By Gloria Manuel¹

The MSc programme in Digital Entrepreneurship is one of the newest programmes in the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE), and for a taste of the discussions within this fast-growing field, a Panel on Digital Entrepreneurship was held in November with four distinguished guest speakers.

The event attendees were welcomed with an introduction from Professor Aaron Smith, the Director of the IIE Institute, and Dr Anna Grosman, the Program Director of MSc Digital Entrepreneurship. After the brief on the new MSc programme, Dr Grosman introduced the first panellist to the stage, Inbal Colley-Croitoru, co-founder and CEO at “Tuniverse“.

Inbal explained that Tuniverse is now working on a machine learning-powered app that enables novice and amateur musicians to start with just their voice or a vocal recording and compose an entire music production. Inbal highlighted an entrepreneurship checklist throughout her journey that does not only apply to her digital business but to any type of enterprise, namely: teaming up with people with the necessary skills, building your connections, brainstorming your idea until you reach a pain point, and back it up with data in efforts to create a product or service that brings value. Moreover, conducting an industry analysis is crucial to building short- and long-term business strategies that are market-focused. Lastly, Inbal states that “your enterprise must be your dream job”.

Followed by Inbal, Louise Patel, a freelancer Television Producer/Director and the founder of “Share My Telly Job”, was the second panellist presenting. Louise stated that the “The Time Project app” is an anonymous data collection tool to improve working patterns in the television industry. Additionally, Louise identifies fundamental aspects of building the app, firstly, acquiring funding or enough resources to set it up, engaging with developers, working on an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), working on a ‘sprint’ design and concept sessions, picking the most suitable platform that will sustain your app, learning more about user engagement and feedback, and lastly, testing and sorting legal matters. Louise ends by stating that working without passion becomes tedious and entrepreneurs need to be collaborative, learn quickly from mistakes and that ethical projects still need to be commercial.

Next presenting was Dr Jon Webster, Managing Partner, Financial Institutions and Technology Advantage practices at Boston Consulting Group. Dr Jon revealed six factors that companies need to get right to reach digital transformation success, 1- an integrated strategy with clear transformation goals, 2- leadership commitment from the CEO through middle management, 3- Deploying high-calibre talent, 4- An agile governance mindset that drives broader adoption, 5- Effective monitoring of progress towards defined outcomes, and lastly 6- Business-led modular technology & data platform.

Lastly, Professor Mathew Hughes, Professor and Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University and author of “Digital Entrepreneurship” provided unique insights on research in Digital Entrepreneurship. Prof. Hughes outlines a dilemma in the literature “what makes entrepreneurship digital?” and “what makes digital entrepreneurial?”. He also highlighted some observations of his research, for instance, he found out that entrepreneurial passion plays a very strong part in taking technological innovation forward. Furthermore, the relationship between top management to lower-level employees is also very important to pass the vision down and develop its implementation. Prof. Mathew reveals the new idea called hierarchical erosion, where the further down the business you go, the less familiar people are with your strategy, so communication is therefore vital to pass the idea through.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Inbal Colley-Croitoro, Louise Patel, Dr Jon Webster, and Professor Mathew Hughes for visiting our London campus and for leading such stimulating discussions.

To apply for January 2023 or October 2023 start to the MSc Digital Entrepreneurship or further information about its modules, please visit our website.

Footnotes

1. Gloria Manuel is a 2nd year PhD student in the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, at Loughborough University London, conducting research in Entrepreneurial Motivation and Resilience of SMEs. Gloria’s academic background includes BA in Management and Entrepreneurship from Lancaster University, and a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management and Organisations from London School of Economics.