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How MIT Is Teaching Regions Around The World To Unlock Their Entrepreneurial Potential

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The companies spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are valued at over $1 trillion, according to an analysis conducted by the institute a few years ago.  That’s enough to be the 17th largest economy in the world.

So it’s no surprise that world leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and others regularly make the pilgrimage to Cambridge, MA to visit MIT’s campus and figure out how this institute has, along with Stanford University, transformed the role of the university from simply being an institution of higher learning to being a driver of economic growth and prosperity.

MIT has a comprehensive set of programs, initiatives and centers for entrepreneurs of all stripes to get mentoring, support and funding for their ideas.  There is the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, the Legatum Center, the MIT Venture Mentoring Service, the Lemelson-MIT Program, D-Lab and many other programs that students, faculty and alumni can access.

What visitors to MIT soon realize is that this infrastructure takes a long time to build.  For over 100 years, MIT has been among the most entrepreneurial universities in the world.  It has had a culture of supporting “useful knowledge”, as it calls its work, for a long time, and attracts faculty and students who are keen to see their ideas put into practice.   In return, the ideas emanating from MIT have been a big driver of the New England economy, a pipeline for technologies for the American military and the source of many startup successes in Silicon Valley.    It’s no surprise that 15% of MIT graduates in 2014 joined startups.

And yet, while MIT’s culture has been entrepreneurial for a long time, the Centers that support entrepreneurship have only been around for 20 years or so.  And that can be replicated.  Other universities can learn from MIT how it has empowered its students, faculty and alumni to build their ideas by strategically, and formally, leveraging the institutional capabilities of MIT.

In 2012, the institution decided to start teaching just that.  The MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (MIT REAP) is an MIT educational program for high-level teams from around the world dedicated to working alongside MIT faculty over a 2-year period to spur innovation-driven entrepreneurship in their particular city, region or country.  MIT REAP founded in 2012 by Bill Aulet, Scott Stern, Fiona Murray, and Ed Roberts, based on MIT’s expertise in the ‘science of innovation’, i.e. a robust, evidence-based understanding of the innovation process at the regional level that defines what works, in practice, for accelerating innovation-driven entrepreneurship.  According to its mission statement, “MIT REAP is a capstone global initiative of MIT Sloan School of Management Executive Education and the MIT Innovation Initiative, which is designed to help regions accelerate growth and promote social progress through innovation-driven entrepreneurship (IDE)”.

To date, the MIT REAP program has hosted teams of policy makers, academics, entrepreneurs, investors and corporate leaders from all around the world, including China, Mexico, Norway and Saudi Arabia.  Regional teams of 5-8 leaders are drawn from 5 stakeholder groups (government, risk capital, universities, entrepreneurs, and corporates) and work collectively with one another, others from their region, MIT thought leaders and other regional teams to build an action-based strategy for change. During the two years, they are expected to launch their strategy back home through key interventions, and share their learnings and insights with the MIT team for evaluation.

MIT REAP’s approach is distinctive from traditional executive education or economic development consulting partnerships in several dimensions. REAP is also able to leverage MIT’s experience in leading innovation and entrepreneurship across broader global communities. By working in multi-stakeholder teams, regions are able to focus on collective action and impact rather than the perspective of a single stakeholder.

Ultimately, MIT is giving program participants a good look “under the hood” of its own entrepreneurship programs, and its deep integration with the economies of Massachusetts and California.  But it remains to be seen whether the teams visiting MIT will be able to translate MIT’s advice and strategy into entrepreneurship policies that truly create social progress, jobs, high-growth companies and economic viability.  Policy makers must be able to nurture (and defend) pro-entrepreneurship policies for a long time before seeing success.  Corporations may not be able to commercialize locally researched innovations for many reasons.  And more entrepreneurs will fail before succeeding.

Even for those at the earliest stages of supporting entrepreneurship, there is much to learn from MIT and Stanford.  Let’s hope more regions and governments take advantage of programs like these.