Cultivate by Michaela Nerudová

cultivate

Introduction

Talent and Idea Cultivation: University based entrepreneurship environment and talent development in Scandinavia

Mgr. Kristýna Kovářová Mgr. Kateřina Šimčíková

Cultivate

With gratitude and a special mention to Jeppe Vedel, Rasmus Uhre, Johanna Ă&#x2013;stberg, Michael Camitz and Karri Liikkanen for kind and valuable support and last but not least with love to Department of Marketing Communications at TBU.

CPI

Contents 10

Human centred approach to environment and services

Entrepreneurial support system

14 Methodology 18 DENMARK 30 Aarhus 36 LYNfabrikken 46 Odense 54

SDU Cortex Lab

64 SWEDEN 78 Lund 84 VentureLab 96 Uppsala 100

Uppsala Innovation Centre

110 FINLAND 120 Helsinki 126 138

Helsinki Think Company Communication activities

142 Events

Foreword

This publication was created with the intention to provide insights into talent management and idea cultivation primarily of to-be entrepreneurs in the university environment or more precisely in centres for enterprise promotion established by universities. In the first place the focus is on qualitative characteristics of places and services and their human centred nature which can be considered a unique perspective in comparison with also rare but yet present quantitative data and studies based on performance and profitability of businesses emerging from these entrepreneurial support centres. Founding of such centres can be viewed as aÂ winwin opportunity; a new horizon and competitive advantage for universities on one hand and option of students to manage their careers and to build businesses of their own on the other hand. At the same time affecting a wide range of social outcomes and enabling the students to make their way in the world. The modern era of education focuses on talent and idea cultivation, offering their students tools, they need to unleash their creative potential and undertake responsibility for their own lives. The aim can no longer be to get a job but rather to create it, forming future employers equipped with requisite knowledge and skills, ethical approach and permanent values, who will be able to introduce future of work where excellent work performance and work-life balance are not mutually exclusive.

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Cultivate

Human centred approach to environment and services

The world of work is rapidly changing. We are at the point when we question fixed work behind the desk from early morning till late afternoon and lengthy commuting (when we are conscious of much more efficient and more life-friendly way of working), remuneration related to the longest time spent at work (instead of performancerelated one), highly-polished sterile workplaces in giant buildings (costly non-functional monuments displeasing the residents) and employers that do not care about their most valuable capital (although well-being and happiness of employees leads to their engagement and higher work performance) and last but not least we start to deplore exploiting practices of employers. 10

Human centred approach to environment and services

Uncertainty and stress related to jobs and their loss, inability to restore work-life balance, missing fulfilment and values to identify with, those are representatives of painful practices and conditions at workplaces. At the same time requirements, which are employees supposed to meet, are scaling up, deadlines are tightening and inevitably change must take place. It is time when financial incentives start to be insufficient in order to attract or maintain talented people and many companies become aware of it. They are conscious of necessity to accommodate to the real needs and values of their employees. Such early birds from the ranks of companies offering nurturing conditions for personal growth, overall well-being, and development of their employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; potential, are possessors of competitive advantage which will later on necessarily become a must. Places helping talented people to explore and develop their natural abilities are being established. Forward-looking universities belong to those establishers, founding incubators and accelerators, giving their students chance to take responsibility for their own lives while changing the course of education for the better, opening its new horizons. Their students do not wait for others to employ them and to make the necessary changes; they are given opportunity and full support to do it themselves. Universities and other entrepreneurship supporting places can become motivators of the change meaning the termination of employee exploitation substituted for the focus on their well-being and talent development, promoting permanent values and shared prosperity. The basic support of those places resides in help to entrepreneurially-minded people, increasing the odds of their success and preventing failure caused by unpreparedness, ignorance of the law, finance, marketing etc. and more importantly in distinguishing and developing their talents. In order to unleash creativity and full potential of people, creation of suitable environs is requisite. Spaces and services designated for creation of great things and people must be suitable for this purpose 1

and they must be perceptive to their needs and be able to connect with them. This also applies to the surrounding environment - the immediate one and also the more distant within the scope of the town or city. The added value of spaces designed with such users in mind is that they understand the way creative people work, especially their need for collaboration and outside inspiration. Those people work around the clock, work overlaps with their free time and their workplaces become their second home. Work itself is reward for them therefore the preconditions for their contentment resides in working in suitable conditions, whenever but at the same time without any delay from it ensured by ability to comfortably reach anything needed and again on adequate level. Immediate environment should cater for their needs of refreshment, relax, socializing etc. The environs where spaces for creative people are set should be chosen according to their compliance with human nature and deeper knowledge of physical and psychical processes enabling people to be effective in their work and more importantly enabling life satisfaction. An example can be provided by Marc Bermanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research based on cognitive tests in which he proved immense power of nature, when short walk in this case in arboretum contrived to boost performance on by as much as 20 percent whereas a walk down a busy city street produced no such benefits. His follow-up study provided proofs that even looking at pictures of nature scene in quiet place during 10 minutes break is more effective than the city walk.1 These insights are missing in designing of workplaces, public spaces and even residential premises. There also resides necessity for change. The way leads through city renewal where progressive communities with the creative people in their midst reclaim disused places and transform them into new areas suitable for life. This publication focuses on assessment of criteria capturing ability to adapt to the needs of talented people, creating inspiring environments, cultivating their potential and developing their creativity.

