Today’s Challenge of Innovation
and Entrepreneurship
WPI” Fifth US-Africa Business Conference
Jerry Schaufeld
WPI Department of Management
WPI’s Fifth US Africa Business
Conference
June 2008
1
A perspective
• JJS… vantage
– Professional and academic (“Improving the
probability of success…”)
• WPI Vantage
– Legacy of Innovation and entrepreneurship
– Current environment
• Academic offerings
• CEI and student based Genius
• Research in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
WPI’s Fifth US Africa Business
Conference
June 2008
2
Commercialization Cycle…
• LBO
•M&A
Money/ Cash flow ($)
• Turnaround
$
•R&D
• Other…
• Invention
• Mkt. Oppty.
• Idea
Subsequent Rounds
Sources
Time
Decision to
commercialize
“FFF”
Angel
?
(Today)
Series “A” event (Venture,
Institutional Capital, JV, etc.)
(Traditional)
Visionary
Funding
WPI’s Fifth US Africa Business
Conference
June 2008
Professional (other peoples
money) funding
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Implications by function…
Pre-Investment
Early Stage
Series A
Subsequent
Informal
Teams
Management .
Structure
Committees, Metrics
Accounting System
Excel
Quick books
ERM, CRM, MIS
Consolidated
Accounting People
You and me
P/T CFO
CFO (HBS?) (teams)
Treasurer
Sales Org
none
Focused sales by all
Teams, Reps
Multinational
Sales People
See above
Senior mgt.
Sales manager
Professionals
Operations
none
All hands
Teams
Structure, procedures
Ops people
See above
First COO
Integrated mfg.
Outsourcing
Marketing
Primitive, assumptions
Verification
Formal, trade shows
Consultants, global
Marketing People
Advisors
Part time CMO
Trade shows,
literature
Professionals
Technology
Primitive, R & D
Baling wire, but
working
Tooling, rev control
Automation, China?
Tech People
MIT/ WPI types??
Teams
Labs, R&D mgt
Vice Presidents
Admin
none
Office manager
Formal Organization
Vice Presidents
Admin People
See above
Small staff (teams)
HR, Purchasing
Vice Presidents
Management
WPI’s Fifth US Africa Business
Conference
June 2008
4
The Challenges…..
• Confronted by a new world characterized
by a conceptual framework of a “Flat
World” coined by Tom Freidman. The
issues are global.
• Challenges include environmental, energy,
health care, food and economic growth to
start.
WPI’s Fifth US Africa Business
Conference
June 2008
5
We are we Doing…..?
• In the US we had the advantages of
“endless” resources and a seemingly
endless ability to consume….
• Today we have reached limits in ….
– Ability to compete in production of goods
– Limits to our resources
– The beginning of understanding the
environmental penalty of all the above.
– Producing the engineering talent we need.
WPI’s Fifth US Africa Business
Conference
June 2008
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And Yet…….
• We put a man on the moon, invented the
microcircuit, Post Its and the I-Pod.
• Looking forward we are betting on the
strength of Innovation and
Entrepreneurship.
– Innovation deals with the process from idea
recognition to empowerment and
commercialization.
– Entrepreneurship deals with the area of risk
mitigation through understanding business
fundamentals as
applied
to opportunities.
WPI’s
Fifth US Africa Business
Conference
June 2008
7
WPI specifics….
• Examples at WPI include:
– Kern foundation –Embedding Innovation in the
Engineering Curriculum for all students
– NCIIA proposal to develop a feasibility
discipline early in the design of the social use
of robotics
– WPI’s legacy of project orientation (IQP, MQP)
– Student initiated activity (i.e. Genius)
• It’s only the beginning…..
WPI’s Fifth US Africa Business
Conference
June 2008
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