Twenty-five CEOs from startups and growing companies in 12 countries toured MIT Sloan at a summit connecting them with faculty and students in MIT Sloan’s Global Entrepreneurship Lab.
The Global Entrepreneurship Lab or G-Lab matches teams of four students with companies in emerging markets to work on projects focusing on business growth, new market entry, marketing, finance, or another realm. The G-Lab is one of Sloan’s signature action learning programs.
Teams work with companies remotely during the fall, then travel to the partner company for three weeks in January to complete the project and deliver findings and recommendations.
At the summit, CEOs toured the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, in addition to the MIT Media Lab. They met with faculty to discuss entrepreneurship and finance and spent time working with their G-Lab student teams.
Conexia, an Argentina-based health care IT company, hosted its first G-Lab team during the 2009-2010 academic year. The first team examined whether the company should attempt to enter the United States market with its health care information exchange technology.
The 2009-2010 G-Lab team helped Conexia decide to hold off on the U.S. market and instead focus its efforts on Colombia, where it has since thrived. The company now derives more than twice as much revenue from the Colombian market as it does from Argentina and employs 120 programmers and sales staff there.
This year’s Conexia G-Lab team will work from the company’s office in Bogotá, Colombia, analyzing options and creating recommendations for a big data initiative and product. This is the companies fifth team to sponsor.