A Pioneering Course at INSEAD
In 2021, I was privileged to co-create INSEAD's first ever deep tech commercialisation course with my colleague, friend and collaborator, Prof. Bill Magill. Since then, we have been running this Global Executive MBA Key Management Challenge (KMC) annually.
What makes the course unique is our partnership with CERN, the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research). CERN is home to some of the most advanced scientific experiments on the planet, including the Large Hadron Collider. Through this collaboration, CERN provides us with deep tech innovations that may have commercial applications well beyond their original purpose in particle physics. We have also sourced projects from the European Space Agency (ESA) and several leading research institutes across Europe, broadening the range of technologies our students encounter.
The central goal of the course is straightforward yet profoundly challenging: learn how to take deep tech innovations out of the laboratory and into the market.
How the Course Works
Our students work on the innovations over a period of four months, culminating in three intensive, in-person days at CERN's IdeaSquare on the famous CERN campus in Geneva. IdeaSquare is a creative space within CERN designed specifically for collaborative innovation, making it the perfect environment for our students to bring their ideas to life.
During the four months leading up to the grand finale, our students work in teams on their assigned innovations, with monthly touchpoints with Bill and me. The course follows the ten chapters of Bill Magill's Deep Tech Playbook, a comprehensive guide to navigating the journey from scientific breakthrough to commercial product. This book has been adapted into a Qinect self-paced course, so our students follow the content and assignments on the Qinect platform alongside the input from Bill and me, as well as the scientists who originated the deep tech innovations.
This blended approach, combining structured self-paced learning with expert mentoring and direct engagement with scientists, gives our students a rich and realistic experience of what deep tech commercialisation actually involves. It mirrors the real-world process: understanding the science, identifying potential applications, validating market demand, and building a credible path from prototype to product.
What Exactly Is Deep Tech?
You may be asking: what is deep tech, and how does it differ from the technology we encounter every day? Deep tech refers to innovations that are grounded in substantial scientific or engineering advances. Unlike conventional technology companies, which often build on existing platforms and infrastructure to deliver incremental improvements, deep tech ventures are rooted in novel research, frequently emerging from universities, national laboratories or research institutes.
Deep tech typically involves long development cycles, significant technical risk and substantial capital investment before a product reaches the market. Think of advances in quantum computing, novel materials, biotechnology, photonics, advanced sensors or artificial intelligence at its most foundational level. These are technologies where the core innovation itself is the competitive advantage, not just the business model or user experience wrapped around it.
The distinction matters because commercialising deep tech requires a fundamentally different approach to that used for a typical software startup. The timelines are longer, the uncertainty is greater, and the need for collaboration between scientists and business professionals is critical. A brilliant technology that never reaches its intended market benefits no one. This is precisely the gap our course aims to bridge.
From Classroom to Commercial Reality
The course culminates with live presentations in front of deep tech experts, where our student teams pitch their commercialisation strategies for the innovations they have been developing. These sessions are rigorous, demanding and energising in equal measure. The feedback from seasoned experts sharpens thinking and exposes assumptions that might otherwise go unchallenged.
These are not merely academic exercises. Some of these projects and teams go beyond the course and are actively in development now, pursuing real commercial opportunities born from what began as a classroom challenge. Seeing student teams take their work forward into genuine ventures is one of the most rewarding aspects of running this programme.
Bill and I are passionate about how combining business students with scientists, engineers and mathematicians creates a perfect partnership for accelerating deep tech commercialisation. Business students bring market awareness, strategic thinking and commercial acumen. Scientists and engineers bring deep domain expertise, technical rigour and an understanding of what is genuinely possible at the frontier of knowledge. When these two worlds come together, the results can be remarkable.
Europe's Deep Tech Opportunity
This matters particularly in Europe, where we have a wealth of groundbreaking innovation but sometimes struggle to turn those innovations into products and then into successful ventures. The continent is home to world-class research institutions, brilliant scientists and an impressive pipeline of discovery. Yet too often, promising technologies remain trapped in the lab, unable to make the leap to market because the commercial expertise and entrepreneurial infrastructure are not sufficiently connected to the research.
Our course is one attempt to change that dynamic. By embedding business students directly into the deep tech ecosystem, working alongside the scientists who created the innovations, we are building a new generation of leaders who understand both the science and the business of bringing breakthrough technologies to the world. We are helping to close the gap between invention and enterprise that has held Europe back for too long.
Looking Ahead: Quantum and Beyond
This year, we are bringing the theme of quantum into our course. Quantum technologies represent one of the most exciting and consequential frontiers in science and engineering, with potential applications spanning computing, communications, sensing and simulation. By incorporating quantum into the programme, we are ensuring our students engage with technologies that will shape industries for decades to come.
We hope to continue adding specific frontier technologies in the future, keeping the course at the cutting edge and giving our students exposure to the innovations that will define tomorrow's markets. Each new technology brings fresh challenges for commercialisation, and each demands creative thinking about how to move from scientific possibility to market reality.
The journey from laboratory to market is never simple, but it is one of the most important journeys in our economy. If we can equip the next generation of business leaders with the knowledge, frameworks and experience to navigate that journey successfully, the impact will be felt far beyond any single classroom or campus. That is what drives Bill and me, and it is why we believe deep tech commercialisation deserves a central place in business education.