When Cambridge VC talks business
Prof Alison Richard throws light on innovative spirit of Cambridge

By Educare Bureau
What comes to your mind when one says ‘Cambridge’? Its long history, its reputation in liberal arts and sciences, its enviable alumni trail, isn’t it? The University, which turns 800 next year, that is 2009, boasts of intellectual and academic achievement of the highest order in any discipline that you speak of -from liberal arts and economics to science and technology. It’s the alma mater of a number of Nobel Prize winners, and has produced world’s leading economists, including our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

But would you not be surprised to hear of the university as a flourishing entrepreneurial place? Would you not be surprised to hear the Cambridge Vice-chancellor utter the same vocabulary - ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem’, ‘angel investors’ and ‘startups’ - which we now hear from entrepreneurs and management gurus? Well, this was the surprise of the evening as Prof Alison Richard, Vice-chancellor, University of Cambridge, addressed a select gathering in New Delhi on January 4. An anthropologist, who has written extensively on the evolution of social systems among primates, Prof Richard gave an insight into entrepreneurship that you can perhaps only expect from management gurus and startup men themselves. She was speaking on the occasion of a CII-organised event ‘Partnering for Innovation and Growth’.

She commended the University for its risk-taking spirit, in a country, which, she said, is largely risk-averse. “The UK is quite risk averse society and… failure means shame.” She contrasted that to the US where “failure means you pull yourself up and try all over again.” She added, “I don’t know what makes for those differences. In Cambridge somehow there is a risk taking spirit, and why, that’s a mystery to me… We are proud of our ecosystem. It’s an exciting place to work. An exciting place to live.”

Prof Richard recounted how Cambridge attracts leading corporates on the strength of its sound supporting infrastructure, clear intellectual property policy, and a rich human capital. She summed up in two words, why Microsoft decided to have its research lab at Cambridge. “The answer is two words - Roger Needham. A single individual, a brilliant computer scientist, who attracted Microsoft by his sheer brilliance.” On the other hand, Rolls Royce came to Cambridge because it saw the power of Cambridge’s work in combustion. Kodak and Nokia came because they saw an environment rich in ideas, rich in human talent. Commenting on this industry-academia brew, she said, “The chaos is great, until you are completely lost. And then it’s not great at all.”

How to underpin the chaos? This brought her to the next point, Cambridge’s strong supporting infrastructure and communications. “Part of that supporting infrastructure is policy environment. A flexible, stable, accepted intellectual property rights environment, that I believe, allows the spirit of entrepreneurial activity to flourish. That lowers the uncertainty as to how intellectual property is being dealt with.”

She underlined the importance of training and research in the thriving entrepreneurial atmosphere of the university, and the human capital that the university provides to these functions. “It turns out, I believe, that involving our students adds to the vitality of the activity. And the permeability of our boundaries allows that human capital to flow out from the university as well as flowing in to the university.”

She also provided the blueprint for future growth, and urged the various ecosystem across the world to be interconnected. In this context she mentioned their efforts to connect with entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Munich and Bangalore.