SMITH, B.Daniel. Is There an Ecological Unconscious? [online]. 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31ecopsych-t.html?mcubz=0

Cultivate

Entrepreneurial support system

Further in the publication several terms, use and definition of which varies according to the source and author, are essential for understanding the entrepreneurial support system, being its key parts. They describe the most common forms of institutional to-be entrepreneurs support. Very often a combination of these is provided. 12

Entrepreneurial support system

pre-incubation

start-up

It represents the early stage of entrepreneurial support system which is crucial but rarely covered. This stage consists of enlightening and motivational activities which should generate opportunities for people to take part in activities and events which improve their abilities and skills and for the organizers to facilitate and identify those participants who are talented and in whose ideas they would see potential and start to work with them. This stage can be well covered by universities where is access to a high concentration of talented people with ideas and potential to develop them.

For purposes of this publication this term is used to describe any business entity in its start developing sustainable business model.

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incubation In the phase when ideas are transformed into feasible projects and developed into new and very vulnerable businesses a help aimed at their survival is provided in centres focused on the incubation. Most frequently they offer office space, mentoring and consulting oriented on business plan development, and services such as help with marketing, presentation skills, financial issues and accountancy, access to strategic partners and funds.

acceleration Centres specializing in support in this stage accelerate development and growth of businesses aiming at their sustainability. Their services encompass variety of services including business plan optimization, networking and mentoring.

alumni Newly emerged companies which successfully finished the process of establishment and which found a place in the market can be viewed as those in alumni phase. Needs of entrepreneurial support in this phase primarily resides in providing a place for their residence commonly offered by different office space providers and assisted low-rent offices and office hotels.

Cultivate

Methodology

Information for research chapters in this publication is based on primary data acquired from semistructured personal interviews with managerial staff and non-mediated observation of each institution visited for this purpose. For accuracy complement qualitative interviews were carried out together with validation via secondary sources. Scandinavia as a location of all visited institutions was chosen as a research target because of its leadership in Talent, Creativity and at the same time Well-being indexes. 14

Methodology

Standard assessments of incubators and the like entrepreneurial supportive places both for internal and comparative purposes are conducted according to the calculable performance criteria. Those can be sales revenue of client start-ups, job creation potential per client, survival and growth indexes and so on. The singularity of research in this publication resides in its focus on criteria of a rather qualitative character allowing for the social and personal aspects influencing the quality of services, residence and experiencing of the whole creative process of becoming an entrepreneur. Each research chapter consists of introductory part presenting the basics about the particular place including location, establishment, affiliation to university, actual phase and focus, staff, capacity, number of organised events, its communication channels and a pivotal part evaluating 7 main client-centred factors. The evaluation of these factors was conducted by measuring all subcategories belonging to the particular main factor. Each subfactor having the same weight and share in the superordinate factor was ranked on a scale 1–5. The higher the level of meeting required criteria of the given subfactor the higher the number of evaluation. The value of the superordinate factor derives from a sum of maximum obtainable points in all subcategories belonging to the main factor which forms the best evaluation possible (creating 100 %) where actual points gained are then converted into proportional percentage to the maximum obtainable points. Superordinate factor evaluated by 1 point is given to the resultant percentage 0–20, 2 points to the percentage 21–40, 3 points equal to the percentage 41–60, 4 points to the percentage 61–80 and 5 points belong to the percentage 81 to 100. The main assessed criteria were authenticity of place, responsible behaviour and community engagement, placement and infrastructure, work supportive environment, services and facilities, financing and social interaction.

authenticity of place Genius loci: appraising the effort to keep the spirit of the place and respect to its history. New building

constructions represent increased burden on environment and is perceived less conducive than restoring and following in feel of brownfield sites. New buildings are evaluated in terms of sustainable design, complying with human needs, avoiding environmental stress. Identity: assessment of uniqueness behind created facilities, overall concept, supporting and following-up local identity, distinctiveness. Interior expression: assessing its unity, layout and material composition. Highly regarded were interiors resembling natural habitat of human as animate being, inducing pleasant feelings and relaxation of senses, preferring natural materials and surfaces to artificial and synthetic. Atmosphere: assessing extent of inspiring environment, inviting to creative work and idea making. Visual comfort: appraisal of workspaces with regard to colours, objects, presence of intrusive elements, limits and barriers, compatibility of shapes and materials, functional principles, authentic surfaces, largeness of space, height of ceilings, view from the working space, option to feel hidden with a wall or other covering in back, possibility to control doorway and other entrances etc.

responsible behaviour and community engagement Environmental policy: appraisal of influence on environment, recycling, eco, bio, regional or local products utilization. Employee care: assessment of options for free-time recreational, instrumental (activities necessary for fulfilment of other tasks such as transfer to work) and hybrid activity (choosing of more difficult activity during fulfilment of other tasks for instance usage of stairs instead of a lift) given by the place and that purposefully planned. Responsible design: appraisal of presence of green and timeless design, up-cycling, redesign, reuse and the like.

