Community Conversation
Impact Ecosystems: Entrepreneurial Skill and Venture Formation
Successes & Lessons
What successes and lessons are thrown up by RMIT’s recent experience in catalysing entrepreneurial skill and venture creation?
+ add commentOpportunities
What are the most compelling opportunities for impact and scale in entrepreneurship and venture creation, building on Activator's work program and distinctive methods?
+ add commentTaking up the language of ecosystems, when we bring partners together, we should bring them together… See more
Taking up the language of ecosystems, when we bring partners together, we should bring them together as an ecosystem – and shape the ecosystem – rather than just targeting 'apex predator' (ie the lead or focal company). Who are the other service providers, who are the watchdogs, etc? See less
another interesting opportunity – again exemplified in blockchain but broadly true across all digita… See more
another interesting opportunity – again exemplified in blockchain but broadly true across all digital tech – is questions that companies, especially start ups, have in relation to tax and legal questions about data liability or other such implications of building new business models, but these aren't questions they can really take to full service professionals (not just becuase of cost) but more often because they dont really know what problems they are really dealing with – ie these are problems of uncertainty in the tax code, legislation etc. these are naturally interesting research questions. So the ability to have a workshop-style discussion with business school academics can actually be very valuable. (i.e. not a critical approach, but also not free tax or legal advice, but rather a joint puzzling about what is actually going on) See less
In Germany, much of the uni/industry collaborations in entrepreneurship focus on SMEs, who often hav… See more
In Germany, much of the uni/industry collaborations in entrepreneurship focus on SMEs, who often have less developed innovation processes and are highly appreciative of external help (via eg. student projects) See less
I think there is an opportunity to lead in helping Gov/Industry and Education nationally and globall… See more
I think there is an opportunity to lead in helping Gov/Industry and Education nationally and globally embrace a networked/ecosystem innovation model from building capability to generating networked value and translating that into ventures and impact outcomes. So, commercialising our expertise in this arena, See less
Connect our Social Enterprise focus with growing area of Impact Investing. Including opportunity to … See more
Connect our Social Enterprise focus with growing area of Impact Investing. Including opportunity to work with Philanthropy to build next generation giving through Impact Giving See less
From a previous life we targeted offerings to meet the appetite for entrepreneurism in our partners…. See more
From a previous life we targeted offerings to meet the appetite for entrepreneurism in our partners. EG State Govt is generally more hesitant than some of the larger SME's. See less
both earlier introduction to entrepreneurial thinking (e.g. in schools and in the colleges) and eventually more industry-specific streams
Becoming the adjacent source of innovation for business where Activator experiences/programs enable … See more
Becoming the adjacent source of innovation for business where Activator experiences/programs enable access to talent/knowledge from the university – engagement, insights, experimentation, road to commercial relationships. See less
Social impact and social enterprise presents a great values-aligned opportunity for RMIT. As a consi… See more
Social impact and social enterprise presents a great values-aligned opportunity for RMIT. As a consistently progressive state Victoria is hoping to lead globally to achieve social impact from commercial spending, but it is early days for these kinds of policies and regulations. There is significant room for innovation in models and approaches for collaboration and partnerships to hack the existing market-based (price driven) systems to achieve that impact. RMIT can play both a traditional university role in that work of evaluation and measurement, but also a more experimental one which seeks to build those ventures and give our students entreprenurial expertise in that work. See less
Continued and deeper engagement for impact outcomes aligned to research depth and themes, academic … See more
Continued and deeper engagement for impact outcomes aligned to research depth and themes, academic focus areas and market need simultaneously.
We need intention to connect internally and externally to see where these exploratory places might be See less
Leveraging Strengths & Relationships
How can we work together to leverage RMIT's strengths and relationships to seize these venture creation and entrepreneurship opportunities? Can we be more coherent, more collaborative, and more impactful?
+ add commentAcknowledging that different disciplines and sectors often need different language/ approaches and c… See more
Acknowledging that different disciplines and sectors often need different language/ approaches and considerations when it comes to enterprise/ entrepreneurial formation, thinking & action. RMIT can play a role in articulating and supporting these while also enabling cross-discipline, cross-sector & cross-enterprise connections that support scale in ways that work. See less
Focus on growth areas in the economy globally has to anchor impact actions as well. The top ITC com… See more
Focus on growth areas in the economy globally has to anchor impact actions as well. The top ITC companies growing at 100%+ CAGR are only limited by talent – the talent they are looking for has an entrepreneurial mindset (WEF 2020 human skills report) AND tech skills (data/ cloud/ UX etc). This is as true for SE venture development.
