mondragon university case

USE CASEMondragon University

Felix [email protected]

Mondragon UniversitySpanish Partner

• University Part of Mondragon Corporation (www.mcc.es) 85.000 workers (85%members) Sectors: Finance, industry, distribution, engineering & services andeducation

• University organizes with different agents from the Corporation contexts thatinvolve private and public collaboration.

• 3 topics- 3 contests/waves per year.

• Objectives: 1. Promote entrepreneurship among students by collecting ideason the creation of new enterprises or business models. (Spin-Offs)2.Accelerate knowledge transfer from university to business.

• Methodology: Each year improvements are introduced to impact on differentaspects (participation, co-creation, marketing, …). Outcome is measured bymeans of KPIs.

• Launched in 2010. Idea Management System (IMS) (Innowave) used since 2011.

Challange: Transfer of R&D results or innovative formal/regular trainningprojects from university to industry and society.

companies

Tech. Center

Students and Lecturers

Researchers

PoPBL

Final YearProject (Grade)

Final YearProject

(Masters)

Mechanisms Prototypes

idea

idea

idea

Competition,pluridisciplinar,workshop, …

new products

new services

new business

ResultsBranding

Entrepreneurshipcenter Journalists

ExhibitionShow room

Innowave, Canvanyzer,

Business Model Innovation andUser Driven Innovation &Design Thinking

Challenges: Transform those prototypes into products or new businesses

• Create spin-offs: Students are by themselves. They need support to createtheir company.

• No business model identified: The company does not envisage or foresee newbusiness models. Not encouraged to continue with the project. Development in stand by.

• No company: There is no company behind an idea.

• Transference is not an easy task: Research groups do not have the competence/timeto do this.

• Change of requirements: Companies are interested but keep on adding newrequirements (lack of maturity, different situations ...). Time development expands. Team mustbe reconstructed. New people (students) must acquire new training skills.


Competition,pluridisciplinar,

workshop, … ResultsBrandingExhibitionShow room

Network, Contest & Workshops




Mechanisms:• Problem Based Learning Projects

Methodologies:• Business Model Innovation• Business Plan Canvas• User Driving Innovation and Design Thinking

Prototyping




Branding: videos and social media

Methodologies: eMarketingMechanisms Prototypes



https://vimeo.com/97519757https://vimeo.com/97523608

http://youtu.be/xvWQIuCNmHw…..

Branding: social networks, local andregional press and TV

Methodologies: eMarketingMechanisms Prototypes



Results: winners in each category receive a price fromcompanies, public administration, …They can continue working in a new product, service,… in aentrepreneurship center (SAIOLAN http://www.saiolan.com/). Mechanisms Prototypes



Exhibition: Open days are organized.Students present their work. Prototypes andposters are exhibited in several places. Mechanisms Prototypes



Tools: Innowave tool developed at University(http://innoweb.mondragon.edu/).• Supports the whole process (gather ideas,

analyze and evaluate them and select them).• Serves as an idea repository.• Offers dashboards to measure some KPIs.




Contests

Idea Ratings

Results: Mainly focus on outcome results.




Outcome 2010 2011 2012 2013Ideas 10 27 49 105Promoted ideas 3 2 3 6Spin-offs 0 1 1 1

0

50

100

150

2010

Contest idea ranking

ideas promoted ideas spin-offs

Outcome 2010 2011 2012 2013Groups 10 27 46 98Participants 40 92 155 240experts 10 10 10 14evaluators 9 9 9 10events 11 16 24 24Average grade of ideas - 3.76 4.77 5.9

KPIs: Capable of measuring other KPIs to analyzeAccelerators: Strategy, Process, Products andMarketing metrics.

Conclusions

• Number of ideas has increased .

• “Strong” Networks essential (company and public administration involvement).

• Lack of entrepreneurship culture although we have detected few changes (more approaches toEntrepreneur Center).

• Economic factors also affect ideas promoted and spin-offs.

• Companies are focused on their business. Few resources for new businesses.

• Other companies do not see the opportunities open by this approaches.

• Although ideas are repetitive every year, need to recover old ideas/prototypes and mergethem with new similar ones.

Further work

• Apply Accelerate findings to the case study

• Find agreements and funds (companies). Involve them in the prototyping and the developmentprocess of the product/service.

• Look for more public administration involvement.

• Involve more University researchers and research groups in the early stages (ideation) andcompany recruitment.

• Include formative sessions during the different stages of the process to boost entrepreneurshipamong students (knowledge pills).

• Analyze crowdfunding strategies.

• Create “Idea Markets” where previous ideas are “sold” to companies and new “ideators”.

mondragon university case

Small Business & Entrepreneurship