Who will hatch from incubators of innovative technologies?

Making predictions about the fate of large incubators in Russia, such as Skolkovo, is easier by sorting out the Russian history of small incubators.

The main problems faced by beginners are the lack of experience, team, contacts, premises and investor. Theoretically, this is exactly what incubators are called upon to solve, but in Russia this function is practically not developed.

First of all, for the implementation of this task, officials lack a clear task, personal responsibility and competence.

Very little money is allocated for the development of incubators in Russia, as a result their number is very limited. Therefore, in order to get into this incubator, you need to "give it a paw." The situation is common for Russia.

The “innovativeness” of projects is also in doubt, often preferences are given to hairdressers and traders. What can be explained by the fact that producing is more difficult than selling. But IT production is a separate area. Together with constantly evolving technologies, huge new markets provoked by all sorts of “iPads” and “Facebooks” “swell”. But Russian investors are hesitant to invest in innovation. Explaining this by the fact that they simply are not interested in having a huge business, poking around in small affairs of IT specialists, the costs of which will pay off only in a couple of years. This rule is true not only for the IT sector, but also for areas where high technology has long been used in the entire developed world. According to various sources, large Russian companies spend on innovation only 1-3% of their budget.

As the experience of other countries shows, business incubators are a very useful institution for the state, helping to solve a bunch of social problems: small enterprises create jobs, prevent the outflow of labor from the region, especially qualified. It is scary that due to bureaucratic incompetence, young people are forced to work in all kinds of McDonald's.

In my understanding, the optimal environment for creating incubators of innovative technologies is the presence of brains, large businesses interested in high-tech solutions, the search for which he can give, including outsourcing, and officials who contribute to the development of such an environment (taxes, subsidies to universities and etc.). As a result, instead of McDonald's, students get jobs related to their profession. Business gets - brains creating a solution. And the state slows down the outflow of these very brains.

There are positive examples in the world - the well-known Silicon Valley, the development of which is associated with the concentration of leading universities, large cities, sources of financing for new companies, as well as a favorable climate. There are also examples in Russia, only they are an exception, only confirming the absurdity of the path we are following. But it seems that our officials have completely different tasks, the implementation of which they successfully cope with.