Nurturing Science-based Ventures

Opportunity Recognition

Ralf W. Seifert holds a dual appointment as Professor of Operations Management at IMD and Professor of Technology & Operations Management at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Professor Seifert is also Director of the Mastering Technology Enterprise (MTE) program, a six-week management development program for technically trained managers. Since 1995, the MTE program has been jointly offered by the Alliance for Technology-based Enterprise formed by IMD, EPFL and ETH Zurich. His primary research and teaching interests relate to supply chain management, technology network management and entrepreneurship.



Benoît Leleux is the Stephan Schmidheiny Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at IMD. He is a specialist in venture financing, combining expertise in entrepreneurship, venture capital, private equity and growth management. His experience includes four years of corporate venturing in Southeast Asia for a major agribusiness conglomerate. He is active in a number of private equity funds, as well as numerous start-up companies in Europe and the US, as director, investor and/or advisor. He is also a co-founder of Venture Growth Strategies LLC, a Boston-based consulting company specializing in corporate venturing and early-stage private equity investments.



Christopher L. Tucci is Professor of Management of Technology at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Professor Tucci joined EPFL in 2003. Prior to EPFL, he was on the faculty of New York University where he taught Technological Innovation & New Product Development, Foundations of Entrepreneurship, Business Policy & Strategy, and Competitive Advantage from Operations in the MBA program. He has also taught strategic management at MIT, and has taught a global strategy module for engineering managers in the Tufts University Gordon Institute.

From the reviews:"The challenge is to nurture entrepreneurial skills and ambitions in science and engineering academic students in the hope that they will consider the starting of a new business based on their research as a compelling alternative to more traditional employment opportunities. The book by Seifert, Leleux and Tucci addresses this challenge. ... designed as a teaching support for courses on science-based entrepreneurship and it primarily targets engineering and science students. ... designed to help students explore the most relevant issues in science-based start-ups." (Luca Iandoli, International Small Business Journal, Vol. 27 (5), November, 2009)"The book focuses on science based ventures that originate in technological break throughs, but entrepreneurs from all backgrounds can learn from it. Nurturing Science-Based Ventures charts the development of a new venture through five chapters ... . provides a useful text to accompany teaching. ... accessible reference work for managers in knowledge-based industries, entrepreneurs from all business sectors, and stakeholders in business incubation processes. ... It would add value to postgraduate reading lists ... ." (Simon Stephens, The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vol. 11 (3), 2010)