G-Lab Overview
Take the Class
The first step in the G-Lab experience is to take the class, Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Emerging Markets (15.389).
Entrepreneurship in the 21st century is evolving. Because of global changes in technology, communications, and capital markets, today's innovative startups are building successful companies in markets around the globe, in environments with young or struggling entrepreneurial ecosystems. These challenges are the focus of G-Lab.
G-Lab is an interdisciplinary project-based learning course with three specific goals:
- To provide students with first-hand insights into the issues and challenges facing entrepreneurs in emerging markets
- To provide students with an intensive project experience working collaboratively with senior leadership in global startups
- To provide students with a forum in which to develop their integrated problem-framing skills in order to assist organizations in complex environments to move to action
Do the Lab Project
As a main feature of the G-Lab class, student teams work with their Host Companies on four-month project engagements designed to tackle real-world problems. In late September, G-Lab faculty members match the best-qualified teams to their preferred Host Companies. From October through December, the teams work on campus with their Host Companies, building their client relationships through online collaboration and weekly conference calls. Teams conduct research, interviews, and analysis that will be critical for their future work in the field. In January, teams work on site full-time at their Host Companies' offices for at least three weeks.
Return: Reflections and Deliverables
In MIT Sloan's signature Think-Act-Reflect approach to Action Learning, reflection is an ongoing component in the cycle of a G-Lab project. Through various methods of reflection—such as blogs and journals, team processing, mentor coaching, posters, and public presentations—students link theory and practice before, during, and after their project engagement, bringing them to a deeper understanding of the broad impact of what they've learned. The teams' final deliverables include a formal presentation and, more importantly, concrete "leave behinds" that deliver high-impact tools such as financial models, HR manuals, strategic business plans, and social marketing strategies that the Host Companies' senior management can put to work immediately.