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Cultivate

Open events: assessing proportion of workshops, concerts, festivals, lectures, inspirational days etc. arranged for clients and the general public. Shared space: appraising the possibility to use or rent facilities such as cafés, conference rooms, exhibition places, shops etc. by non-clients. Community well-being: assessment of other activities beneficial for the whole community.

placement and infrastructure University campus: assessment of a placement within university campus, traffic connections, deployment of other university buildings focusing on accessibility of services such as canteens, halls of residence or libraries. Municipality: appraisal of placement within the town or city, accessibility of transport infrastructure, restaurant services, civil services, post offices etc.

work supportive environment Space variability: assessing space options for various personality types taking into consideration human nature and needs to change private and shared spaces, work individually or socialize and test ideas, possibilities for early risers and night owls, availability of secluded spaces and nooks both for individuals and different size groups. Somatic comfort: appraising activity and passivity in workspace, options to change body positions inclusive of varied sitting, dynamic sitting, and sitting on the floor, horizontal positions, stand, kneel, move, etc.; option to use exterior facilities; presence of furniture designated for relax, with head and neck support, underlayment of legs; freedom of movement in the space and possibility to extend it into exterior facilities. Acoustic comfort: assessment of acoustic comfort enabling private unheard conversations provided that it is not possible to hear through closed door, walls and ceilings, the space is then quiet but not isolated accompanied by a suitable space acoustics coordinated by combination of sound absorbing and

sound reflecting materials in the interior (soft porous materials, wood, cork, textiles vs. ceramics, stone, steel, glass). Olfactory comfort: assessment of sufficient air exchange on the basis of air-handling systems, windows and doors and their size, position and opening options, largeness of the rooms, odorous substances, antibacterial materials. Socio-cultural comfort: appraisal of opportunity to personalize and adapt the space, self-expression and identification with the space, its values represented by elements such as symbols, materials, objects in interior and overall authenticity.

services and facilities Work supportive services: assessment of services available to clients. For the purposes of the research services were listed into following groups: ∙∙ low-cost/free office space ∙∙ high-speed internet access ∙∙ help with business basics ∙∙ mentoring, consulting ∙∙ help with accounting/financial managment ∙∙ marketing assistance ∙∙ comprehensive business training programs ∙∙ help with presentation skills ∙∙ management training ∙∙ networking activities ∙∙ links to strategic partners ∙∙ access to angel investors or venture capital ∙∙ co-funding ∙∙ technology commercialization assistance (prototype creation) Facilities: assessing quantity, type, size and function of facilities available for use by clients.

financing User participation: assessment of proportion of acquired participation of clients in financing of the space usage. The lower the necessary clients’ participation the better the evaluation. Sourcing diversification: assessment of number and type of finance providers considering obligations

Methodology

and their consequent influence on running of the place.

social interaction Supported interaction: appraisal of supported interaction among clients and other users of facilities and extent of elaborated intent to support it in a form of regular meetings of clients, various formal and informal events etc. Natural interaction: appraisal of natural (unintentional) interaction among clients and other users of facilities and extent of elaborated intent to support it for instance by arrangement of space and furniture, common meeting points etc. Sociopetal settings: appraising of sociopetal or sociofugal arrangement of sitting furniture supporting communication.

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FLORIDA Richard, Charlotta Mellander, and Karen M. King. The Global Creativity Index [online]. 2015. http://martinprosperity.org/content/the-global-creativity-index-2015/ HEIDRICK & STRUGGLES . Global Talent Index [online]. 2017. http://www.globaltalentindex.com/About/about-hs.aspx KOTRADYOVÁ, Veronika. Komfort v mikroprostředí. Bratislava: Premedia, 2015, 300 s. ISBN: 9788081591617. KOSTROŇ, Lubomír. Psychologie architektury. Praha: Grada, 2011, 208 s. ISBN 978-80-247-2926-8. MELNICK, Meredith. Denmark Is Considered the Happiest Country [online]. 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/22/denmark-happiest-country_n_4070761.html

Denmark

Introduction

D Denmark 19

Denmark

A small Scandinavian country with about 5.7 million inhabitants1, highly regarded in many respects inclusive of state of the art technologies, outstanding design and leading in innovations, ranked no. 2 in The Global Talent Index2, 5th in The Global Creativity Index and at the same time the major promoter of green growth and sustainable economy.3 Having the highest taxes in the world Denmark can still take pride in the highest standard of living and remaining one of the most egalitarian nations dedicating almost one percent of their GNI to development assistance and providing support on peace-making and peacekeeping missions.

