unique research framework, supported by an established & trusted methodology developed by researchers, practitioners and industry experts.

We strive to offer research & network services tailored to suit your needs. Please contact us to discuss about the different ways we can help your company

with data supported projects & insights.

ABOUT US

OUR SERVICES

OUR NETWORK

Business Incubators & Accelerators

Startups (indirect)

Key Actors from the Global Incubation

Ecosystem

Government Agencies and Corporations

Countries represented

GET IN TOUCH

GET A FREE QUOTE

www.ubi-global.com info@ubi-global.com

• The benchmark provides a solid platform to connect with relevant actors such as:

• Peers• Partners• Incubators• Investors• Startups• Entrepreneurs

• The benchmarking process can be customized according to the company’s goals

• Brings data driven and systematic method to approach the company’s vision

• Provides data accurate foundations for new projects and initiatives

• Supports CSR goals• Helps increase brand

recognition across the incubation landscape

800+ 10.000+ 5.000+ 30+ 70+

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