Transforming researchers into entrepreneurs

One of the reasons frequently cited as the cause of difficulties in the development of French research start-ups is their managers' lack of entrepreneurial ethos. The HEC Challenge+ cycle aims to solve this problem by encouraging researchers to take part in a training course which will provide them with the skills, savoir-faire and savoir-être which are essential for a manager of an innovative company. Such a transformation is sometimes painful because it necessitates numerous changes of paradigms : these include the change from public to private sector reasoning, the transition from the relatively easy operation of a large group to the more difficult functions of a start-up, the use of a technopush approach instead of a market pull approach, the pride taken in the numerous possible applications for an invention to the need to focus on a sole product and a sole market segment, and finally the change from an intangible vision of the share of capital and power to the appointment of an operational manager likely to inspire confidence among his investors.