Innovate or Perish: Managing the Enduring Technology Company in the Global Market

Conclusion

The experience in regional venture economics isn’t particular to the United States. There are experiments going on all over the world,^[15],[16] whether you’re in Kalamazoo or Cambridge. Whether you evaluate this from a crucial resource, stakeholder, or risk management perspective, the critical issues remain the same and can come together only when someone leads. Individuals make the difference as they step up, step out, and take risks to lead entrepreneurial efforts through example. Innovation doesn’t just occur in the laboratory and entrepreneurship in new companies; it occurs in community organizations and public service, too. The takeaways, in my opinion, are what you would expect. The elements, regardless of location, are the same as those discussed herein and are provided on a continuum: good science and a means to protect it (file and manage IP); gap funding; support at the local, regional, and national levels; policies to encourage collaboration and leverage of resources; skilled company management; skilled seed and early-stage investment management; smart capital at a variety of stages; and a means to exit in a way that is interesting to investors (a way to get investments back at some positive multiple).

^[15] Southwest Michigan First. www.southwestmighicanfirst.com.

^[16] Freeman, Roger, Tang, Kenny, and Vohora, Ajay. Taking Research to the Market: How to Build and Invest in Successful University Spinouts (London: Euromoney Institutional Investor, 2004).

The important ...