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TRADING ECONOMICS. Denmark Population [online]. 2017. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/denmark/population HEIDRICK &amp; STRUGGLES . Global Talent Index [online]. 2017. http://www.globaltalentindex.com/About/about-hs.aspx FLORIDA Richard, Charlotta Mellander, and Karen M. King. The Global Creativity Index [online]. 2015. http://martinprosperity.org/content/the-global- creativity-index- 2015/

Introduction

Denmark

welfare state Its welfare system ensures Danes social safety, free education and healthcare, economic equality and practically non-existence of criminality. Unemployment rate is held steadily low around 4 percent4 and unemployment benefits are on high levels making it easier to move to more desirable work. Despite the fact that they return almost half of their income to the economy and thus the social system Danes feel deep sense of responsibility and obligation to the society which besides other things reflects in participation of more than 40 percent of them in regular voluntary work in non-profit organisations, cultural and sport associations, etc.5

gender Apart from culture of generosity Denmark prioritizes gender equality. It regularly ranks among top 10 countries in its pursuit measured in an annual report of World Economic Forum and is very close to gender parity when for instance gender quotas for high-ranking and representative posts are needed no more.6

education Quality education is a key priority in Denmark and is provided without charge. The country has the highest expenditure on higher education (% of GDP) in the OECD7 and is considered a frontrunner in innovation of education while keeping the highest academic standards. College students living on their own are paid about 6 thousand Danish crowns for the time up to 6 six years8 as a result of which majority of students graduate without any debts and are soon motivated to be more independent of their parents. Universities encourage entrepreneurship and collaboration with business sphere. They offer students free of charge workspace, mentor them and help them with financing of their ideas. work-life balance Denmark is also leading in the work-life balance among OECD member countries. Exceptionally generous help in unemployment and its low rate also among youth, new university graduates are helped

by the government to find work in small and medium size enterprises, balanced with much more benefits offered at work take off the load of stress from employment loss and temporary incapacity for work. High degree of flexibility at work including shortest work week, adaptable start of a working day and optional working from home are some of the benefits employees can enjoy. Danes can pride on workers’ rights protection e.g. all wage earners have right to a minimum 5 weeks’ paid holiday and both parents to very generous maternity leave. In a case of unemployment workers who worked at least 52 weeks over a three-year period can qualify for 90 percent of their original salary paid in two years’ time and they are offered plentiful training programs guaranteed by the Danish government. As a result, 73 percent of Danes between 15 and 64 have a paying job.9

enviroment and health Denmark is often cited as one of the world‘s best countries to live in. The public space is organized for people and with care for their health and well-being. Danish cities are built with respect to the culture of bicycle where people walk and cycle on a regular basis. Roads barring cars are designed to accommodate both pedestrians and cyclists enabling socialinclusion across age groups, avoiding air pollution, accidents, congestion, noise and wear on infrastructure.10 Role model as a humanistic city of the future is Copenhagen where sustainable town development and environmental quality are top priorities. By 2025 plan to eliminate carbon emissions, invest in sustainable energy, use new clean technologies and plant more trees should make Copenhagen the first carbon neutral capital in the world. Some current eco-friendly activities encompass e.g. keeping the Copenhagen’s harbour water clean and suitable for swimming and ocean wildlife bloom, greenery care from vast public spaces to small gardens producing vegetables and green roofs movement nourishing, and supporting a project of beekeeping in the city.11 In the capital half of commuting happens on a bike (estimated 1.2 kilometres covered each day)12 and with the political initiative to support long

Introduction

distance commuting by building cycle highways in all directions approximately 22 kilometres from the city it will even flourish. Bicycles as means of every day transport save the country significant sums every year and at the same time improve public health and influence mind-set too. Healthy life-style is worshiped there. One third of Danish population exercises at least four times a week, and two thirds exercise at least once a week, food is consumed consciously and focus is on prevention rather than on curing the result.13

satisfaction with life Public opinion polls repeatedly show that Danes belong among the happiest people in the world. Overall satisfaction with life originates in the welfare base, work-life balance, sense of social support and overall quality of life. In Denmark people feel empowered to make life choices freely and to change their life especially if they are not contented with the current state of things. It allows them to choose the kind of life they want to live, which is not always possible in other countries and this helps add to the overall satisfaction of people living here. High voter turnout is evidence of their love of democracy and trust in ability to influence home affairs. Danes usually do not have urge to buy stately houses and big cars because they do not consider money as important and testifying for the social life 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

