Last week, I had the opportunity to give a keynote talk at the Open Innovations virtual forum run by Skolkovo. It was a great chance for me to go back and not just talk about Disciplined Entrepreneurship but also to see the progress Skolkovo University has made in the area of entrepreneurship in Russia. On the panel with me was Kirill Kaem, SVP of Innovations at Skolkovo, and old friend Pekka Vilakainen, an Advisor to the Board of Skolkovo. When I first went to Skolkovo many years ago (I think a decade) it was just getting started and it was literally a potato field. The vision was to create a thriving hub for entrepreneurship like MIT but in Russia. On one hand, it was hard to envision but upon closer look, some key assets were in place. The technical talent was extraordinary. The work ethic was unsurpassed anywhere in the world. They had strong government support. They knew they needed entrepreneurship if they were to revitalize their economy and see their investments in research pay off. They were unquestionably lagging at the time in entrepreneurship skills and community relative to the rest of the world – especially in entrepreneurship education.
As you will see in the video above, our discussion talks about the usefulness of Disciplined Entrepreneurship but the conversation is much more far-reaching to what a difference Skolkovo has made in filling this gap and what the results look like today. It is very interesting to see the lessons learned and where we go from here. Many thanks to Evgeni Sheyenko, Head of strategy and analytics at Skolkovo, who organized and moderated this panel. It is also fun to have such a discussion with global colleagues where we can learn from each other, and personally, to share the stage with someone whose email account is “bulldozer” (that is Pekka).
Marius Ursache, a good friend, DE practitioner and trainer, serial entrepreneur, illustrator of the Disciplined Entrepreneurship book and workbook, master of the d-eship.com website, maker of detoolbox.com, and wearer of many other hats (as a true Renaissance man), also took part in an interesting panel on how to approach deep tech investing.
Hope you enjoy and gain some new useful insights from the videos.
The author
Bill Aulet
A longtime successful entrepreneur, Bill is the Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is changing the way entrepreneurship is understood, taught, and practiced around the world.
The Disciplined Entrepreneurship Toolbox
Stay ahead by using the 24 steps together with your team, mentors, and investors.
The books
This methodology with 24 steps and 15 tactics was created at MIT to help you translate your technology or idea into innovative new products. The books were designed for first-time and repeat entrepreneurs so that they can build great ventures.
