www.fitt-for-innovation.eu entrepreneurial skills training fitt (fostering interregional exchange in...

www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu

Entrepreneurial Skills Training

FITT (Fostering Interregional Exchange in ICT Technology Transfer)

2 | 26.02.2010 Entrepreneurial Skills Training

Entrepreneurial Skills Training

To create awareness, it is important to provide training for researchers in order to teach them some entrepreneurial skills

A first training program is the IED (Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Design) course which has the aim to guide researchers to assess the commercial feasibility of an innovation.

A second training program is the iBootcamp which is a entrepreneurial bootcamp that guides entrepreneurs in writing their business plan.


IED(Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Design)


Process in general

The IED (Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Design) course is part of the MBA programme at Imperial College Business School;

IED embarks on a live entrepreneurial journey which provides insights into the challenges of introducing novel products and services to the market; it entails a ‘teaching part’ (36hrs) and a ‘live project’;

‘Live project’: MBA students deliver independent work by team, assisted by online tool, plus 3 coaching workshops and a final presentation, over a 5-month period;

Purpose: to learn and practise multi-disciplinary methods to assess and develop the commercial feasibility of an innovation (a new technology, design or business idea, or a combination of the three), identify suitable routes to market, and estimate the operational and financial needs of a proposed venture


Process in Practice

The IED Course can be divided into 5 big parts The Call: recruitment and selection of business ideas

The Team Composition: assembling complementary MBA teams

The Teaching: 2 taught modules (Design Management/Innovation & Entrepreneurship)

The Workshops: 3 workshops (assessment of the course by means of the IED project)

Business Case Presentation: final workshop


Process in Practice

The IED Course runs over a period of about ten months: i.e.

Online call for ideas: open from September till November

Selection of ideas: 1-18 November 2009

Posting of ideas on blackboard: 20 November 2009

Posting preference ‘top five’ projects: 20-25 November 2009

Composition MBA Project Teams: 26 November 2009

Ideator Evening for chosen Idea Owner: 30 November 2009

Launch Event: 26 January 2010

Teaching: 26 January 2010 till 5 February 2010


Process in Practice

Workshop I ‘Idea Pitch’: 18 February 2010

Workshop II ‘Commerical Feasibility’: 18 March 2010

Workshop III ‘Market Test’: 28 April 2010

Final Presentation: 26 May 2010


Parts of the Process

Part 1. The Call

• Project ideas are sourced from ‘Ideators’ who may be MBA, other Imperial College/RCA students & faculty (deadline MBA students: 16th November; deadline IC/RCA members: 2nd November) or industry (deadline 2nd November)

• 102 Project Proposals < 33 selected (see next slides)


Idea Funnel (2008)

Idea Funnel Industry

Maturity

Immature > Mature > ImperiaI > Industry

Students Students Innovations (MBA)

58 24 10> >> >>

14 12 6


Idea Funnel (2009)

Idea Funnel Industry

Maturity

Immature > Mature > ImperiaI > Industry

Students Students Innovations (MBA)

48 33 21> >> >>

16 10 7



Part 2. Team Composition

The selected ideas are put on the Blackboard for MBA students to see; they get +/- 5 days to send in their personal preference ‘top five’;

Teams of 4 to 5 people are put together by external consultants; criteria: education, interest, alignment with idea

‘Ideator Evening’: Network event for Ideators of selected projects with more practical information about the IED programme + official hand over of the ‘dream team enveloppes’

MBA students get informed via the Blackboard

Ideators and MBA students are encouraged to meet up before actual kick-off to discuss the project



Part 3. The Teaching

The Launch Event is on the 26th of January, together with the first lecture of the IED Course

The IED course consists of two taught modules: (1) Design Management and (2) Innovation & Entrepreneurship

(1) Design Management: +/- 6 sessions; e.g. ‘What is design?’, ‘Design Value Networks’, ‘Managing Design’

(2) Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Part I: Finding and defining opportunitiesPart II: Business plans and business casesPart III: Financial plans, prioritization, techniques and valuation