and status as it is in other countries and rather spend it on socialising with others. This is quite refreshing and liberating.14 The importance they assign to socializing and good relations reflects in Danish food culture, spaces and atmosphere they aim to create. Danes make an effort to gather the family around a hot meal every evening thus dinner is typically eaten at home as same as breakfast, and lunch mostly eaten elsewhere often consists of pre-packaged home-made meal.15 The measurable part of the happiness of Danish people comprises of high living standard, fine healthcare, equality of genders, accessible education and just distribution of wealth among people. They do not see the point in rash or even material pursuit of happiness but rather seek deeper stability and satisfaction. These values are sense of “hygge”, a very fascinating concept comprising a conscious experiencing of a feeling of warmth, comfort and safety. It means living out ourselves and becoming conscious of present moments, creation of these magic moments, communion with places and people that anchor us and provide consolation to us. It is a feeling of contentment and happiness. The concept is universal and not purely bounded to Scandinavian life-style. Danes, considered one of the happiest nations in the world, are just more conscious of hygge and live it out for hundreds of years.16

TRADING ECONOMICS. Denmark Unemployment Rate [online]. 2017. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/denmark/unemployment-rate ANHEIER, Helmut K. Nonprofit organizations: theory, management, policy. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2014. ISBN 978-0-415-55047-5. MELNICK, Meredith. Denmark Is Considered the Happiest Country [online]. 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/22/denmark-happiest-country_n_4070761.html STUDY IN DENMARK. An Innovation Leader [online]. 2017. http://studyindenmark.dk/why-denmark/excellence-in-education-1/creativity-and-innovation-run-deep NOACK, Rick. Why Danish Students are Paid to Go to College [online]. 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/ wp/2015/02/04/why-danish-students-are-paid-to-go-to-college/?utm_term=.fa67787e33cb OECD BETTER LIFE INDEX. Denmark [online]. 2017. http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/denmark/ MELNICK, Meredith. Denmark Is Considered the Happiest Country [online]. 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/22/denmark-happiest-country_n_4070761.html DENMARK. Copenhagen: The First Carbon Neutral Capital in the World Country [online]. 2017. http://denmark.dk/en/green-living/copenhagen MELNICK, Meredith. Denmark Is Considered the Happiest Country [online]. 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/22/denmark BERNSEN, Markus. From Viking Drinking to Stone Age Food [online]. 2012. http://denmark.dk/en/lifestyle/food-drink/from-viking-drinking-to-stone-age-food/ DENMARK. Happiest in the World [online]. 2017. http://denmark.dk/en/meet-the-danes/work-life-balance-the-danish-way/happy-danes DENMARK. Danish Food Culture [online]. 2017. http://denmark.dk/en/lifestyle/food-drink/danish-food-culture BRITS, Louisa Thomsen. Hygge: The Danish Art of Living Well. London: Ebury Press, 2016. ISBN 978-1785034466.

Denmark

Start-up scene in Denmark Denmark is one of the best countries in the world to launch a start-up. The country’s environment supports business activities; it adheres to strong property rights, contract enforcement, low free trade barriers, and overall ease of doing business.1 From the early beginning would-be entrepreneurs are supported by a vast network of public and private institutions including incubators, accelerators, research centres, investment funds including public funding schemes, business angels, and local and international venture capital investors.2

The whole start-up ecosystem is fostered by organisations such as Danish Startup Council, “Copenhagen, For the Win” or Scale-up training initiative and events like Silicon Drinkabout or Silicon Vikings. Danish Startup Council for example endeavours to international recognition and visibility of Denmark on the global entrepreneurial scene via projects such as Look North which introduces Denmark’s prime start-up talents or the Look North Meetings, where foreign venture capital funds meet investment-ready Danish start-ups. 3 Whereas “Copenhagen, For the Win” also known by hashtag #CPHFTW is a non-profit organisation with the goal to promote and nourish Denmark’s start-up community. Financially independent of government it is funded entirely by start-ups themselves.4 Newly set-up start-ups can join for free and can benefit from the community contacts, events and knowledge base.5 The start-up community is close knitted thanks to efforts of companies such as 3beards which arranges travelling event called Silicon Drinkabout for all kinds of start-ups in order to mediate their meeting with like-minded people in informal environment and in relaxed atmosphere.6 Probably the most advanced start-up scene in the country is in its capital. In a couple of last years a strong start-up community developed there together with spaces designed for their needs. Co-working and office spaces in the area are offered by Rocket Labs for online businesses, Founders House, Scion DTU, DTU Skylab and Rainmaking Loft

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BADENHAUSEN, Kurt. The Best Countries for Business 2016 [online]. 2017. https://www.forbes.com/best-countries-for-business/list/ START-UP DENMARK. Live and Launch Your Start-up in Denmark [online]. 2017. http://www.startupdenmark.info/ DANISH STARTUP COUNCIL. Mission [online]. 2017. http://www.danishstartupcouncil.com/ CPHFTW. “Copenhagen, For The Win” [online]. 2017. http://cphftw.dk/ KEANE, Jonathan. How ‘Copenhagen For The Win’ is Fostering the City’s Startup Scene for the Future [online]. 2016. http://tech.eu/features/11386/copenhagen-for-the-win-cphftw/ 3BEARDS. Silicon Drinkabout[online]. 2017. https://3-beards.com/silicondrinkabout

