Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford

at the Oxford Said Business School

Since its inception ten years ago, Oxford University’s Saïd Business School has rapidly become the focal point for University-wide entrepreneurship, bringing together practitioners, spinout entrepreneurs, students and professionals, to create the environment from which we hope the next Hewlett-Packard or Google will emerge.

The Said Business School is also the linkage point for businesses to engage with the University of Oxford. We have gained a great deal from the academic and corporate communities in California and, around Oxford, the 1,500 high-tech companies which form part of the innovation system centred on the school.

Oxford’s rich history in innovation, combined with the zeal and drive of students, and our connectivity across university departments, is proving a powerful combination.

One in ten of our MBA Students leaves to form a new venture. There are at least 95 successful MBA alumni-founded companies – an unusually high percentage for any business school. There are 3,000 members of the Oxford Entrepreneurs Student Society based at the school; over 300 people a night come to the practical entrepreneurship lecture course at the Said Business School, and over the five years since the building opened, 9,000 people – from University and business – have attended entrepreneurship lectures or seminars.

Demand is high for Said Business School Entrepreneurship and our ambitions are no less so. The long-term aim is to build a centre for the study of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Our centre will work closely with practitioners, policymakers and worldwide academic communities, as well as University-based innovators and students, to develop new knowledge that almost no other University is in a position to originate.