January 17, 2007—In Brazil, mothers who were unable to work regular hours because their children had cancer and required special care turned their culinary skills into a catering venture, but struggled to return a profit. In Vietnam, young programmers were frustrated with past failures to commercialize their hospital administration software. And in Ghana, four university graduates with a passion for children’s education and animation started a business, but immediately encountered roadblocks ranging from finding affordable office space to weekly power outages. In search of success, these first time entrepreneurs turned to business incubators supported by the Information for Development Program (infoDev), a partnership of international development agencies promoting the effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), coordinated by a Secretariat located in the Global ICT department (GICT) of the World Bank Group. Business incubators provide a range of services to fledgling businesses, from basic office facilities to mentoring. The mothers were trained in marketing and logistics and their business is now sustainable. The young computer programmers received business advice on how to package and deliver the sales pitch for their software. Now their software has been sold and operationalized in over 30 regional hospitals. And the four university graduates have become pioneers in interactive education in Ghana. Incubating Innovation in Challenging Environments “In general, business incubators help improve the survival rate of small businesses by providing them with a supportive environment through the critical early stages of development,” says infoDev ICT Policy Specialist Seth Ayers. Incubators provide services such as office space, Internet access, financial and legal advice, training, and networking.</> infoDev launched its Business Incubator Initiativein 2002 with support from the Government of Japan. "Through its network of over 60 incubators in more than 40 developing countries, infoDev has found that incubators also play a vital role in fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and in facilitating the commercialization of local and university-based innovations," Ayers says. Innovation to Commercialization Helping take innovations to market is a critical step in creating new economic opportunities, says Tran Van Binh, professor at the Hanoi University of Technology. “Every year, this campus produces hundreds of research projects but only a small percentage are commercialized. Therefore, one of the primary goals of the incubator is to help faculty and students at the university to apply their research and developments.” Ghana’s ICT Advisor, Ministry of Communications, Kwasi Adu-Gyan, concurs: “Our goal is to identify real projects that are feasible, and to start to nurture them at universities. When the time is right, we can turn them to the incubators for commercialization.” Fostering Entrepreneurship Fostering a culture of entrepreneurship is equally critical, says R.M.P. Jawahar, Executive Director of TREC-STEP, an incubator in India. “We tell our young people to get educated and to get employed in a multinational company or to go abroad. We don’t have a culture of promoting young people in their ventures,” he says. The stigma associated with failure that persists in many developing countries together with the lure of opportunities abroad creates a challenging environment for would-be entrepreneurs. Yet, many policymakers recognize that local entrepreneurs and small businesses are the catalysts for economic growth. “We’re targeting universities to encourage entrepreneurship, so our students will go out and create more jobs” says Tran Quoc Thang, Minister of Science and Technology, Vietnam. Incubators are helping to address these challenges by engaging academic institutions and highlighting the successes of local entrepreneurs. Linking Business Incubation with Operations “Everyone deserves a chance…infoDev's initiative has shown that ICT-enabled business incubators are effective vehicles for fostering entrepreneurship and innovation,” says Mohsen Khalil, Director, GICT, World Bank Group. “The potential for scaling up is significant, and this experience can and should be leveraged by the World Bank Group.” “Lessons from the business incubator initiative, for example, contributed to the recently approved multi-million dollar e-Ghana project promoting growth in the information and communication technology sector, and to ongoing discussions between the Bank and India on innovation and business incubation. infoDev is also exploring the replication of incubator models with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Africa. These are just a few of the ways in which the World Bank Group, and other donors, can leverage this initiative,” says Ayers. Strategic Partnership with India Besides aiding newly established incubators, infoDev, in partnership with its donors, including the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in India, funds research on incubators as tools for private sector development. “Incubators in India have so far graduated about 1,600 enterprises and another 1,000 are at various stages of execution,” says H. K. Mittal, Adviser and Head, National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, DST. “Our partnership with infoDev has helped the incubators in India to develop cross-cultural ventures and partnerships.” infoDev and the DST recently organized the 2nd Global Forum on Business Incubation in Hyderabad, where incubators and policymakers called on the development community for increased focus and support in this area. |
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