Start-up scene in Denmark

Denmark

Start-up scene in Denmark

for tech entrepreneurs, Cobis for bio-sciences oriented projects, Spillhuset for game-developers, PB43, Labitat and Prototype for hackers, Republikken, The Rabbit Hole, Skrå, G8 Office, SOHO,KPH, Growbizz, La Oficina, Symbion and Liftoff, Noho, Dare2mansion for all creative innovators. For the purposes of tech start-ups there is also the largest start-up hub named Startup Village. Entrepreneurs in the city can also take part in co-living with other entrepreneurs and innovators in Nest Copenhagen. Available incubators and accelerators in the city are Go Grow, Accelerace, Thinkubator, CSE, StartupBootcamp Mobile.7, 8 Regular events for entrepreneurially minded people are Copenhagen Startup Weekends, Copenhagen Startup Grind or the biggest entrepreneurial meetup Town Hall meeting. The main events are Danish Conference presenting current development in the field of start-ups, Competition for creative products and services, Global Entrepreneurship Week celebrated in all major cities, Business Connect and Annual Vækstfonden meeting attracting start-up representatives, investors and other in business involved people, annual exhibition Iværk & Vækst, competition for social entrepreneurs Startup Borgen and awarding events Danish Entrepreneurship Award, Nordic Startup Awards and Entrepreneur of the Year.9

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THE GUARDIAN. Cool Copenhagen Heats up its Startup Scene [online]. 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2016/mar/10/cool-copenhagen-startup-community CPHFTW. Workspaces [online]. 2017. http://cphftw.dk/spaces/ Jensen, Monika Luniewska. Cycle Your Way Into Copenhagen’s Startup Network [online]. 2015. http://magazine.startus.cc/cycle-your-way-into-startup-network-of-copenhagen/

Denmark

Copenhagen 1

Accelerace – accelerator

CSE – incubator

Dare2mansion – co-working

Thinkubator – incubator, accelerator

Founders House – co-working

G8 Office – co-working

Growbizz – co-working

KPH Projects – co-working

La Oficina – co-working

Liftoff – co-working

Nest Copenhagen – co-living

Noho – co-working

PB43 – co-working

Rainmaking Loft – co-working, incubator, accelerator

Republikken – co-working

Rocket Labs – co-working

Skrå – co-working

SOHO – co-working

Spillhuset – co-working

StartupBootcamp Mobile – accelerator

The Rabbit Hole – co-working

Cobis – bio-science hub

Symbion – co-working

Startup Village – tech hub

Go Grow – accelerator

Introduction

1 23

4 16

The Little Mermaid

Nyhavn

2 25

6 14

Christiansborg

21 12

Tivoli Gardens

National Aquarium Denmark

7 29

Denmark

Aarhus

The second largest city of Denmark is situated on the eastern coast of the Jutland peninsula. Although being overlooked and overshadowed by Copenhagen for a long time the city is on the rise. It is well-known for its world-class food, its support of arts and local culture, conscientious approach to the environment treatment and city development. Thanks to these efforts Aarhus was even nominated and later became Capital of Culture 2017.1 1

HETTER, Katia and Karla Cripps, Peter Shadbolt, Barry Neild and Marnie Hunter. 17 best places to visit in 2017 [online]. 2017. http://edition. cnn.com/2017/01/06/travel/best-places- to-visit- in-2017/index.html

Aarhus

Denmark

Aarhus is set in the region of Central Denmark which is renowned for its gastronomy. Three of the city’s restaurants, Frederikshøj, Substans and Gastromé, were awarded Michelin stars.2 The restaurants take pride in shaping their menus through local sourcing accessible for instance in Aarhus Central Food Market full of specialist shops, delicatessen and breweries. Favoured market with local production is also Aarhus Street Food which illustrates the responsible approach to the city regeneration too; it is a former car park where instead of new stall constructions shipping containers were reused. 3 As part of initiative of the city’s renewal its industrial harbour was transformed into an enjoyable public space with venues such as Dokk1 utilized as public library 4 or dramatic Iceberg, housing on the place of out-of-use container terminal, harmonizing appearance and functionality.5 Despite its industrial past Aarhus has never lost touch with its surrounding nature. New city’s architectural expression is accented by building of new Moesgaard Museum for archaeology and ethnography placed on a hill surrounded by a forest and sea, combining modern concrete materials with traditional grass roof, and world famous ARoS museum of art with a circular panoramic walkway in colours of a rainbow.6 Half-timbered houses in the Latin Quarter or Mollestien street with charming pastel-coloured facades are often visited reminders of the past which is livened up by recreation of local life in Den Gamle By (The Old Town) throughout interactive real-time living history presentations.7 Locals seem to be proud and attached to the past but at the same time enthuse about future. Most points of Aarhus are accessible on foot or by bike which is the most common means of transport here. Bikes can be rented in Cycling Aarhus which also offers bike tours with a guide to perceive and experience the city as locals do.8

