Edinburgh Business School Global Incubator: Accelerating careers through practice-oriented entrepreneurship

Dr. Tom Pfefferkorn, Director EBS Global Incubator, Heriot-Watt University

The global offering of startup programmes is vast, and it keeps growing. According to Tracxn, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has 140 accelerators and incubators, which have a combined portfolio of 5.08K companies. Hence, critical resources such as business advisory, office space, and IT systems, amongst others, have become more accessible with ever greater provision of incubation and acceleration programmes. Even the access to capital markets to finance and grow viable business ventures has arguably improved in a still globalised and increasingly wealthy world. This is great news to startup founders and those who wish to embark on an entrepreneurial journey. Similarly, investors, governments, and other stakeholders should be thrilled about an uptake in opportunities for better economic returns and growth.

This would usually be the point to say, however, turning the reader’s attention to the systemic weaknesses, threats and gaps that need to be addressed, such as lack of production-oriented innovation, energy-transition regulations, AI-ethical considerations, etc. Students are encouraged to appreciate what Heriot-Watt University has built over the last decades, craft strategies to utilise these achievements, and grow more and better businesses on this solid foundation of seemingly unlimited resources and the rapidly free exchange of bold ideas across borders, cultures, and markets. In other words, Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh Business School Global Incubator Programme has sorted out the resource problem to some extent, and the creation of ideas and knowledge also seems to flourish, for better or worse.

EBS Global Incubator Programme in Dubai

The Edinburgh Business School (EBS) Global Incubator Programme in Dubai continues to grow as a hub for entrepreneurial innovation and business excellence. In 2024, the programme’s third cohort attracted an overwhelming response, with 127 applications vying for a spot in this transformative initiative. Following a rigorous selection process that involved interviews with 40 shortlisted candidates, 20 promising startups were chosen to participate. These startups are now deeply engaged in the programme, benefiting from weekly workshops and personalised 1:1 mentoring with EBS staff and industry experts. Their journey will culminate in a final showcase event on February 3, 2025, where they will pitch their ideas and progress to an audience of stakeholders, industry leaders, and the wider community. This showcase is an invitation to witness the entrepreneurial talent and innovation shaping Dubai’s future. Building on this momentum, the applications for the next cohort opened on November 3 and will close on December 3, 2024. Interest continues to grow, with over 70 applications already received within the first weeks. This reflects the programme’s increasing reputation as a launchpad for groundbreaking ideas and scalable businesses. As each cycle brings more interest and stronger enrollments, the EBS Global Incubator Programme reaffirms its commitment to empowering startups, fostering innovation, and driving the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region.

Building startups and nurturing entrepreneurial talent

From a business school incubator perspective, it comes down to practical skills that enable entrepreneurial teams to deliver their business model and create value efficiently and effectively. This is not simply about closing the skills gap but developing and organising practical skills into organisational capabilities that underpin competitive advantage and business performance, such as strategic management, leadership, and digital marketing capabilities.

At Edinburgh Business School Global Incubator, firstly, there was a need for a tool to measure, monitor, and develop critical startup capabilities to ensure they became investment-ready and scalable. Leveraging expertise in measuring and managing business performance and capabilities, the team developed a software tool, VyneAnalytics.com, to address this need. Secondly, it was essential to create a programme that allowed students to apply their knowledge by executing bold business ideas or supporting others in doing so. At its core, the initiative recognises that an entrepreneurial mindset thrives in the context of change, which manifests in two practical forms: developing new products, services, or processes (startup innovation) and improving existing ones (business consultancy). These two pillars underpin the Incubator’s approach to fostering innovation and business growth.

Practice Excellence Network

Heriot-Watt University benefits from a wealth of lab-created, research-based technologies, but its focus extends beyond innovation to include business consultancy. This approach helps startups organise and plan their business strategies around their technological products. By measuring the strengths and weaknesses in startups’ capability profiles, the university identifies critical gaps and scopes business projects to address them.

These projects are then executed by business students under the mentorship of subject-matter experts from Edinburgh Business School. This initiative is part of the Practice Excellence Network (PEN), which facilitates and coordinates experiential learning and knowledge exchange projects. PEN fosters collaboration between students, businesses, and researchers while developing and managing a dynamic talent pool, bridging the gap between academia and industry. The collaborative talent pool has proven valuable to startups that have secured the financial resources but struggle to recruit or retain the human resources to scale their business.

Over the last three years, PEN has supported 45 undergraduate and postgraduate students in delivering 31 knowledge exchange projects with 21 businesses and three research teams. The PEN’s exceptional learning experience and popularity amongst students and startups led to the development of three new master programmes with Advanced Practice in Business Analytics and Consultancy, Digital Marketing, and International Business Management.

While the PEN arrangement is beneficial for startups and business students, it also delivers is what is believed to differentiate the Edinburgh Business School Global Incubator from other programmes: Creating strong entrepreneurial teams that are capable of developing and executing innovative business solutions to 21^st-century challenges.

Edinburgh Business School Global Incubator is looking for four things in prospective PEN students: Ambition, commitment, collaboration, and knowledge. In return, students become more confident, competent, and professional while getting practical work experience and realising valuable networking opportunities. PEN provides students with their first business client and equips them with the tools, skills, and practical experience to give them a competitive edge when applying for their first job after graduating. The Incubator partners pointed out that especially the practical experience bit gives students a head start when competing in the job market.

The way forward

Business schools should provide programmes designed to increase the probability of their graduates getting a desired job and give them a competitive advantage in the recruitment process after graduating. Heriot-Watt University has laid the foundation for developing highly employable students and strong entrepreneurial teams capable of turning innovative solutions into viable, investable business ventures.