Rady School of Managementのイノベーションプログラム

私が在籍しているRady School of Managementは、イノベーションという観点からもいくつか優れたプログラムを持っています。Radyは、UCSDの中でもその大学発イノベーションを推進する役割を期待されています。ここではそれらのプログラムを簡単にご紹介しようと思います。

まず始めにMBAプログラム全体の説明の引用なんですが、"Innovators Under Construction"というタイトル自体が理念を良く現しています。

INNOVATORS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The Rady School of Management at UC San Diego educates global leaders for innovation-driven organizations. A leading professional school within one of the top-ranked institutions in the U.S. for higher education and research, the Rady School offers a Full-Time MBA program and a FlexMBA program for working professionals in two formats: FlexEvening and FlexWeekend.

The MBA curriculum places a special emphasis on issues faced by innovation-driven organizations, with a focus on the life sciences and technology industries, allowing Rady MBAs to develop expertise in these key industry sectors. The school works collaboratively with the business community and the UC San Diego campus. In the Rady program, students work in teams alongside faculty members and mentors from the business community.

The Rady MBA programs combine a rigorous core curriculum with electives focused on business and management issues faced by emerging and innovative organizations. The core curriculum culminates in Lab to Market, a three-course sequence that begins in the classroom and moves into a project-based environment. Students develop the skills necessary to take an idea to market and gain exposure to commercialization opportunities at the world’s leading research institutes.

このMBAのFlagshipコースは、"Lab to Market"という大学の研究の事業化のプロセスを体験するものです。概要を以下に添付します。

MGT 412: LAB TO MARKET: OPPORTUNITY & BUSINESS MODEL ANALYSIS

The Lab to Market (L2M) course sequence deals with the competencies needed to become an innovative, opportunity-driven, and entrepreneurial manager. We are specifically focused on learning how to identify scalable new project, project, and venture ideas that fulfill a market need and add social and economic value. The L2M sequence differs from most entrepreneurship courses, in that it is aimed at creating entrepreneurial, growth-oriented managers that are value-creation focused in both established and emerging company settings and emphasizes science and technology based innovations.

The first course in this sequence, “Opportunity Identification and Business Model Analysis” is a foundational course that covers the techniques and methods for the generation of new venture ideas, assessment of these ideas to qualify them as viable opportunities, and development of an analytical frameworks for validating ideas. Driven by the premise that new ideas are often a dime a dozen, and the real challenge lies in translating innovative ideas into viable and valuable market opportunities, our goal is to examine (a) how to analyze an industry to identify where within the industry viable business ideas will emerge, (b) how to use different frameworks including scenario planning, customer driven or user needs analysis or technology evolution analysis to derive an opportunity space from which valuable business ideas could emerge within a 5 year time horizon, (c) how to distinguish interesting and promising ideas from viable opportunities from an operational standpoint, (d) what business models are most effective to translate these opportunities into viable ventures, and (e) how to evolve the ideas into viable products and businesses.

This course builds on the introductory core business (specifically marketing and operations) courses in developing a market and enterprise sense by examining opportunities and business models. Business models represent the key business design decisions that an enterprise makes on both the revenue and cost sides that helps it address the market opportunity in a profitable and distinctive manner. We compare and contrast product versus service, licensing versus full-service, and vertical versus horizontal business models. We also discuss how to evolve the business model from a cash flow and earnings perspectives. Using industry examples and case discussions, the participants will learn the nuances of the different models and the opportunities and challenges of refining and transitioning business models. Understanding how to predict the future and what critical changes will occur in an industry either from a technological perspective, user needs perspective, or from a changing industry landscape will be emphasized to create an opportunity landscape from which ideas can be generated and tested for viability. Through a combination of case example-based and hands-on, project-driven learning, the course’s goal is to support the participants in their quest for a new business opportunity in an entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial context. Subsequent “Lab to Market Workshop” courses in the L2M sequence are designed to apply these skills in a hands-on manner, receive expert guidance, mentoring, and inspiration to “launch” – that is, to actually define a new venture path and to make a commitment.

In summary, this course seeks to provide students an introduction to the processes and techniques useful to generate ideas, assess them, and turn them into viable product and business concepts. A carefully selected list of readings and case-studies are provided in the course reader.

続いて、Radyとして学生が投資を学ぶことができるようにファンドを用意しています。

What is the Rady Venture Fund?

