A world leading business programme from Harvard Business School and MIT is hunting for social entrepreneurs to apply for a free 4-day summer course
Social entrepreneurs with a big idea that could grow beyond Scotland are able to apply for free world-leading business advice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Harvard Business School.
The Can Do Scale programme is designed to help entrepreneurs set up and grow global businesses in Scotland and it is offering 70 fully-funded places worth £5,000 each for a four-day course at Stirling Mangement Centre this August.
The programme will be led by Bill Aulet of the Martin Trust Centre for MIT Entrepreneurship and Noam Wasserman of the Harvard Business School. It is aimed at both future entrepreneurs with a new start-up idea and entrepreneurs with an existing business they want to scale-up. There will be 35 places available on each of the two strands of the programme.
Participants will learn skills to help them scale-up their business into an innovation-driven enterprise that can create significant growth via new products or services that can be delivered quickly and efficiently.
Aulet has been coming to Scotland for the past few years as part of Highlands and Islands Enterprise's MIT Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) which has been available to all ambitious companies across Scotland. He says that while the country is fertile ground for entrepreneurship there are opportunities for it to exploit its creativity even further.
He said: “Scotland has yet to realise its full potential, it is very good at coming up with good ideas but often fails to commercialise them, which is why this workshop is so important. Original ideas are the most over-rated things and they cost money, it’s the execution that makes money.
“Once you have an idea the process becomes much more important as does the team assembled to drive the execution.”
The CAN DO SCALE programme is jointly funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Funding Council. Social entrepreneurs are being encouraged to apply alongside for-profit businesses.
TFN is celebrating Scottish social enterprises this summer with its #SocEntSummer campaign. Submit pictures, videos and stories of social enterprises, their products, staff and customers by Twitter, Facebook and email using #SocEntSummer.
