What is enterprise and why is it becoming increasingly important for students?

Molecules to Market started life with the intention of introducing undergraduates at Sheffield to the "culture" of enterprise in Science, specifically Life Sciences. Over the last ten years or so, it has provided me with the opportunity to deliver the concept to Molecular Biology post-graduates, Physicists, Chemists, school students at Y10 and 12 and through different routes, from project based learning through to traditional lecturing. The current format is relatively straight forward, and has been arrived at, largely through experience. In short students form small (no more than 10, ideally 5) groups and develop an idea that they wish to commercialise, through group discussion. The idea and the business plan that emerges is then "tested" amongst the wider class. Then, with a more robust business plan in place, each team "pitches" and defends their plan in a supportive, but "competitive" setting.

That's it in a nutshell, which is why in principle the formula can be applied to any discipline, since the application of knowledge in business knows few boundaries. In the Life Sciences, there have been many successful businesses, from multinational drug companies, through breweries to purveyors of personal care products. Can you list 10? In Chemistry, again we have well known examples, from the great chemical manufacturers, such as ICI through to textile dye companies and the producers of liquid chromatography polymers for the separation of biological molecules. Physics lies at the heart of communications technology, from mobile phones to computing and of course all matters astronomical. Moving further afield, the application of art is part of nearly every company's business plan. A memorable logo (as shown) and an attractive web interface owes as much to aesthetics as content! 

The examples above perhaps represent  the "low hanging fruit" of the application of knowledge, and most are relatively large employers. However, I believe we are seeing the increasing return of the "cottage" industry to the work place. Traditionally, wealthy business men would outsource manufacturing to individuals who would work from home. In around 1800, most of the world's watches were made at home in the UK, by around 25 watchmakers, per watch. Each craftsman would provide the materials and sell their components to a watch retailer, who would assemble the parts and sell the finished product. Today, there is a re-emergence of this cottage industry, and a few people like Bremont, are making a considerable financial success of it! The challenge for these small watchmakers, is to sustain their success in the face of the massive, Swiss and US corporate manufacturers.  The revolution in 3D printing technology is set to catalyse a return to responsive small businesses, in increasingly sophisticated business sectors. Using a wide range of "inks" from skin cells to "green polymers", 3D printing is revolutionising the areas of distributive and additive manufacturing.

In the Life Sciences, Synthetic Biology has become the new cottage industry in California. In San Francisco, companies are incorporating 3D printing into products, as well as repairing their own instruments and machines with newly printed parts. The key to success here lies in "design". And I am a firm believer in embedding the concepts of design into all experimental Science courses: too many experiments are started without consideration of the "timetable" and the incorporation of strategic "controls". But that's for another occasion. If we just use Synthetic Biology as an example of a Life Science related Business sector, what are the "ingredients" needed to make a success, or as investors say, mitigate the risk of failure? In the late 1980s, following the path of Genentech (in California) and Biogen (in Geneva), many research led Universities and Research Institutes, developed "tech transfer" organisations, to facilitate the exploitation of the "intellectual property" or IP, of their staff scientists. What have we learnt after 30 years or so of this approach?

Firstly, it is very difficult to track the money! Perhaps the most obvious measure of success is the amount of revenue generated by a University "spin out" company. But it also includes the number of people employed and perhaps more importantly the "impact" that the spin out has had on the wider community (local, national and global). In other words, direct returns are difficult to measure, unless a clear financial deal has been done, such as the agreement to license a piece of IP (usually a patent) for say, $100 000 p.a. In some areas, the formation of an in house business (often located in a purpose-built "incubator") through a mixed set of institutional (University commercialisation funds, such as IP Group), regional (eg Yorkshire Forward), individual (angel investors) and corporate investment (eg Rolls Royce) was seen as the best route to success. This model grew out of Silicon Valley in San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass in the USA (in recent years), but the need to secure investment to further a business idea has been around much longer. The link with major Universities was first deployed by entrepreneurs in the 19th Century, as the Industrial Revolution in Europe gathered momentum and required a sound "knowledge base".

I hope I have whetted your appetite for learning more about enterprise, but I also believe that through M2M, you will develop a different perspective on your course and one which I believe will improve your understanding of it. I want to finish by looking at what you need to be an entrepreneur: success is of course another matter! However, in the language of investors, how can we reduce the risk of business failure. Importantly why should you as an undergraduate, be exposed to the world of commercialisation? I firmly believe that by working through the translation of an idea, you develop a deeper understanding of your subject, you develop skills that will improve your post-University prospects and one or two of you may become motivated to develop your own business idea. After all, many successful start-ups are driven by individuals during or just after graduation. Last year over 500 000 new companies were registered in the UK (see the heat map link). That's exactly the same number of graduates who started their undergraduate courses in 2016! Are we about to see a shift in the first graduate job from employee to employer!

One of the questions I am frequently asked if I am explaining the concept of Molecules to Market (M2M, for short) to other teachers, is: "why don't you include a formal set of lectures on patenting, business planning, financial management, regulatory affairs and Human Resource (HR) principles? My short answer is that this is the job of formal, undergraduate and Masters courses in Business studies. M2M is a taster, if anyone is motivated to launch their own business, they will have to acquire the knowledge and skills or employ someone with them. M2M is driven largely by your own enthusiasm and motivation, much in the same way that you learn something from reading a work of fiction (I learnt most about the history of education in the UK from reading Charles Dickens) and I refreshed my basic Physics and Biology by watching the Martian and Apollo 13. Having worked with, and spent many hours talking to, entrepreneurs, I am convinced that personal drive combined with a robust idea, good sales and marketing will get a business off the ground. A successful entrepreneur will then secure the business with a commitment to incorporating and embedding, all of the aforementioned expertise.

A second question often asked is, how do I find out about... patenting, the  background to the idea, the costs involved in renting premises, marketing strategies, the competition, articles of incorporation etc, etc. It has never been as easy to find information of this kind: the problem is often verifying the information. Most successful business people will tell you that "common sense" applied to information, and having a few key people to bounce ideas off, is the best way to get started, or to overcome a problem. So, we are going to use Google to locate information and you are going to work as a team to "reduce risk" as much as you can. In short to be an entrepreneur you must have the confidence and commitment to run with an idea: that idea need not be high tech, but it does need to be something that people are prepared to pay for! In the meantime, I want you all to think of the lowest entry barrier start-up you can, that is the business that requires very little investment of money and relies mainly on your own manpower. I will ask you for your answers on Wednesday!