This post was written by Paulo Alves, Innovation Analyst at Beta-i and the Project Manager of the FIWARE Startup Weekend, happening on Nov 13 - 16. Paulo focuses on the behavior of universities regarding innovation.
Access to talent is one of the key criteria that Entrepreneurs take into account when deciding which country is more suitable to start their venture. According to a study by Endeavor (2014), it is in a matter of fact the 1st issue that entrepreneurs take into account when moving abroad.
From a Global perspective, few are the countries that can brag for having three triple crown accredited faculties recognized by the Financial Times as top business schools in the world.
Yes! You can find it right here in the west coast of Europe – Portugal. It is not only the quality of life and the weather that make us an attractive choice. Indeed, Portugal has continuously sent “beautiful minds” to the birthplace of entrepreneurship – San Francisco – as well as to other hubs like London.
The question that resides to answer is how deep these universities have realized that the business world is changing.
In August 2014, Steve Blank – Mentor of Eric Ries (author of Lean StartUp) and entrepreneurship professor at Stanford, Berkley, NYU and Columbia – outlined that the behavior of universities regarding innovation is rapidly changing but still with a long way to go particularly in what concerns to corporate innovation.
Today, we can also perceive this reality in our growing hub - Lisbon. On the one hand, in the last years, Master of Science students started to have access to entrepreneurial courses and clubs. Nonetheless our internationally recognized MBA program – The Lisbon MBA – started to offer a program where MBA candidates work for few months directly with the entrepreneurs of one of our good friends, Startup Lisboa. But, on the other hand, only initiatives like Beta-innovation have been offering a practical solution for corporate innovation – a need that is still unfilled by business schools.
Furthermore, focusing in entrepreneurial innovation, at Beta-I we also believe that there is still missing a platform in Portugal that could easily match young business professional with young engineering professionals, in other words, the business knowledge with the technical knowledge.
We believe that indeed business Schools in Portugal have been correctly addressing entrepreneurship but there is still a weakness supplying and nurturing the required resources.
Don’t forget to share your thoughts about this issue with us by leaving a comment below. Additionally, lets us know how do you think Beta-I could address some of the issues outlined above. How do you think Beta-I could help Business Schools to thrive in the entrepreneurial environment?
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