Good ideas are not enough to innovate. “If the great Massachusetts Institute of Technology works in an excellent way it is because it has fostered the development ofa complete entrepreneurial ecosystem around it, made up of universities, business schools, companies and, most importantly, human capital“, defended yesterdayJavier Garcia, co-founder of Rive Technologies, during his participation in the table “Entrepreneurial Ecosystem” at EmTehSpain 2012. “People want to be there because interesting things happen”, he adds.
García knows well what he is talking about. He himself currently works at MIT, and is aware that almost a hundred prestigious Nobel Laureates have been trained in its classrooms, political personalities such as Kofi Annan, astronauts such as Buzz Aldrin, actors such as James Woods and architects such as Raymond Hood, architect of the Rockefeller Center in New York. In addition to being the place where the first video game in history (SpaceWar!) Was born, the Technicolor that allowed coloring movies or the Internet.
García’s hypothesis is that in order to innovate, an ecosystem that enhances the intrepid and entrepreneurial spirit like that of MIT is essential. The data confirm this: according to a recent estimate, there were recently 25,000 active companies founded by students of the prestigious technological institute, which together have created no less than 3.3 million jobs. And if we add the benefits obtained by all of them, the result would place the “MIT ecosystem” as the eleventh power in the world. All from a small university of “only” 15,000 people, including teachers and students.
Danny Gal, co-founder ofHub Tel-Aviv(which was created in 2009 as a shared space for innovators and social entrepreneurs and which, so far, has supported more than 300 entrepreneurs to develop their startups), agreed on the importance of the environment for someone to have an idea and develop it. And it offered a really curious fact: that his country,Israel is the one with the highest density of startups in the world. “Most of these small companies are born in a family environment or of good friends,” he explains, and affirms that when asked what Spain should do to get out of the crisis, he always bets that the movement begins in small circles of acquaintances. Furthermore, Gal is convinced thatto those who have an idea to undertake should not say “you’re crazy”, but “aim higher!”.
In this context, Elisa Martin, Director of Technology and Innovation at IBM Spain, assures that what a company like yours continually seeks is“talent, reality, collaboration and curious people”. “We need travel companions,” he adds, recalling that at this historic moment “it is impossible to create the technology of the future in isolation”, and that it is necessary to collaborate. Not forgetting, he says, that the key technological challenge of the 21st century is that we have made “a leap from the programming revolution to the cognitive revolution.” The challenge is to be able to process the information that is generated. And concludes with a piece of information:In the next 2 hours more information will be created than was generated from the beginning of the story until 2003. Surprising…
