Managing Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Sept. 4-8, 2006

Kyushu/Yamaguchi - Stanford University's technology management guru, William Miller, exchanged ideas on innovation and entrepreneurship with audiences in Iizuka, Fukuoka, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, and Yamaguchi in a five-day traveling seminar. Dr. Miller discussed the Silicon Valley experience in two-way interactions between industries, research institutions and universities, noting that many seminars in the region are attended by an equal number of industrial researchers and institutional /university scholars, where the exchange of information and ideas is strongly cultivated. Dr. Miller explained how Stanford University worked to develop Greenfield industries in the area and to open education to part-time students employed in area industries. This cooperation, he noted, helped both the industries and Stanford to recruit new employees/students. During the question and answer period, Dr. Miller challenged the region not to try to compete with the Route 128 corridor (Boston) or with Silicon Valley, but to find its place as an extension of one of the high-tech centers, specializing in an area that compliments an existing center. Rather than duplicating, new regions need to find out how to cooperate with existing technology centers, he stressed.