MIT's Morse sets out code for success

Published on Thursday 21 May 2009 21:29

SCOTLAND must change its mindset and create an "entrepreneurial ecosystem" to build globally-successful firms, according to the head of one of America's largest university business development centres.

Ken Morse, managing director of the entrepreneurship centre at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told The Scotsman that the right "ecosystem" – or environment – would come about by successful business people passing on their skills to the next generation.

But he warned people should stop "sniping" at those entrepreneurs who are successful.

Morse identified the need for successful business people to train and coach budding entrepreneurs and the need to build successful teams.

He said: "There's a shortage of globally-ambitious entrepreneurs who have done it before. Venture capitalists don't invest in ideas or technology – they invest in teams."

While acknowledging that the shortage was not unique to Scotland, he said Scots should not snipe at those business people who do hit the big time.

Morse added: "We need some success stories – nothing gets the word out better than a success story. People will think 'Maybe I should do that'.

"We also need some of these companies to achieve 100 million in revenues and to achieve total global dominance of their niche in the market, so that they're known round the world.

"Those companies will create great jobs, create suppliers – because new companies will be formed to feed them – and they will create spin-offs."

Morse, himself a successful technology investor, was speaking in Edinburgh yesterday as he lead an entrepreneurial workshop alongside Bill Aulet, a senior lecturer at MIT, and Laura Morse, his wife, a consultant.

The event was organised by Informatics Ventures, part of Edinburgh University's School of Informatics, and was attended by about 60 business people.

Morse praised the work carried out by Informatics Ventures, which was setup by Edinburgh University, Scottish Enterprise and the European Regional Development Fund to increase the economic output of Scotland's researchers.

He said: "The School of Informatics is building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in which technology-based firms can move from the cool comfort of the laboratory to the cruel crucible of the marketplace."

Of the 60 companies taking part in yesterday's workshop, Morse singled out four that he believes have the potential to grow into global businesses.

They included SeeByte, which was set up to commercialise technology from the Ocean Systems Laboratory at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and Traak Systems, which emerged from Edinburgh University to process data in radio frequency identification and sensor networks.

Edinburgh-based Valley Technology – which developed the "Podfather" device for linking invoicing to deliveries – and Glasgow-based vQueue, which handles online queues for the National Lottery website, were also singled out for praise.

A recent report into the economic effect of MIT's former students showed that they had founded 25,800 active companies, employing 3.3 million staff and accounting for $2 trillion (1.3tn) in global sales.

If the companies formed a separate economy on their own, then it would the 11th largest in the world.

Morse continued: "We've created a lot of companies and jobs at MIT and have got a lot of technology from the lab to the market place. How do we do that? The ecosystem, or network, is the answer."

He highlighted the work done at Edinburgh to make the "walls of the university porous and get a better match between the business community and the school", praising links between students and existing businesses.