Ecosystem interest in working with uni is deep tech ventures – how do we better nurture this (where OTP) as started the journey – requires cross university collaboration.
Create a communication platform for quick conversations about entrepreneurial opportunities – and cr… See more
Create a communication platform for quick conversations about entrepreneurial opportunities – and create communities across RMIT to take opportunities forward. I often have a quick question about whether there is an expert in RMIT who has skills we need, or further contacts, for a partnership opportunity. See less
There is a need for us to be more coherent in our offering. To do that well, we need to be clear and… See more
There is a need for us to be more coherent in our offering. To do that well, we need to be clear and confident about what our capacity is and how we can apply our expertise in a meaningful way. This requires our own partnerships/relationships across RMIT to work well. See less
Important to take the opportunity to be global in our approach to key partnerships both from Australia t the global or key global international corporations
To be concrete about the way we've been able to help startups and companies in blockchain space… See more
To be concrete about the way we've been able to help startups and companies in blockchain space is by working with them (helping them write whitepapers etc for investor community, for instance) it turned out one of the key things of value we were adding was to connect them to domain experts (e.g. in game theory or mechanism design) among our research staff or postgrad students to their teams which were trying to reinvent ideas and concepts themselves. So its not research services as much as matching services (which benefits both sides). So we've also started thinking of our 'engagement led research' as made possible by seeing ourselves – institutionally – very much as a platform (a 2 sided market, as it were). See less
Jason P.
17 Nov, 2020 Report Report Reply ReplyLessons – Organisations are having to rapidly rethink their approaches and redefine many areas of th… See more
Lessons – Organisations are having to rapidly rethink their approaches and redefine many areas of their activities. This has been a focus at the City of Melbourne and has required them to completely review their community development work. RMIT PSI has conducted a 2-month review to reimagine a better way for the City to engage their citizens and partners to build a more inclusive/participatory community. Through RMIT's facilitation and thinking, the City of Melbourne will now transform their approach to community development. See less
Wade N.
17 Nov, 2020 Report Report Reply ReplyGiven our role in seeding startups into the ecosystem, and that our efforts are largely in the pre-c… See more
Given our role in seeding startups into the ecosystem, and that our efforts are largely in the pre-commercial space the challenge is to capture value through partnerships with the commercial aspects of the ecosystem – accelerators, corporate venturing etc. See less
Julie S.
17 Nov, 2020 Report Report Reply ReplyLesson: Entrepreneurship at the very early stage is hard for learners and a straight up and down �… See more
Lesson: Entrepreneurship at the very early stage is hard for learners and a straight up and down 'B2C' type model is full of friction. Often there is no skin in the game for learners, the learning journey is at times de-prioritised, there isn't a clear WIIFM. Maybe a lesson here is how do we reframe this journey, meet learners / future founders where they are, design alternative/different experiences… partner for pathways (i.e. the Urban School collab) See less
Dan S.
17 Nov, 2020 Report Report Reply ReplyFor industry we need to speak their language and make innovation accesible and tangible
Margaret L.
17 Nov, 2020 Report Report Reply ReplyMatt's example of integrating early-on with high schools is a great example of fuelling the pip… See more
Matt's example of integrating early-on with high schools is a great example of fuelling the pipeline for RMIT, preparing students early on to think entreprenuerially, etc. See less
Max T.
17 Nov, 2020 Report Report Reply Reply{Success} Openness to cross disciplinarity in our L & T approaches and the {lessons} residual ch… See more
{Success} Openness to cross disciplinarity in our L & T approaches and the {lessons} residual challenges of alignment of learning outcomes from more traditional quality assurance interpretations. There can still often be a disconnect from market/ society need for impact. See less
Matt S.
17 Nov, 2020 Report Report Reply ReplySuccess: taking a broader approach to 'entrepreneurship' which extends beyond venture crea… See more
Success: taking a broader approach to 'entrepreneurship' which extends beyond venture creation and includes enterprise and entrepreneurial skills/mindsets/methodologies See less
Dan S.
17 Nov, 2020 Report Report Reply Reply