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Developmental
Entrepreneurship (DE)
is a Fall semester seminar lead by Professor Alex (Sandy) Pentland on the
founding, financing, and building of entrepreneurial ventures in developing nations
and emerging regions, with particular emphasis on IT-enabled and communications
businesses. The course will be
co-taught with Prof. Iqbal Quadir (Harvard KSG), Prof. JC Barahona (INCAE,
Costa Rica), and J. Bonsen (MIT).
Summary
Description
We survey case examples of both successful and failed businesses, and the
general problems of deploying and diffusing products and services through
entrepreneurial action. By drawing on
live and historical cases, especially from South Asia, Africa, and Latin America,
we seek to cover the broad spectrum of challenges and opportunities facing
developmental entrepreneurs. Finally,
we explore a range emerging business models and opportunities enabled by
technologies developed in MIT labs and beyond.
Expected Student Deliverables
Students are asked to craft a business plan executive summary, worthy of submission in
the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition $1K Warm-Up (and possibly the preliminary
round of the MIT IDEAS Competition) in the Fall of 2003. The most promising teams are encouraged to
spend IAP internationally further researching and prototyping the new venture,
in coordination with the Global Entrepreneurship Lab or the Media Labs Digital
Nations Consortium. During the last
years more than a dozen four-person teams entered their DE
plan in the MIT $50K, with several winners in the Developmental / Social
Venture
category.
Woven
throughout the semester were a series of critical strategic themes and threads,
including broadly:,
·
Defining
Grassroots & Developmental Entrepreneurship
·
MicroFinance
& Financial Services Worldwide
·
Grassroots
vs Large-scale, indigenous vs Multi-National Company participation
·
Classic
& Emerging business models
·
Handicrafts
sector & proprietorships vs scaleable growth businesses
·
Sustainability,
appropriateness, empowerment, democratization
·
Models
for local equity participation in global business
·
MicroFinance
/ Credit / Franchising
·
Family
Remitances dramatic numbers
·
Titleizing
Dead Capital De Soto in Peru, Egypt, etc
·
Propertizing
& Protecting Property Rights
·
Human
Capital: Brain Rotation India IITs
·
Lack
of Law & Ill-Enforcement
·
Over-Regulation
& Bureaucratic Burden
·
Corruption
& Baksheesh
·
Cultural
Stultification & Anti-Innovation
By embracing live and historical cases drawn from a sampling of developing regions globally, we hope to cover the broad spectrum of challenges and opportunities facing developmental entrepreneurs. Cases to draw from include:
Approximate Schedule:
Meeting
Friday 1-3pm, Room E15-054. A typical
meeting will have a presentation by current entrepreneurs, followed by group
discussions.
Sept 5: Welcome Lunch -- Short Short introduction, distribution
of initial readings
Sept
12: First
Full Session -- Discussion of broad themes, introduction of participants,
initial interest grouping of students.
Sept
19: Brainstorming
Session -- Student groups meet with MIT experienced technologists
& entrepreneurs for
brainstorming
Sept
26: IT entrepreneurs (Hassan, SARI),
discussion
Oct 3:
MicroPower Entrepreneurs (SELCO, Solar Electric, BlueEnergy), discussion +
International Development Forum in afternoon
Oct 10: Initial presentations of business
ideas.
Oct 17: Connectivity entrepreneurs (Quadir,
Maddy), discussion
Oct 24: Presentations to class, feedback for
$1k competition
Oct 31: Poster Presentation to developing world
Leaders
(part of Digital Nations meeting)
Nov 7: Health entrepreneurs (Dimagi, Glasses)
Nov 14: Presentations to class, feedback for $1k
competition
/ Open session
Nov 21: Distributed, microfranchise
organizations case studies (Digital Weaver, TBN), discussion
Nov 28: Thanksgiving holiday
Dec 5: Discussion of follow-on steps
Connecting
with the World Students will have the opportunity to present project ideas to the
leadership of the World Bank, the UN, and the heads of national university and
business leaders around the world as part of the Global Educational Program
meeting and the MIT Digital Nations Consoritum meeting.
Competitions,
Conferences, and Field Trials Promising students and projects were be
encouraged to participate in the MIT IDEAS and $50K Entrepreneurship Competition, other global
business plan contests, development conferences, and in real field trials,
seeking fast iterative feedback on business viability.
Building
On and Complementing Other MIT Development Classes Many technology students
have participated in Development Technologies, Design That Matters,
and other classes on building appropriate technologies. Developmental Entrepreneurship has
helped such students investigate the further challenge of broadly deploying
their technology solution via business action.
Coordination
with Student Extracurriculars Along with the MIT $50K organizers, the Student
Entrepreneurs for International Development (SEID), and MIT TechLink, we will
co-host a reception after an early classat the start of
the semester, for both students in the class and
those drawn from the larger MIT community.
This both introduced these organizations to one another and served to
better connect development-minded MIT folks.
Furthermore, on Friday afternoon, October 3rd, 2003, students are
encouraged to participate in the student-led International
Development Forum held in 10-250 & Lobby 10.