Workshops in the Programme:

Workshop 1: Entrepreneurial Product Marketing and Sales
Date: 3rd – 4th September 2009
Location: The Drumossie Hotel, Inverness
Cost: £395 per person for businesses and social enterprises based within the Highlands & Islands of Scotland. £495 per person for businesses based outwith the Highlands & Islands.

See photos from this workshop and pitching competition here

Workshop 2: Designing, Leading, and Building a World Class Management Team
Date: 15th-16th February 2010
Location: The Drumossie Hotel, Inverness, (TBC)
Cost: £395 per person for businesses and social enterprises based within the Highlands & Islands of Scotland. £495 per person for businesses based outwith the Highlands & Islands.

Workshop 3: Competitive Advantage through Operational Excellence
Date: 17th-18th June 2010
Location: TBC
Cost: £395 per person for businesses and social enterprises based within the Highlands & Islands of Scotland. £495 per person for businesses based outwith the Highlands & Islands.

Workshop 4: Financial Strategies for Growth
Date: 31st August - 1st September 2010
Location: TBC
Cost: £395 per person for businesses and social enterprises based within the Highlands & Islands of Scotland. £495 per person for businesses based outwith the Highlands & Islands.

Workshop 5: Achieving Growth through World Class Leadership                                            Date: TBC November 2010
Location: TBC
Cost: £395 per person for businesses and social enterprises based within the Highlands & Islands of Scotland. £495 per person for businesses based outwith the Highlands & Islands.

Who is running the course?
The series of workshops and surrounding events will be organised by Stephanie Anderson and Laura Dingwall of the Enterprise Solutions Team.

Who is the course aimed at?
The workshops are open to applications from companies and social enterprises throughout Scotland and internationally although are primarily focused on HIE Account Managed businesses. Participation is subject to a selection process using criteria based on business growth aspiration and global potential. The workshop are aimed at CEOs, directors, executives and other ambitious staff of companies with growth potential who fit the following criteria:

• committed to improving long term customer relationships by enhancing the value delivered by the business, and 
• committed to enhancing the company’s revenue and profit performance, and 
•  interested in building a company that can successfully compete on the global stage.

Application is via the website www.entrepreneurship-scotland.com and applicant companies are asked to provide an electronic photo, full contact details and a summary of their motivation to attend the course.

Who will be teaching the course?
The MIT Sloan School of Management faculty and staff  of the Global Enterpreneurship Team are experienced entrepreneurs who are highly credible in the international businesses world. They have the experience, knowledge and global connections that businesses value and consistently deliver on what they promise to H&I businesses. The “Global Entrepreneurship Team” who will be delivering the EGP workshops in the H&I consists of:

Ken Morse – Foundiing Managing Director of MIT Sloan School’s Entrepreneurship Center; Chair in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Competitiveness, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Ken is a serial entrepreneur and has been a high performance leader in global high tech sales and sales management for over 35 years. He has started six high tech companies.

Bill Aulet – Senior Lecturer and Acting Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. Bill is a highly successful business leader with over 25 years of experience in all areas of high technology business operations and financing strategies, from start-ups to public companies.

Laura Barker Morse - Managing Director, Entrepreneurship Ventures Inc, and Former Human Capital Partner at Atlas Venture. Laura Morse has deep experience in strategic human capital issues including recruitment, organizational development, and total reward and compensation systems.


What format does the course take?
The Entrepreneurs Growth Programme will consist of a series of workshops which will be run in sequence once or twice over the course of the 3 year programme of planned activity with MIT (2009-2012). The workshops will be delivered in the Highlands & Islands region up to 80 high growth businesses per workshop and will cover the following topics:

• Entrepreneurial Product Marketing and Sales 
• Designing, Leading and Building a World Class Management Team
• Operational Excellence
• Entrepreneurial Financing Strategies for Sustainable Growth
• Another topic of relevance to H&I businesses that will be decided after feedback from participating companies

The workshops are designed to encourage businesses to support one another and build networks with each other to provide ongoing peer-to-peer support beyond the workshop. Additional experts are brought in to the workshops to judge the businesses progress throughout the workshop e.g. judging elevator pitches to potential customers and investors. These experts come from the investment community, legal profession, experienced entrepreneurs, networking organisations, academia and government and their role is to advise, mentor and connect the businesses to other expertise amongst their extended networks.

