The Micro Strategy
For technopreneurship to flourish in schools, a micro technopreneurship ecosystem has to be in place through these components, namely: curriculum, events, infrastructure.
Creativity and innovation in students will have to be developed early in the first three years of the curriculum. The students will have to be exposed to what is hot in Silicon Valley (and other similar technology-based ecosystems) through the Internet, learn from successful IT ventures both locally and abroad, look into the technicalities of high-technology products, and be abreast with cutting-edge technologies that can be potential enterprise enablers. This can be achieved by requiring short 15-minute reports for each student for the whole class to hear in IT classes spread out in the three years. If this becomes a habit within their first three years, the students will hopefully be fertile with technology ideas when they start their thesis or senior project proposals. A formal technopreneurship course in the senior year will facilitate the creation of viable technology-based business plans.
A region-wide business plan competition can be organized as an annual event in partership with the Philippine Emerging Startups Open (PESO) which also holds a national business plan competition every year. Winners in the regional level will be automatic entries in the final round at the national level. Highlights of the projects can also be presented as researches in annual student conferences such as the IT Students Congress (Davao) and Youth for IT Congress (Y4IT). Projects with IT faculty involved can also be presented as researches in annual conferences such as the Mindanao Conference on IT Education (MCITE), National Conference on IT Education (NCITE), Computing Society of the Philippines Congress (CSPC), and the like. Winning and commendable business plans will be recommended for incubation with the appropriate support.
The need for a Technology Research and Development Facility that can focus on evaluating and assisting technology-based business plans then becomes imperative. Seminars and trainings to beef up business plans may be provided. Pre-incubation services may also be provided such as computers and connectivity, mentoring and consultation, business development support, and other support services. Partnerships with industry can also be forged for certain projects. An intellectual property rights and technology licensing program can also be anchored in this facility. Faculty from the Engineering and Business Divisions as well as the Law School can be involved in this facility.
This three-pronged approach will hopefully encourage graduating students to pursue their technology-based business plans as startups, initially assisted by technology-business incubators, and eventually graduate as full-blown small and medium IT enterprises (SMITEs) competing in the domestic and global market. This means that the local IT industry has to be ready with more technology-business incubator centers to absorb interested graduates annually who opt to be startups and more IT parks to absorb mature and stable IT enterprises.
The Wider Scheme of Things
The diagram above encapsulates the envisioned technopreneurship ecosystem -- in the wider scheme of things. The IT schools, with their three-pronged micro-strategy, churn out technology-based business plans every year in partnership with industry, government and PESO. The best business plans are absorbed by technology-business incubators as startups and facilitate access to venture capitalists, funding institutions, and the domestic and international IT market. In a year or two, the startups mature into stable SMITEs and eventually locate in IT Parks or Zones. The SMITEs then enjoy the business incentives and supportive legal framework of the local government. They also interface with other locators as well as the IT and business communities and help spur the economic development of the city.
Conclusion
Schools with IT Education programs play a fundamental and crucial role in the technonopreneurship ecosystem being put in place by stakeholders in the IT, business, and government sectors of Davao. If most the schools in the region adopt the three-pronged approach discused above, and the technology-business incubation centers and IT parks are also all in place, Davao will finally be the preferred "greener pasture" and home of our graduates. I would like to see that happen in my lifetime... :-)
Note: Portions of the content of this topic can also be found in a feature article I wrote for Agham Mindanaw (Volume 3, 2006) entitled "Perspectives from the Information Technology Education Front." Agham Mindanaw is the Science and Technology Journal of the Ateneo de Davao University.
