Discussion with a Nobel Prize to celebrate the CDM's anniversary
Edmund Phelps and the panelists © 2014 EPFL
The celebration of the College of Management of Technology's 10th anniversary drew a large crowd to listen to Edmund Phelps, Nobel Prize in Economics, discuss his vision of dynamism and innovation in the West.
Philippe Gillet, Vice-president for Acadmic Affairs and Christopher Tucci, director of the College presented briefly the history and the development of the College which was created in 2004 by Francis-Luc Perret, former Vice-president for Planification and Logistics at EPFL. Since 2004, the College has grown to 3 institutes (Management of Technology & Entrepreneurship, Swiss Finance Institute and Technology & Public Policy), offers Executive Education, two Masters, two doctoral programs and is very present in the offer of the SHS teaching. Chris Tucci then introduced the guest of honor, Edumund Phelps, Nobel Prize of Economics 2006.
The speaker gave a 45-minute speach on the loss of dynamism and the lack of grassroot entrepreneurship that has been ongoing for over 40 years in the West. His main argument, also developed in his best seller entitled "Mass Flourishing" is that innovation should be the ultimate motor of productivity and prosperity. "Corporatist" policies and governments do not help innovation and grassroot entrepreneurship, thus leading to low productivity and income inequality. He argues that a bottom-up approach should be used to stimulate growth by prioritizing investments to start-ups, SMEs and investors and giving less importance to policies that favor large incumbents. Betting on creativity, modern values & discoveries rather than corporatism is his answer to boost employment and productivity.
The panelists then all briefly presented themselves and shared a few words on their vision of Edmund Phelp's presentation. Christopher Tucci, the moderator of the panel discussion, gathered the questions of the crowd via Twitter and the #epflcdm10years hashtag.
The four panelists: Adrienne Corboud-Fumagalli (Vice President for Innovation & Technology Transfer), Patrick Delarive (Serial Entrepreneur & President of the Delarive Group), Dominique Foray (Professor of Management & Economics of Innovation), Marc Gruber (Professor of Entrepreneurship & Technology Commercialization)
An animated conversation followed between the panelists and the speaker: Are nano-entrepreneurs the future of a new dynamism in innovation such as Uber, Airbnb, ebay, bitcoins? Is Europe lacking innovation because of its unwillingness to get out of its comfort zone? How to balance growing inequalities in the increasingly innovative develping countries?
The celebration ended by a beautiful apéritif where all the participants were able to share some light food and drinks in the elegant Forum of the Rolex Learning Center.
