Prof. Olivier Younes presents HEC Entrepreneurs Method at the Berkeley 2016 Global Venture Lab Summit

HEC Paris Professor Olivier Younes was invited to the 8th annual Global Venture Lab on January 7th 2016 along with 80 academics, entrepreneurs, and innovators from around the world, who gathered to share their best practices for entrepreneurship education.

The Global Venture Network’s goal is to share the best practices for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in a university environment with the intent to help create new companies and industries.

Presenters of this 8th Global Venture Lab 2016 Summit sponsored by the Sutardja Center at Berkeley discussed strategies for engaging entrepreneurship students, patterns of successful ventures, the best practices for measuring the success of entrepreneurship programs, and entrepreneurship education in Brazil, UK, Chile, Japan, Ireland, Finland, Jordan, the Netherlands, Australia, France, the Philippines, and elsewhere.

Among them was Prof. Olivier Younes, Founding CEO at EXPEN and Affiliate Professor at HEC Paris, and visiting scholar at Berkeley. Prof. Younes presented the philosophy and achievements of the HEC Entrepreneur program: Turning Students into Brave Entrepreneurs: The 45-year Experience with the HEC Entrepreneurs Method. Based on the idea that good entrepreneurs have to accept risk, be prepared for failure, and devote all their energy to making their idea work, the program aims to prepare students for the realities of entrepreneurship. It includes elements such as challenging treks in France’s Jura, learning crisis management from the Navy, having students “hard-sell” their idea during Christmas, academic courses, and interaction with industry in Silicon Valley. Approximately 80% of students are successful in launching a startup through this program.

Last but not least, Berkeley’s Sutardja Center Managing Director Ken Singer spoke about the innovation collider, the summit’s guiding principle and a key concept behind how innovation works. Singer explained that many students of entrepreneurship expect to find a special formula or method that will guarantee the success of their venture — but a universal formula for creating successful startups has yet to be discovered (and may never be).

HEC’s Professor of Strategy Thomas Asterbro shares Singer’s point of view. Astebro, who teaches entrepreneurship and managing innovation at HEC, recently drew a similar conclusion from a personal experience in his article : Becoming an Entrepreneur is like playing the Lottery