Role of government is to get technology out of the lab and into the market place: Ken Morse

Kenneth Paul Morse is co-founder of 3Com, Aspen Technology, Inc. and a number of other start-ups. He is the former Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center (1996-2009) and Chairman of Entrepreneurship Ventures, Inc. He holds the Chair in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Competitiveness at Delft University of Technology.
Morse graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with an S.B in political science in 1968. He also earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1972. He is currently working on a book that profiles brave entrepreneurs that have pursued opportunities to build great companies.
BR Research met with Mr. Morse during his recent visit to Pakistan while he mentored teams of entrepreneurs that aspire to gain funding to propel their ventures. The following transcript summarises the Business Acceleration Program that has been administered by the MIT Enterprise Forum of Pakistan and funded by USAID.
"No venture investors will put money into a science project" stated Kenneth Morse, as he highlighted the importance of government-funded incubators to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in Pakistan. According to him, companies need this support until they can emerge as sustainable enterprises or can add significantly in terms of social benefits to justify support through tax-payers' money. While pointing out different government schemes from Europe that match funding committed by entrepreneurs themselves he stressed that "the role of government is to get technology out of the lab and into the market place."
Mr. Morse is one of the judges at the Business Acceleration Program which was first conducted in Pakistan back in 2007. Since then it has been a huge success and has had a tremendous and positive impact on the information and communications technology industry in Pakistan. Mr. Morse proudly lists names of a number of the leading entrepreneurs and companies from Pakistan that have benefited from the training provided under this program. Hasnain Akhtar (AeroCar), Yasha ullah Afghan (Voizar), Mohammad Munaf (Server4Sale), Shahzad Qureshi (Tohfay .com), Saad Jangda (Symbios Pk) and Sadia Khan (Autosoft Dynamic) are some of the prominent names to feature on this list.
The organisers of the program decided to take a break in 2014 and use the time to take stock of the progress made by the program in the years since its launch. This review led them to include new categories to expand the program. These new categories include Women-led technology start-ups/ existing companies and Technology-based research teams.
Explaining the details of the program, Mr. Morse informed that the training workshops conducted as part of the BAP cover the basics of entrepreneurship and innovation, elements of business plan, executive summary, elevator pitch, value proposition and business plan presentation. Experts from different industries are called in to coach the participants to develop their business plans and to refine their pitches. In order to ensure that availing this opportunity does not create a financial burden for budding teams and companies, the BAP is free of charge for contestants.
Once these trainings have been imparted, the aspiring entrepreneurs prepare their draft business plans with the guidance of local and international experts as well as the MIT-Entrepreneurship Forum of Pakistan team. The final business plans are vetted and judged by team which includes Ken Morse as well as Mr. Imran Sayeed who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at NTT Data. The top team from each track is awarded a fully-funded trip to USA which includes a one-week training at MIT along with the opportunity to showcase the team's products or services in three US cities. These trips allow budding entrepreneurs to interact with venture capitalists, angel investors, potential customers and partners such as the Organisation of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America (OPEN).
The objective of the BAP is to help companies in new media, telecom and information technology sectors operating in Pakistan, "to accelerate their business to the next level and to improve their chances of success." Despite the success of the BAP, Mr. Morse insists that neither this program nor any other initiatives can substitute the role of the government.