The Research Park Corporation and LSU should establish a joint venture to work more closely to create a better entrepreneurial ecosystem in Baton Rouge, according to the results of a study by local consulting firm Emergent Method.
The study, released today after months of research and analysis, stops short of recommending a merger of the two entities’ business incubators and tech park operations, which includes the RPC’s Louisiana Technology Park and LSU’s Innovation Park. But it calls for much closer collaboration and coordination of resources and assets between the two in order to address “deficiencies and inefficiencies that exist within the ecosystem.” The study boils them down to three major ones:
• The structure of the current ecosystem leads to duplication of services while failing to address service gaps.
• There is a notable absence of ecosystem-wide and outcome-oriented performance measures, making it difficult to assess success.
• The fragmented nature of the ecosystem results in a disjointed understanding of available resources on the part of entrepreneurs, creating unnecessary and complex challenges to accessing resources at critical stages of a start-up’s life cycle.
“Entrepreneurs are underserved by the current ecosystem,” the study says. “There is no clear path for accessing ecosystem resources. A ‘customer’s journey’ through Baton Rouge entrepreneurial ecosystem is nonlinear and not readily apparent to entrepreneurs in need of assistance. This lack of awareness … appears to dissuade many would-be entrepreneurs from pursuing their business ideas.”
The study recommends a phased-in approach over 18 months that would, first, establish formal cooperation between the two entities then gradually move towards a more integrated arrangement. Each would maintain its leadership for day-to-day operations but would jointly assume responsibility for managing the broader, coordinated direction the entities would together be going in.
Both would also keep their facilities, for now, but would look at ways to get the most value out of each.
Key to the joint venture would be public accountability—using established success metrics to measure the collective impact of the ecosystem in the years to come.
A prepared statement issued by LSU in response to the study pays lip service to the concept of greater cooperation but doesn’t go so far as to endorse any specific recommendations.
“We’ve worked with LSU for years and we’re really excited to amplify that partnership going forward,” Genevieve Silverman president and CEO of the RPC, says in the statement.
Innovation Park’s Dave Winwood adds, “Emergent Method’s study provides us with a good starting and plan for the future of our partnership.” Read the full study here.
