Stanford program to cover corporate innovation strategies, market development, growth management Founded in 1891, Stanford University is one of leading educational institutions in the US RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (Monshaat) has teamed up with Stanford University in California to launch a program aimed at helping small companies in the Kingdom scale up their operations. The Monshaat Academy Programme for Innovation and Entrepreneurship was launched on Monday in cooperation with the Stanford Center for Professional Development and the King Salman Institute for Studies and Consulting Services, with participants from 50 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) taking part. The new academy will help SMEs become more efficient and adopt industry business practices, a Monshaat official told Arab News on Tuesday. A three-month program will cover corporate innovation strategies, market development, growth management and SMEs scale-ups services. Founded in 1891, Stanford University is one of leading educational institutions in the US. The Stanford Center for Professional Development, established in 1995, is the university’s online education subsidiary. It operates the Stanford Online platform, which has taught over 1.5 million students in 190 countries. So far, the academy has delivered five scale-up programs to more than 250 small and medium enterprises in the Kingdom. Monshaat said the number of fast-growing Saudi SMEs is estimated at 7,000 and is growing at a rate of nearly a thousand a year.