Incubators tend to be more successful where they have broad backing and support. This article shows how to identify the most valuable stakeholders and how to engage them, and keep them engaged, in the incubation process.
Objectives
The purpose of this process is to identify local leaders, then organize meetings and interviews to identify the people, enterprises and organizations that could be partners of the incubator; supporting the program with both resources and technical input.
Key Issues
1) Identification of local leaders: this crucial stage identifies the entities, people, enterprises, and government bodies that could contribute to the planning and development of the incubator. These contributions could include:
- Political backing
- Financial backing/investment/sponsorship
- Infrastructure support, etc
This process should consider issues such as:
- The links or convergence between the institutional and political interests of each entity in terms of the incubator.
- Relationships among the institutions, to avoid signing up institutions with conflicting relationships as partners.
- Personal backgrounds (manager/technical staff) should be analyzed, as well as the track records of the institutions, to learn how effectively and seriously they participate in the programs that they support.
2) Meeting and visits: during the Feasibility Stage, it is important to organize meetings with potential partners. This presents the idea of incubation to them and heightens their awareness of the need for support. For an adequate analysis of the project’s feasibility, it is essential to identify potential partners and sources of resources. This will indicate whether it is possible to obtain their effective support, mainly in the financial field. For these meetings or visits, it is valuable to have available:
- Information on the enterprise incubation segment, with data on the progress of these programs in the local country and elsewhere in the world; the number of incubators in the host nation and in the region, their main objectives, achievements, etc.;
- List of information on institutions already supporting the initiative in order to demonstrate the credibility of the program;
- Clear proposals for the entity action (planning process, incubator board, mentoring, technical support, sponsorship, etc)
These meetings are necessary to ascertain the expectations of the entities in terms of the incubator, the role that they should play in this process, to avoid future misunderstandings and conflicts of interest.
(See attachments Feasibility Study for the Incubator and Table Identifying Potential Projects, below).
Responsible Parties
The technical staff and management of the institution wishing to set up the incubator.
Indicators
- Time and costs for the development of the Feasibility Study
- Resources and political support obtained through the Feasibility Study
Results
The analysis outcome is the recognition of possible stakeholders for the incubator program, identifying the expectations of each in terms of the program, and networking for partner support and commitment.
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