Part 4. The Workshops

Workshop I ‘Idea Pitch’: Teams are expected to describe what they will deliver and for whom (the customer); where (distribution, location of activities) and when (ready to market next week or in five years time) + team building to define roles and expectations of each team member

Workshop II ‘Commercial Feasibility’: Present initial insights derived from secondary market research and preferred witnessing; give a freedom to operate analysis and develop a protection strategy

Workshop III ‘Market Test’: Feedback from the market should help to reinforce or revise the business model and/or value proposition; present a clear value chain + financial planning if applicable



Part 5. Business Case Presentation

Final workshop ‘Business Case Presentation’: Global assessment of the project

Include the financial information and present the final business case to two examiners (< academic/investor)

Evaluation criteria of final presentation based upon the components of the assessment tool

Articulation of the Value Proposition

Technology Analysis

Analysis of the Value Chain

Analysis of the Market Approach

Estimation of Market Size and Timing

Estimation of Revenue Model

Financial plan


When?

Timing• The IED Course is organized on a yearly basis


Who?

Stakeholders• Imperial Innovations: IED Programme is the perfect ‘tool’ to develop

promising ideas;

• ICBS: The IED entrepreneurial journey is a rich experience for MBA students and considered to be the flagship of the programme; it’s a tool which allows and support a market led approach (<the call for proposals is open for industrial partners as well);

• Design London Incubator: Very promising business cases (as an output from IED) are candidates for the incubator;

• Royal College of Art (RCA): a lot of their students apply as ideator;

• External industrial partners: the chance to let a high potential team work on internally generated ideas in a structured way (e.g. BP);

• MBA students: joining a highly realistic interactive entrepreneurial training opportunity and possibility to start-up an actual venture if successful;


Where?

The IED course is organized at the premises of Imperial College Business School (London);

Why? ICBS has adequate facilities to organize such a programme + convenient for the coaches


Why?

IED is set up to help people in assessing the commercial feasibility of an idea

The team members need to collaborate intensively to develop the business case. They learn to operate in a multidisciplinary team

The program has a high visibility and is highly appreciated

The program creates a pipeline for interesting and investable projects which can be taken up in the incubator of Design London or by Imperial Innovations


Pros & Cons

CONsPROs

• IED helps people to develop a business case based upon a specific idea, during a specific time frame

• It is a good learning experience for participants

• IED is cost effective in scaling coaching efforts for a selected number of projects

• Risk of having conflicts between the idea owners and the project team in case the market potential of the idea lies in a different area than originally anticipated

• Challenge to manage teams with a big diversity


iBootcamp


iBootcamp

The iBootCamp of IBBT is a entrepreneurial bootcamp organised by IBBT with the support of a Management School to guide entrepreneurial teams towards the presentation of their Business case before a final jury

This type of Bootcamp is also organised inside companies for further developing business ideas within the company.

iBootcamp is also open for external parties having a business idea lying within the field of IBBT. This open innovation approach is a strength to create an IBBT eco-system open for new venturing opportunities from in and outside.

Total budget per bootcamp: 80-100Keuro.


Process in Practice

The iBootcamp can be divided into 4 big parts

The Call: recruitment and selection of business ideas

The Dating: creation of business teams

The Workshops: Elaboration of the business case and presentation before a Jury

The Jury


Process in Practice

The iBootcamp runs over a period of about seven months: e.g.

