Global Entrepreneurship Lab
Entrepreneurs in emerging markets
The Global Entrepreneurship Lab (G-Lab) is the flagship international internship course at MIT Sloan. The course links teams of MIT Sloan MBA students with entrepreneurs in emerging markets in more than 20 countries around the world, including Ghana, Indonesia, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Brazil.
Global Reach, Global Impact
Students collaborate with global entrepreneurs to share their knowledge, experience, and research and assist them with immediate challenges in areas as diverse as internationalization, commercialization, finance, and marketing. The students gain valuable leadership experience in global environments, as well as test management skills in a myriad of real-world situations.
How G-Lab Works
Durring the fall semester, student teams select a project and work in partnership with global entrepreneurs. At the same time, the student teams are immersed in a semester classroom course, that provides macro-level content and context knowledge, while working with faculty subject-matter experts who provide project guidance. Student teams will spend three weeks in January working on-site with the entrepreneur and finalize their host company deliverable.
G-Lab Opportunities
Current G-Lab courses focus on developing markets in Latin America, China, India, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Students work with a variety of high-potential organizations in an array of industries. Past examples include an online video portal in Shanghai, an IT outsourcing firm in Bangalore, a health clinic in western Kenya, and a venture capital firm in Vietnam.
“It was really rewarding that they wanted to know what we thought. We left there being fairly certain that they will do some of the things that we suggested.”
“The concept behind enterprise architecture is that you have all these machines, you have all these business processes, you have all these people doing things, how do you make sure they all come together and achieve business objectives that make you more competitive.”
“Because of the diversity of our backgrounds, when we hit the ground in Tanzania it almost was a natural play where different people assume different roles.”
“We’re very interdisciplinary. Among the faculty in the group are an economist, a political scientist, a sociologist, and an industrial relations specialist. We’ve always made a big effort to be open to a variety of perspectives, but also to go beyond being open to them, to want to bring them in, because it makes for a richer environment.”
“We are very much an action-learning environment. The way to learn leadership is not only through reading cases, not only through learning theory — in fact we don’t want people to regurgitate the theory. We want people to take theory and to live it, use it.”
“[The India Lab] program is one of the reasons I came to Sloan. ... The hands-on learning that MIT offers was a huge differentiator.”
“I knew about American business, but not enough about what’s really become a global economy. … You can read about it all you want, but there’s no substitute for being there and seeing the context and seeing how completely different these [other countries] are.”
“The conditions in the neighborhoods we were visiting were different than what we realized before getting there. Beyond that, what was surprising was that there weren’t surprises!”
“At MIT Sloan you have a lot of opportunities to explore entrepreneurship. Especially in a place like Kampala where you have a lot of development, entrepreneurship can be very exciting.”
“The assistant to the CEO was like our host mom while we were there. She arranged our housing for us, she took us out to her friend’s game farm, and we got driven around in 4x4s. She was just wonderful to meet, and we developed a personal as well as professional relationship with her.”
“You could talk about watershed management and conservation of energy all you want. But until you put numbers to it and financial analysis to it, you’re not going to get much done. I came to business school to speak that language, speak with people in terms of numbers, financial numbers so that I can get projects done.”
“One of the reasons I came to Sloan was because I wanted to be at a top MBA institution worldwide. But I also wanted access to working with the latest innovations and the highest technology that was coming out of the MIT labs.”
"The relationships that we forged helped us to turn out a better project. We were able to test our hypotheses with the people that we spoke with every single day. And really, I think the friendships that you develop really propel the work that you’re doing."
“I love being in a place that is such a nexus of people and ideas — people coming to learn something new and to define themselves. Being a part of that process is a real honor and a real gift.”
“One thing we teach students is that they have access to more data than they realize — that even qualitative data can be used to develop ideas and test them.”