The workshops will also be complemented by:

• A pre-workshop seminar series for HIE staff (account managers, sector staff and regional innovation contacts). These will reflect the subject areas of the MIT faculty and get staff delivering EGP as listed above but will have a principal focus on “Building an Entrepreneurial Eco-System” and what this means for the region, HIE and its key stakeholders.
• A virtual conference via Learning Works with the MIT faculty member delivering a live key note speech to businesses across the region with the event being available to many other business people as a downloadable podcast after the event to extend the reach of the MIT and get faculty knowledge to a wider group of businesses.

The course fee is £395 per person for businesses based in the Highlands & Islands and £495 per person for businesses based outside with the Highlands & Islands. This fee includes the course book and all materials, lunch on both Days 1 and 2, drinks reception and dinner on Day 1 of the course. Accommodation costs at the venue are not covered in the course fee except for businesses travelling to attend from the islands in the HIE area.

• Increasing productivity and competitiveness
• Stimulating economic participation
• Increasing GDP Growth
• Ensuring growth is shared and sustainable
• Responsive and focused enterprise support to increase the number of highly successful, competitive businesses
• A broader approach to business innovation in Scotland that moves beyond viewing innovation as the domain of science and technology alone
• Addressing gaps in access to capital that are constraining Scottish businesses to grow, while helping to build capacity in the investment community
• Targeted support to business in the pursuit of opportunities outside of Scotland and the development of internationally competitive firms.

• Develop key entrepreneurial and business skills
• engage in international business development to find more customers
• develop new or improved products, processes or services developed
• consider potential for creating a new business
• accelerate business and personal growth
• engage in knowledge transfer activities
• implement strategic change within the business
• access new networks locally, nationally and internationally
• access new partners, suppliers and customers
• access external investment channels 
• benefit from peer to peer support

Ultimately HIE believe the partnership with MIT will make a significant impact on GVA, but also more widely. Signs of success will be a sense of building a true entrepreneurial eco-system in operation in the Highlands & Islands where businesses are:

• Operating on a global scale
• Larger in scale and size
• Pro-actively accessing and attracting investment in to the region
• Collaborating on a business to business international basis
• Increasingly involved in international programmes e.g. Global Scot, Saltire Fellows
• Engaging in new models for collaboration with academia
• Increasing the levels of research income in to the region
• Increasing the levels of commercialisation activity
• Increasing numbers of highly skilled migrants moving in to the region
• Relying less on public sector support
• Celebrating and promoting success stories widely

Outcomes from H&I companies previously participating on MIT courses include: An evaluation was carried out on the MIT Programme reporting the following outputs and findings:

• Over 85% of businesses participating consider the MIT project to have been very influential on their business performance.
• These businesses reported the key impacts as being noticeable improvements in:
  • Advanced business skills
  • Clarity on strategic direction
  • Confidence
  • Sales in 3 years
  • Attracting new customers
  • Penetrating new markets
• Businesses get access to specialists, material and experience which they feel is unique. They recognise that it is a very valuable learning experience and value it accordingly.
• The businesses consider MIT to immerse them in a culture of ‘can-do’ activities. They report the key difference of this project from other business support programmes supported by HIE is the perspective of those leading the sessions, and the positive energy of the other participants as key areas of value.
• Many businesses have suggested that HIE has created a cohort of unusual and special firms through the MIT partnership. They feel there is a positive feeling amongst these businesses to work together for the benefit of the Highlands & Islands.