Babson College Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project Established

BABSON PARK, Mass., June 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem project has been established at Babson College to help societies around the world create the policies, structures, programs and climates that foster entrepreneurship. Daniel Isenberg, Professor of Management Practice at Babson Executive Education, is project director.  

The project offers "rules for revolutionaries" that are down-to-earth guidelines for leaders who want to make a difference now by fostering greater levels of entrepreneurship. These rules are drawn from entrepreneurship experiences of over 2 dozen countries around the world, and will help the committed leader move his or her society to become more positive, vibrant, inclusive, and innovative.

Rules are:  

• Stop emulating Silicon Valley
• Tailor an ecosystem around your own particular characteristics  
• Engage the entrepreneurship stakeholders early on  
• Support the high potential entrepreneurs  
• Get some visible successes, even by "brute force" if necessary  
• Change the culture head on  
• Stress the roots: don't provide easy money
• Pave the footpath  
• Remove bureaucratic obstacles for entrepreneurs  
• Experiment relentlessly and holistically  

The project's strategy for supporting entrepreneurship is detailed in Isenberg's Harvard Business Review article, "How to Start an Entrepreneurial Revolution," which gives a clear and practical strategy for entrepreneurship development that is results driven and short run focused. To read the article, visit http://hbr.org/product/how-to-start-an-entrepreneurial-revolution/an/R1006A-HCB-ENG.  

"Whereas most researchers will tell you, 'We need to conduct more research to be sure,' at Babson we think enough is already known about how to create entrepreneurship to start right away," said Isenberg. "The key is in taking a holistic view of the entire ecosystem, using principles that have already borne the test of time, and engaging the entrepreneurship stakeholders in a process of program development and change. True, there is still a lot to learn, but we believe that now the best way to learn is by creating change, not just studying it. There is no reason for governments, foundations, and private sector leaders to wait: doing nothing is unacceptable, and we believe that we can accomplish a lot of change with what is already known. Dozens of countries have experimented with entrepreneurship: many mistakes have been made, and some very beneficial programs have been developed. We have collected all of that experience within our project, added Babson's unique approach to entrepreneurship, and the result is a practical program for leaders."  

View Isenberg's rules for revolutionaries at http://entrepreneurial-revolution.com/?page_id=16  

Listen to Isenberg's podcast at http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2010/05/how-to-create-an-entrepreneuri.html  

Read Isenberg's HBR article at http://hbr.org/product/how-to-start-an-entrepreneurial-revolution/an/R1006A-HCB-ENG

For more information about the project, visit http://entrepreneurial-revolution.com/    

About Daniel Isenberg  

Isenberg has taught at Harvard, Columbia, Insead, Reykjavik, Theseus, and the Technion, and has been an entrepreneur and venture capitalist.  

Prior to joining Babson in July 2009, Isenberg served for eleven years on the Harvard Business School faculty: From 2005-2009 he taught in the Entrepreneurial Management unit, where he developed the popular course, International Entrepreneurship, for which he wrote 27 international cases. Isenberg also taught in the required first year course, The Entrepreneurial Manager. Isenberg designed and led HBS's new India and Israel International Immersion Programs on entrepreneurship. From 1981-1987 Isenberg was in the Organizational Behavior unit, and has published three seminal HBR articles: "The Global Entrepreneur," (2008), "How Senior Managers Think," (1984) and "The Tactics of Strategic Opportunism." (1987).  

Between 1987-2004, Isenberg lived in Israel and was founding CEO of Triangle Technologies, which executes cross-border transactions between Japanese companies and non-Japanese technology companies, and has concluded over 100 discrete deals (joint ventures, OEM agreements, distribution channels, strategic investments, licensing agreements, etc.). During that period Isenberg helped establish two venture capital funds and was general partner in one of them. From 1987-1989 he created a course at the Technion called Technology-Based Entrepreneurship, co-founded and co-directed the Tefen Entrepreneurs Program with Stef Wertheimer, and directed the Technion Entrepreneurial Associates with Professor Ed Roberts from MIT. Isenberg has served as director of several private and NASDAQ-listed companies. He speaks and consults frequently on global entrepreneurship and has been quoted in Fortune, The Economist, Boston Globe, Success, Yomiuri Shimbun, il Mondi, HaAretz, Nikkei, Business Week, and USA TODAY.  

During his first period at HBS in the 1980's, Isenberg conducted research programs in two areas, human interaction in small groups, and managerial cognition, which resulted in publications in top-tier journals such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Academy of Management Journal, etc. He taught Organizational Behavior, Managing Organizational Effectiveness, and Power and Influence. He has been a consultant to or conducted executive education for Dow Chemical, ABB, Garanti Bank (Turkey), Digital Equipment Corporation, Ford Europe, Mitsubishi, Omron, Mitsui, and others.

In 1981 Isenberg received the Ph.D. degree in Social Psychology from Harvard University under the mentorship of Robert Freed Bales.  

About Babson  

Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program, and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. Babson Executive Education offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide. For information, visit www.babson.edu.

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SOURCE Babson College