Marchmont Feb 2011 Rev1

The Russia Innovation Collaborative

Connecting Russian Innovators

to the

United States Business Community

Annual Business Leaders Investment Forum: “Innovation for Business”

February 24-25, 2011, Novosibirsk

Best Practices in Innovation Cluster Development

Workshop Presentation of Daniel Satinsky

Partner, Russia Innovation Collaborative

Introduction

• The Russia Innovation Collaborative (RIC) is a limited liability company registered in the Commonwealth (state) of Massachusetts with its office in Boston, Massachusetts in the Cambridge Innovation Center, across the street from MIT.

• RIC has three inter-related lines of business:– Consulting to Russian regional governments on policies to promote

innovation and action plans to implement those policies.– Building cooperative programs between U.S. and Russian universities

(primarily national research universities) to facilite innovation.– Tech transfer and market entry for private companies.

Introduction

• Daniel Satinsky – Background:– Business lawyer for 15 years– Graduate of Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy– Former President, U.S.-Russia Chamber of Commerce of New England,

Inc.– Participant in 4 start-up companies– Consultant to Russian software companies in U.S. market entry– Co-author Yaroslavl Roadmap 10-15-20, innovation policy study done

by New York Academy of Science– Contributor to Modern Russia (www.modernrussia.com)

Innovation in Context

What is an innovation ecosystem and why is it important?

What are Ecosystems?

• Ecosystems began in ecology (interaction of plants, animals, soil, minerals, water… )

• Today, Ecosystems are communities together with their environment, functioning as a unit

• Innovation exists within ecosystems…..

Academic Excellence

Innovation Ecosystem

Venture Capital

Thriving knowledge based sectors

Tech transfer and commercialization Serial Entrepreneurs

Public and Seed Funding, grants and

loans

Innovation Ecosystems

Government / Policy

Industry Associations and

Networking Groups

• Buildings

• Incubators

• Tech Parks

• Tech Transfer and Commercialization Offices

• Groups of Scientists

• A University

• Clusters of Businesses

ECOSYSTEMS are NOT:

What are Innovation Ecosystems?

Culture of Entrepreneurship

• Innovation ecosystem is a set of relationships between entrepreneurs and institutions, not a place, not a set of laws and not a set of institutions.

• Critical to its proper functioning is that there is a culture of entrepreneurship that is valued in society – acceptance of risk and failure, trust between entrepreneurs and institutions, success stories of reward for hard work.

Are Innovation Ecosystems National or Regional?

• National laws, programs and policies set the context that make innovation ecosystems possible

• The most important innovation ecosystems in the U.S. – Silicon Valley and Boston/Cambridge – were created by regional leaders and institutions, not by national leaders or national institutions

Key National Factors

• Demand for technology from military spending

• Demand for research created by national grant and funding programs

• Tax and policy provisions that led to the formation of the venture capital industry, initially as a program to support small business

Key Regional Factors

• Combination of university – business – government collaboration and interaction at the local level

• Strong institutional and individual leaders who could saw the significance of national policies and took advantage of them

• Utilization of political ties with national government for building local institutions, not just for personal gain

• Flexible evolution of university – business – government over time to reshape finance, business, government policy and universities, focused on creating and supporting innovation

• Creation of innovation ecosystems over a relatively long period of time

Implications for Russia

• Can innovation come only from Moscow in response to centrally funded programs?

• Can every Region develop in exactly the same areas of technology and innovation identified by the Federal government?

• How can Regions build cooperation and focus among regional institutions and share resources for common goals in building the local innovation ecosystem?

• How can Russia assimilate foreign experience to formulate its own innovation ecosystem and not have an eclectic mixture of possibly mismatched programs?

Working Together for Answers

As answers to these questions are being debated, the Russia Innovation Collaborative looks forward to

contributing to the process of finding practical answers and assisting our Russian colleagues in this

historic task.

Thank you for your attention.Daniel Satinsky

[email protected]