The Mizuho India Japan Study Centre (MIJSC) at IIM Bangalore hosted a talk by Dr Michael A. Cusumano, SMR Distinguished Professor and Deputy Dean at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and Founder of Tokyo Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center at Tokyo University of Science, on 24th September2021. This hour-long virtual dialogue titled, ‘Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Challenges & Lessons for India & Japan’ was moderated by Prof. Ramesh Venkateswaran, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Palakkad and Adjunct Faculty of Marketing at IIM Bangalore and IIM Udaipur.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/PxHBzoqu8CE
Prof. Cusumano drew from his experience of studying and promoting entrepreneurship in Japan, particularly while serving as Special Vice President and Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Tokyo University of Science during 2015-2017. He summarized the key frameworks of the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (MIT REAP) and how they could be applied to India. The framework highlights the difference between “innovation capacity” and “entrepreneurial capacity” and shows how to close the gap by building an ecosystem around five stakeholders: universities, government, entrepreneurs, risk capital, and corporations with an interest in new business development and corporate venturing.
Prof. Cusumano said: “To develop innovations and bring them to commercialization requires Central R&D, product development in companies, possibly universities or government collaborated labs with a network among the researchers, so they can share what they are learning; which are all essential to building parts of the infrastructure that helps a country or a region develop an innovative capacity. While entrepreneurial capacity is very different, it’s the ability to start and build essentially new businesses, new companies. For that one needs people that want to become entrepreneurs, and also people who can mentor those companies and be advisors and teach them and people that want to invest in those start-ups.”
Prof. Cusumano emphasized that one can't create an entrepreneurial ecosystem in a country without significant government policies that promote entrepreneurship. “Also, if universities have no courses or training or business plan competitions, students don’t get exposed to it, so they don’t think of themselves as potentially becoming entrepreneurs; they don’t see the opportunities or believe they have the capabilities,” he said. “There are many ways to influence an ecosystem, but the core idea is that in every country for a start-up to thrive, there need to be multiple players, working together in some effective way for an ecosystem to arise as we’ve seen in Silicon Valley.”
Another challenge for Japan and, in some ways, for India are the taboos around the concept of failure. “Every young person graduating from a reasonably good university gets multiple job offers from major companies, so the general mindset is that why should they take the chance of creating a company that is most likely to fail than the big firm recruiting processes. Japanese tend to think of people that claim to be entrepreneurs as being unemployed!”
However, things are changing quickly. Governments of both India and Japan are working with R&D labs of corporations and universities.
The session concluded with Q&A from the audience.
For more details, contact MIJSC at : india.japan.study.centre@iimb.ac.in
The Mizuho India Japan Study Centre (MIJSC) at IIM Bangalore hosted a talk by Dr Michael A. Cusumano, SMR Distinguished Professor and Deputy Dean at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and Founder of Tokyo Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center at Tokyo University of Science, on 24th September2021. This hour-long virtual dialogue titled, ‘Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Challenges & Lessons for India & Japan’ was moderated by Prof. Ramesh Venkateswaran, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Palakkad and Adjunct Faculty of Marketing at IIM Bangalore and IIM Udaipur.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/PxHBzoqu8CE
Prof. Cusumano drew from his experience of studying and promoting entrepreneurship in Japan, particularly while serving as Special Vice President and Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Tokyo University of Science during 2015-2017. He summarized the key frameworks of the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (MIT REAP) and how they could be applied to India. The framework highlights the difference between “innovation capacity” and “entrepreneurial capacity” and shows how to close the gap by building an ecosystem around five stakeholders: universities, government, entrepreneurs, risk capital, and corporations with an interest in new business development and corporate venturing.
Prof. Cusumano said: “To develop innovations and bring them to commercialization requires Central R&D, product development in companies, possibly universities or government collaborated labs with a network among the researchers, so they can share what they are learning; which are all essential to building parts of the infrastructure that helps a country or a region develop an innovative capacity. While entrepreneurial capacity is very different, it’s the ability to start and build essentially new businesses, new companies. For that one needs people that want to become entrepreneurs, and also people who can mentor those companies and be advisors and teach them and people that want to invest in those start-ups.”
Prof. Cusumano emphasized that one can't create an entrepreneurial ecosystem in a country without significant government policies that promote entrepreneurship. “Also, if universities have no courses or training or business plan competitions, students don’t get exposed to it, so they don’t think of themselves as potentially becoming entrepreneurs; they don’t see the opportunities or believe they have the capabilities,” he said. “There are many ways to influence an ecosystem, but the core idea is that in every country for a start-up to thrive, there need to be multiple players, working together in some effective way for an ecosystem to arise as we’ve seen in Silicon Valley.”
Another challenge for Japan and, in some ways, for India are the taboos around the concept of failure. “Every young person graduating from a reasonably good university gets multiple job offers from major companies, so the general mindset is that why should they take the chance of creating a company that is most likely to fail than the big firm recruiting processes. Japanese tend to think of people that claim to be entrepreneurs as being unemployed!”
However, things are changing quickly. Governments of both India and Japan are working with R&D labs of corporations and universities.
The session concluded with Q&A from the audience.
For more details, contact MIJSC at : india.japan.study.centre@iimb.ac.in