entrepreneurial scene The whole city invites to creative work. As same as a strong art scene Aarhus has developed a remarkable entrepreneurial environment with places like Godsbanen, a former freight-rail station converted into a cultural centre, housing artists’ studios,

hosting various workshops and cultural events9, old meatpacking district, home of Kaospilots offering entrepreneurial education and co-working projects, film and media production centre Filmby, sound studios, artists and entrepreneurs; creative workplaces like LYNfabrikken and Culture Workspace; and Kulbroen initiative which reconstructs and renovates an old coal bridge to create recreational, green urban space where social, cultural and creative activities can take place.10, 11, 12 Young entrepreneurs are bred every year in Aarhus University, Top 100 University in the world, the School of Architecture, birthplace for many of Denmark’s well known architects, Kaospilots, the International School of Journalism and others.13

living in downtown Aarhus Interview with 29 years old Line from official Denmark site says a lot about living in Aarhus but what is more it also captures an essence of Danish personality. Asked what she loved about her home Line replied that her apartment is a mix of an old building, but with modern appliances and that she is a sucker for a bit of history. Also, she has a balcony on the south side of the building, which she very much enjoys on sunny days. She described it as an extra room during spring, summer and on the good days in autumn. In her opinion Danes love the outdoors, so having this option is amazing for her. She can spend entire days out there either relaxing, eating, having friends over for drinks or even working. Her work allows her the flexibility to move the office outside whenever the weather permits it. She has chosen Aarhus because she loves the area. She is close to the city and yet still close to nature. She has the local parks, beaches and the city life at hand. There is also a big farmers market twice a week just outside her front door. She loves design and especially interior design, so she enjoys every chance to move things around or do some DIY’ing. She has an ability to make her home cosy (hyggelige) so others feel there at home too. In free time she reads magazines on interior design and DIY and her regular pastime is running or going to the gym.

Aarhus

Her dream home would be an old house which she could completely renovate, but she would make sure she kept some of its “soul” but at the same time bringing it up to 21st century standards. If she won a million she would probably stay in her apartment, and do some small renovations. Then she would go and buy herself a Charles Eames lounge chair. That is her all-time favourite and a million in winnings or not, she will own that chair one day. In her own words it is the perfect combination of design and usability – you can actually sit and relax in the chair! In her opinion too often designers care more about design than comfort. 14

2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

EILERS, Richard. Aarhus, Denmark: a northern star [online]. 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/apr/05/aarhus-denmark-city-of-culture-2017 PEACOCK, Chris. Rainbow walkways and streetfood in shipping containers: Forget Copenhagen, Aarhus is Denmark‘s new capital of cool [online]. 2016. http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/48-hours-in/aarhus-city-break-hotels-where-to-stay-eat-drink-bars-restaurants-attractions-european-capital-of-a7484336.html DOKK1. Library [online]. 2017. https://dokk1.dk/english/library JDS. Tad/Iceberg [online]. 2017. http://jdsa.eu/tad/ MOESGARD MUSEUM. Culture, Nature, Architecture [online]. 2017. http://www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en/about-moesgaard-museum/culture-nature-architecture/ DEN GAMBLE BY. About Den Gamble By [online]. 2017. http://www.dengamleby.dk/engelsk/the-old-town/about/ CYCLING AARHUS. Experience Amazing Aarhus By Bicycle [online]. 2017. http://www.cycling-aarhus.dk/ GODSBANEN. About Godsbanen [online]. 2017. godsbanen.dk KAOSPILOT. Kaospilot in brief [online]. 2017. www.kaospilot.dk/ FILMBYARHUS. Om os [online]. 2017. filmbyaarhus.dk/ KULBROEN. Friends of the coal bridge [online]. 2017. http://www.kulbroen.com CREATIVITY WORLD FORUM 2017.Entrepreneurship [online]. 2017. http://cwf2017.com/whyaarhus/ DENMARK.DK. Home sweet home [online]. 2012. http://denmark.dk/en/meet-the- danes/how-do-danes- live/line

Denmark

Aarhus 1

Godsbanen – cultural centre

Kaospilots – entrepreneurial education and co-working projects

Filmby – film and media production centre

LYNfabrikken – creative workspace

Culture Workspace – creative workspace

Kulbroen – renewal initiative

Designer Zoo

Nr4 – selling items by Danish and Icelandic designers

Aarhus

Den Gamle By

Mollestien street

5 7

4 1 ARoS Aarhus Museum

2 8

Central Food Market

3 6

Denmark

LYNfabrikken

Aarhus

Jeppe Vedel

A real mind and soul of the place. A person who realized his vision of a very special and charming work space. Taking care of tenants and fostering the whole community building around the place he embodies an archetype of an obliging caregiver and a true creator at the same time.

