Six ambitious Highlands and Islands businesses have been nominated to attend a week long entrepreneurship programme at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Entrepreneurship Centre at the end of this month in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The companies will attend the Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) funded by, and as part of, Highland and Islands Enterprise’s strategic partnership with the MIT which has been running now for over four years. They will be joined by 10 firms nominated from south Scotland by Scottish Enterprise, making the biggest ever Scottish delegation to this programme.
MIT is famous for developing and nurturing entrepreneurship around the world, and since this course began in 1999, over 500 delegates from over 30 countries have taken part.
The delegates travelling are Donella Beaton of Canan, Skye; Angus MacRuary of Isle of Skye Brewing Company; Andy Norrie of Quarch Technologies in Morayshire; Tom McCallum of Gulfstream Software Ltd, Hopeman; David Nicol of NB Communication in Shetland; and Iain MacGregor of Global Energy Group, Inverness.
Skye based Canan Ltd, was set up in 1992 by Sabhal Mòr Ostaig to support the growing Gaelic television industry and has won many awards for its success and innovation across the UK Donella Beaton, Cànan’s managing director, says “with massive changes in publishing and the move to digital data storage, clients are struggling to retrieve data quickly and accurately. We are launching a new search engine product Textela, later this year as the solution. I’m really excited about winning this course at MIT. It will challenge my thinking, develop my entrepreneurial skills and help us achieve our aspirations especially when I am making pitches to investors for the development of our new products.”
Founder and managing director of Isle of Skye Brewery, famous for its award winning “Cuillin” brands of beer, Angus MacRuary, says "This programme will allow me to take a fresh look at our business aims and objectives for the next few years, to consider both diversification and added-value for the business in these difficult economic times, and to meet up with like-minded individuals from a variety of business sectors all around the world."
Andy Norrie, technical director of Moray based Quarch Technology comes from a mixed engineering background. “I hope that this programme will teach me enterprising ways of growing our business, and how to find the right people.” Quarch helps test new IT equipment for major American corporations manufacturing data storage machines.
Since its formation in 2005 Global Energy Group has pursued a high growth strategy, more than ten folding its turnover. Iain MacGregor, a founding director, says: “Whilst we celebrate our success as a young company, we are also determined to pursue many new opportunities that are available to us. I hope that attending MIT will help me to articulate more clearly the value we bring to our existing and future clients. I also look to challenge my own strategies and believe that meeting and working with other entrepreneurs from around the world will give me alternative perspectives on business.
” Tom McCallum, whose firm Gulfstream Software won the Fusion Innovation award last month, says: “Personally, studying at MIT has been a life-long ambition come true and I want to use this experience to help the entrepreneurial community in the Highlands and Islands reach the global marketplace.”
Shetland based web designer David Nicol, of NB Communication is expanding his customer base beyond Scotland. He says:” we know we will have to radically change how we do our marketing and sales effort to win clients much further afield and it’s a challenge we are ready for. I’m really excited about attending the EDP at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It’s going to be a real culture shock for me coming from Scotland, but the people who run the course have all been incredibly successful with their own ventures.”
The competition for places was organised by Inverness based “Fusion”, the membership organisation supported by Highlands and Islands Enterprise which encourages entrepreneurship and innovation in the Highlands and Islands.
Damian Collins is relationship and networking manager who managed the competition for places. He says: “Fusion organises a range of events to connect entrepreneurs with each other across the Highlands and Islands, and with other individuals and organisations which might be able to help them grow their businesses. This international course at MIT, helps delegates build viable global businesses, and they will learn what they need to know in order to turn ideas into successful business opportunities in the future. They will also network with global businesses from around the world, connections which we know last forever. We hope to share their experience with other Highland businesses when they get back.”
Highlands and Islands Enterprise has developed a strategic partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston over the last four years, for the benefit of ambitious businesses in the Highlands and Islands. Stephanie Anderson, development manager for Enterprise Solutions for HIE says: "Our relationship with MIT, it’s Sloan School of Management, Entrepreneurship Centre and other departments such as the Media Lab is going from strength to strength. An indicator of this is the fact that since the programme started we funded three H&I businesses a year to attend EDP but from this year onwards have extended it to six places due to highly competitive demand and the increase in ambition and success of businesses in the region who have previously attended the course. The work that HIE does in partnership with MIT to support knowledge transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship in the region is helping attract and retain some very exciting businesses in the Highlands and Islands and we aim to build on this for the future."
www.fusionlinking.co.uk