The Cambridge Consultancies - Creators of High-Tech Spin-Offs

The Cambridge Consultancies ” Creators of High-Tech Spin-Offs

The Cambridge-based consultancies have been instrumental in the creation of new businesses in the region. The birth of the first business technology consultancy was thus a fundamental seed of Cambridge's success, and was soon to become a special technology transfer mechanism, long before the beginnings of the University of Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre. By recruiting the very best technical graduates of the university and exposing them to business thinking around the world, they were able to begin a tradition of incubation and spin-offs typical of the Cambridge phenomenon today. Initially these "midwives" of technology transfer began as pure-play consultancies, "high-octane environments" so to speak, that coincidentally and eventually perhaps inevitably gave birth to other technology-oriented consultancies and companies. Again, the organic dynamics that have driven the Cambridge model become apparent. As the potential of generating spin-offs dawned on the consultancies, they began to consciously develop the breeding of spin-offs, which has created a multiplier effect. Today, spun-off companies constitute the vast majority of the business community in Cambridge ” a successful example being Cambridge Silicon Radio, which was spun out of the consultancy Arthur D. Little/Cambridge Consultants ^[7] . The spin-off culture has enlarged the set of local role models, creating an aura of success around developing an idea, gathering support, and then moving on to pursue it.

The central challenge to the Cambridge region seen by some today is the skills debate. A need for more marketing and administrative capabilities has been identified as necessary in order to complement the highly developed academic competencies already available. The University of Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre aims to address this problem by offering training, development, and support in business skills in order to make new knowledge-based ventures successful.