Danish MIT in the making
Chairman of the board of Risø National Laboratory (and also CEO of Danfoss—one of the biggest industrial companies in Denmark), Jørgen Mads Clausen, recently wrote a letter to the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Helge Sander. In brief, the contents of this letter discussed the making of a Danish MIT-like institution by merging my school, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences (DFU), the IT University of Copenhagen (ITU), and Risø themselves.
Let me be the first to say that I am extremely thrilled about this idea, the vision, and the potential upside of such a merger. However, I also feel there are some substantial pitfalls that need to be avoided in order to make this a success for all parties involved.
- Learn from others, but do not walk in their footsteps
The title of this post—Danish MIT in the making—is taken from the press release of the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation. While I think it is important to look at lessons learned elsewhere in the world, it is equally important not just to imitate, but innovate. If you walk in other people’s footsteps, you will never pass them. If this vision is to succeed, we need to define what will take us in front of others, not just how we catch up. - Two lemons do not make a lemonade
(Cliché borrowed from Fred Wilson, albeit I use it a bit differently). CBS is light-years ahead of the proposed partner universities (Risø is not a university, and I hold it out of this comparison), at least when it comes to internationalisation and international recognition. Merging CBS with other institutions will not necessarily spill over the positive image and global competencies that CBS possesses on to the other institutions. In fact, the risk is that our competencies and international recognition can deteriorate. In fact, what CBS is unique and very good at (read my recent post: Best Nordic Business School) is what the other institutions are not so good at, in my opinion, and merging all this will not necessarily make a nice lemonade. At the least, a very clear plan for this including risk management must be laid out. - Synergies must be clearly visible and attainable
I see the clear synergy in merging DTU and CBS—it is very common in, e.g., Germany to take joint engineering and business degrees. I see great potential for business students to get more exposure to the natural sciences, and I see great potential for engineering students as well. Where DFU synergies come into the picture is not at all clear to me. - Rome was not built in one day
Why should we make the mega-merger all at once? In my eyes there is a great rationale in merging the two or three most obvious candidates first, learn from the lessons in that process, and then continue as one sees fit. Comparing this to the business world, it seems a bit rash to do a mega-merger like that in one gigantic step. If we look at it from an acquisition perspective (which is wrong due to the nature of this project—it needs to be a merger of equals), it still is a big step, which many executives would chunk into smaller pieces.
That said, I would like to quote myself from the top: “I am extremely thrilled about this idea, the vision, and the potential upside of such a merger.” And while I discussed some of the pitfalls in this post, there are also upsides, which should be clear to everyone.
I am very interested in your views on this topic, so please comment.
