Opportunities for Highlands and Islands businesses to host internships of MIT and Harvard students to work on their real life business problems.
The Entrepreneurship Lab (E-Lab) course run at MIT offers graduate students at MIT's Sloan School of Management the opportunity to work with host companies from around the world on a problem which is important to the company's director. The E-Lab student teams work roughly 1-2 days a week on their assigned company project during an academic term.
Who are the students?
- MIT Sloan MBAs (2nd year students).
- MIT graduate students in Science and Engineering.
- A few Harvard MBAs (2nd year students).
The teams comprise of science, engineering and management students who participate actively with the management of high growth businesses. The students gain hands-on experience about starting and running successful businesses and the host companies gain assistance with an urgent aspect of their businesses: examples are choices of initial markets, approaches to gaining new customers, or effectively communicating and marketing the value of the product. The E-Lab teams usually comprise of 2 - 4 students.
What types of companies host the E-Lab teams?
The host companies generally have less than 40 employees, are typically technology-intensive, intellectual property-based companies, including (but not limited to) biotech, cleantech, wireless, software and hardware manufacturers. However companies from all sectors that have a suitable proposal that will be of interest to the students will be considered as host companies. Highlands and Islands companies who have previously engaged with MIT through the Entrepreneurs Growth Programme workshops in the Highlands and Islands or on the Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) in Boston are ideal candidates to act as host companies for the E-Lab teams. This promises to be highly rewarding experience for your company.
What are the dates of the E-Lab classes?
The E-Lab classes will run during the Spring semester of 2011 (February through to April) and the Fall semester (September through to December).
Objective of the internships:
- To provide students with a valuable and significant real world experience, making a substantial contribution to a problem which is important to the company CEO.
- Introduce students to the needs of the CEO and other staff of a high growth firm;
- Perform useful work and deliver value to the host companies.
How does it work?
Highlands and Islands companies hoping to host and E-Lab team are asked to register their interest with HIE. If successful, they will go on to produce an E-Lab application that will include:
- A description of your business which answers these questions:
- What is the product or service you are selling?
- What is the problem that the product/service solves?
- What is the economic benefit of solving that problem?
- Who is the target customer/decision maker?
- A description of the internship project. Examples include:
- Find and analyze possible markets and identify the most promising.
- Identify and recommend potential customers/partners, and the messages to which they would be most receptive.
- Define and develop the sales process and sales model and quantify the value proposition.
With the help of the MIT faculty, each E-Lab team of interns will then select the firm/internship which they believe is the most suitable for their skills. There are three times as many internships as teams, so applicant companies cannot be guaranteed they will receive a team. Students will send their résumés and plan to meet the CEO on an agreed date before the term begins. This meeting is preferably face to face but could be arranged remotely. During the kick off meeting, the student team will work with you to finalise a one-page project plan defining what will be accomplished, how these objectives will be measured, and milestones.
The interns will execute the project with alacrity, and learn in the process. It is expected that the E-Lab team will have to travel to the Highlands at least once in the duration of the project. Any travel costs are to be reimbursed by the host company. Upon completion of the project, the interns present two reports:
- to the faculty (course leader, Prof Alan MacCormack, et al), and then
- to you, the host company CEO, who is expected to travel to Boston for the feedback event.
What would be the cost to my company?
The cost of travel to Boston for a meeting with the E-Lab team and any travel costs of students to visit and work with the company onsite are to be reimbursed by the host company. After the academic term is over, MIT typically request a voluntary donation with a value of at least $2,000 from companies that receive and are satisfied with a student team. Any cash received is then used to support the E-Lab course and other programmes and activities of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. NB. This donation is voluntary. These costs are not supported by HIE.
How do I Apply?
Please register your interest in participating the E-Lab programme by contacting Stephanie Anderson at HIE.