The Rady Venture Fund, a student-assisted venture capital investment fund, was established at the Rady
School of Management to support the school’s educational objectives in the areas of entrepreneurship,
innovation and transfer of discoveries into the marketplace. Its goal is to provide a unique, hands-on
learning experience for Rady MBA and UC San Diego graduate students. Students learn by doing, gaining
the skills, perspective and competitive edge necessary to succeed in today’s global, knowledge-driven
economy. The fund works with investment industry leaders to enhance student education and deploy
investment capital to assist in the creation of successful companies. The Rady Venture Fund is funded by
donations to the UC San Diego Foundation.

実習先として、サンディエゴ内にあるインキュベータとの密接な関係を構築しています。

Rady School of Management and EvoNexus Form Partnership

The Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego and EvoNexus, the CommNexus San Diego-based nonprofit incubator for startup companies in the high-tech sector, today announced a new partnership that will give students the opportunity to evaluate the viability of new businesses. The partnership is the first of its kind for both the Rady School and EvoNexus and will solidify their commitment to advancing innovations into the marketplace.

The partnership with EvoNexus joins several other programs at the Rady School that help bring innovation to the marketplace. The school’s capstone course, Lab to Market, allows students to launch ideas into viable businesses, and the school’s new Rady Venture Fund challenges students to evaluate and invest in promising new companies.

“This partnership will advance the mission of the Rady School to prepare leaders for innovation-driven organizations and improve the economy of Southern California,” said Rady School Dean Robert S. Sullivan. “It will offer our MBA students real-world experience and promote business growth in the region.”
The joint program will include a new Rady School course on technology commercialization. Rady School students will help EvoNexus evaluate the potential of startup companies applying for addmission into the nonprofit technology incubator and work on company-specific projects for EvoNexus’ current incubated companies. The projects will focus on market analysis including competitive landscape, target customer and business model analysis.

“Our Rady School partnership provides yet another valuable resource for EvoNexus incubated companies, as well as considerable real-business experience for the students,” said Cathy Pucher, the executive director of EvoNexus. “Most of our startup companies are operating on a shoestring budget, and the company-specific projects will provide them with valuable input, while providing students with resume-building practical experience.”

Lada Rasochova, Ph.D., a Rady School alumna, manages the Rady Venture Fund program and will lead the incubator class. “We would like to build long-term relationships with these companies, and help them as they grow,” Rasochova said. “In addition to receiving help from our students as part of the incubator program, companies can apply to the Rady Venture Fund and we are hoping to offer other forms of assistance in the future.”

EvoNexus is accepting its fourth round of applications between now and June 18 from startup companies in San Diego’s high-tech sector. Interested companies are invited to attend a free open house at the EvoNexus offices on Friday. More information on the EvoNexus application process and the upcoming open house can be found at www.commnexus.org/incubator/.

その他特定分野のイノベーションを促進するということで、地域の複数の機関が連携して、クリーンテックのイノベーションを推進しています。具体的にはDepartment of Energyからのgrantも取得しているようです。

Renewable Energy Technologies to the Market

San Diego university and industry leaders will work to accelerate the transfer of energy efficiency and renewable energy innovations from university laboratories into the marketplace under a new three-year, $1.05 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The UC San Diego William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement at the Jacobs School of Engineering and the Rady School of Management in partnership with the San Diego State University will hold a series of Regional Energy Innovation Challenges, providing fellowships and extensive mentoring support for students and faculty working on the most promising technologies. Innovator teams comprised of experienced advisors, faculty, science and engineering students and MBA students from both universities’ campuses will collaborate to develop and execute commercialization plans. A virtual network will connect innovators, business students, entrepreneurs and sources of capital to each other and to other initiatives within the clean energy space on campus, in the region and worldwide.

このどのプログラムを見ても、私がSIV時代に慶應義塾大学で実現したかったものばかりです。そのようなプログラムを全て実現しているRadyはやっぱりすごいなと思います。博士の学生である以上、もちろん自分の研究が最優先ですが、こういったアントレプレナーシッププログラムの拡充にも貢献していきたいと思っています。特にこういったプログラムは、餅を絵に描くところまではできても、そこから先の大仏に魂を入れるプロセスが大切で、Radyもその点はこれから発展していくところ。その意味でも、僕も貢献できることが沢山あるかなと思っています。