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 of Imperial College Business School which has the aim to guide researchers to assess the commercial feasibility of an innovation. 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’ and a ‘live project’. A second training program is the iBootcamp of IBBT which is an entrepreneurial bootcamp that guides entrepreneurs in writing their business plan. www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu

1. Entrepreneurial Skills Training
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www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu
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2. 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.
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3. IED
(Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Design)
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4. 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
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5. 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
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6. 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
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7. 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
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8. 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)
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9. Idea Funnel (2008)
Idea
Funnel
Industry
Maturity
Immature > Mature > ImperiaI > Industry
Students Students Innovations
(MBA)
58
> 24
> 10
>
>
>
14 12 6
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10. Idea Funnel (2009)
Idea
Funnel
Industry
Maturity
Immature > Mature > ImperiaI > Industry
Students Students Innovations
(MBA)
48
> 33
> 21
>
>
>
16 10 7
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11. Parts of the Process
 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
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12. Parts of the Process
 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 opportunities
Part II: Business plans and business cases
Part III: Financial plans, prioritization, techniques and valuation
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13. Parts of the Process
 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
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14. Parts of the Process
 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
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15. When?
 Timing
• The IED Course is organized on a yearly basis
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16. 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;
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17. 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
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18. 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
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19. Pros & Cons
PROs CONs
• IED helps people to develop a • Risk of having conflicts
business case based upon a between the idea owners and
specific idea, during a specific time the project team in case the
frame market potential of the idea
lies in a different area than
• It is a good learning experience for originally anticipated
participants
• Challenge to manage teams
• IED is cost effective in scaling with a big diversity
coaching efforts for a selected
number of projects
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20. iBootcamp
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21. 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.
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22. 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
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23. 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
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24. 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
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25. Parts of the Process
 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
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26. Parts of the Process
 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
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27. Parts of the Process
 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
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28. Parts of the Process
 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.
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29. 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
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30. 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
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31. 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.
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32. 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
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33. Pros & Cons
PROs CONs
• Bootcamp helps to focus idea
owners and team members on • Risk of having too high
their project during a specific time expectations within some
frame teams/team members
• Bootcamp is a very effective • Challenge to manage teams
medium to market the mission of with a big diversity
the institute as innovation • One needs to have a clear
facilitator follow-up strategy
• Bootcamp is also cost effective in
scaling coaching efforts for a
selected number of projects
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34. 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/iedj
ourney
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