Call for ideas: open for one month December – 4 January 2010

Selection of ideas: 5-10 January 2010

Info session for withheld idea owners

Posting of ideas on public space: 15 Jan 2010

Recruitment of candidate team members: 5 January – 9 February

Dating event: 10 February

Presentation and selection of teams: 24 February 2010

Confirmation of acceptance to bootcamp workshops: 1 March 2010


Process in Practice

1st workshop: team building to define roles and expectations of each team member, 5 March

2nd workshop: intro to high-tech entrepreneurship and business plan, inceptum methodology, technology-application matrix, 12-13 March

3th workshop: business model and marketing, 26-27 March

4th workshop: financial planning, 23-24 April

Coaching on demand, 2 days during May

Dry run, 26 May

Grand Jury, 4 June

Feedback and Closing event, 25 June



Part 1. The call for business ideas• The call for ideas is launched towards the entire IBBT-community of

researchers and business partners

• The description of the idea needs to follow the NABC-format

• Possibility is given to make a video pitch presenting the idea owner and his or her idea

• Normally about 20 ideas are recruited this way

• After a first selection looking at the proposal and a quick IP-scan only 12 to 15 ideas are withheld for the next step, e.g. the dating or search for additional team members



Part 2. The dating or matching of ideas with other people

People with complementary skills (finance, marketing, business administration, …) are recruited in the public space

At the dating event idea owners can meet these candidates and start expanding their team for the Bootcamp

Two weeks later idea owners present themselves before IBBT with their reworked business idea and committed new team members

On basis of this presentation teams are accepted or not for the Bootcamp

Maximum 5-6 teams can join the next step, e.g. the workshop sessions



Part 3. The bootcamp workshops

The first workshop concentrates on the team, the roles of each team member during the bootcamp and the expectations of each team member if the venture should take off after the bootcamp. After this workshop teams can still withdraw.

The second till fourth workshop concentrates on the making of the Business case and the presentation for the Jury.

This is a very intensive working period of about 3 months for all team members. Normally each team member must take into account 1 day per week during this period to work together.

Thanks to coaching and dry run all teams get maximally prepared



Part 4. The Jury and closing event

When the presentation of the Business case is ready, Teams are invited for their final presentation before the Grand Jury, consisting of IBBT experts and external business and VC experts in high tech startups

The Jury evaluates the presentations and decides if teams have “passed” or not.

At the closing event a couple of weeks later, teams are informed of the verdict of the Jury and the next steps.


When?

Timing• The first bootcamp was organized in 2008

• It is organized on a yearly basis

• So far the Bootcamp is organized for 2 times, the 3th one has just been started


Who?

Stakeholders• IBBT: facilitator and generator of IP -> 3 people involved

• Researchers/business partners: idea owner -> 20-30 people involved

• Team members: joining a entrepreneurial training opportunity and possibly a venture when successful -> 50-100 people involved with objective to form 5 teams of maximum 5 persons per team

• Jury: IBBT experts and VC experts, one day effort to listen to teams and give their advice -> about 10 jury members


Where?

The bootcamp is organized in a comfortable setting outside the IBBT premises and easily accessible for all teams, this is central in the Flemish region. The premise needs a common place for all teams together for the training sessions, and separate break out rooms for the coaching sessions.

The workshop sessions (part 3) were originally conceived in a residential manner, but after the first bootcamp this was not perceived as an essential or crucial asset. Teams were then left free to decide for themselves

The jury and closing event are organized at the IBBT premises.


Why?

The bootcamp is organized because there is a serious need for multidisciplinary teamwork to translate a business idea into a viable business concept

Helping with establishing a good team is already half of the work to be done and also triggering the idea owner to make the best of his business idea

It has a high marketing value for the institute because of the strong visibility of the program

The program creates also a pipeline for interesting and investable projects


Pros & Cons

CONsPROs

• Bootcamp helps to focus idea owners and team members on their project during a specific time frame

• Bootcamp is a very effective medium to market the mission of the institute as innovation facilitator

• Bootcamp is also cost effective in scaling coaching efforts for a selected number of projects

• Risk of having too high expectations within some teams/team members

• Challenge to manage teams with a big diversity

• One needs to have a clear follow-up strategy


Suggested Readings

Link to bibliography

Link to code book

Entrepreneur

Awareness creation

Opportunity

Creativity

Link to related websites

http://events.ibbt.be/iBootcamp/

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/entrepreneurship/teaching/mba%20programme/iedjourney

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