Motto: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Inspire and be inspired.â&#x20AC;?

Founder of LYNfabrikken

Denmark

A former factory building located in the heart of Aarhus harbours a perfect place for work. Initially the founder of the place Jeppe Vedel intended to create a suitable workplace for himself but it was just a matter of time when he reconsidered the intention and materialized his vision of a place for like-minded people and in 2002 founded LYNfabrikken. Ever since it has been a sanctuary of people from various creative fields finding their second home there. The whole space is run by the founder and his partner. They see their role mainly in connecting the people, supporting them in their work and developing their potential. They often nurture their innovative ideas even the most daring and help them to become true. They link people into different projects and types of cooperation. They see the point in establishing international partnerships, sharing knowledge and making common efforts in designing. Their key role is bringing inspiration and inviting inspiring people. The residents can opt for either separate offices or working places in partially open space, and have meeting rooms, photo studio, exhibition place, café and roof terrace at their disposal. Each resident is chosen carefully by the founder via personal interview. Type of personality, inner motivation, ability to fit into collective and possibility to enrich it are taken into account. The common observed denominator of the selected residents is gumption - courage, wit and inventiveness. The focus and current projects of the applicants are not considered so important because they will be encouraged to collaborate on various projects and they will evolve and find their own path. LYNfabrikken shelters maximum 40 businesses and the capacity is several times exceeded by the applicants. The running of the place is already proven by years of operation and its system is well set but it has been enhanced all the time in order to cater for the needs of the residents.

Aarhus

Denmark

LYNfabrikken Location: Aarhus, Central Denmark Region

Webpage: www.lynfabrikken.dk

Phase: Fixed functional system

Focus: Alumni

Founded:

2002

Number of employees:

Capacity:

Events/year:

20 40

Affiliation to university: No

LYNfabrikken

provided services

Low-cost/free office space High-speed internet access Help with business basics Mentoring, consulting Help with accounting/financial management Marketing assistance Comprehensive business training programs Help with presentation skills Management training Networking activities Links to strategic partners Access to angel investors or venture capital Co-funding Technology commercialization assistance (prototype creation)

c o m m u n i c at i o n c h a n n e l s

potential clients

actual clients

Personal communication

Email, newsletter

Social media

Printed media

Radio / TV

Events

Ambient media (OOH)

Web pages

Events

Other

Guerilla marketing Other

Denmark

authenticit y of pl ace

Genius loci Identity Interior expression Atmosphere Visual comfort

pl acement and infr astructure

University campus Municipality

r e s p o n s i b l e b e h av i o u r a n d c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e m e n t

Environmental policy Employee care Responsible design Open events Shared space Community well-being

social inter action

Supported interaction Natural interaction Sociopetal settings

LYNfabrikken

work supportive environment

Space variability Somatic comfort Acoustic comfort Olfactory comfort Socio-cultural comfort

s e r v i c e s a n d fa c i l i t i e s

Work supportive services Facilities

financing

User participation Sourcing diversification Autonomy

Denmark

Research LYNfabrikken Present-day utilization of the building acknowledges the previous function, style and overall history of the place. It illustrates the transition from dated factory production to more intellectual and creative work but still resembling the old times. The building imparts its spirit to the new purpose of the place mediating an authentic impression from its visit. The original look of the building was preserved and even elevated by industrial facilities. Simple and minimalist expression in decorations and colours and rough industrial look supported by typical materials such as concrete, metal, glass and tiling is kept throughout the place. In the space they smartly made use of high ceilings for photo studio and shared space in café prolonged up to the rooftop by stairs. The industrial spaces may make an impersonal impression but in the case of LYNfabrikken it is moderated by wood in a form of solid wooden beams and walls lined with logs. The rough appearance of typical industrial design elements of uncovered power lines and electric bulbs is assuaged by low chromaticity and low luminance of lighting issuing warm and pleasant light. Along with lowered ceilings it is making it homely and intimate in the partially open space in shared office area. Furnishing was carried out responsively with the marks of re-use and up-cycling and stayed cohesive with the industrial style. Although the main pieces of furniture are already given there is still space for own personalization of the working place. The added value for the residents is café providing for their refreshment and at the same time being a means of natural interaction. The café is open for public and it serves well during the whole day offering day meals utilizing local and bio products and preparing home-made specialities. The café is a pulsating heart of the place and it has an essential role for networking and bringing people together. Being open for anyone means that you never know whom you will meet there and innumerable opportunities are therefore created. Residents do not stay

separated with their projects and within arm’s reach they can confront the outside world, test their ideas, get feedback or ask for advice. They are used to work in community and incited to embrace new visitors and fresh air they are bringing with them. Lots of things are going on there so great importance was attached to designing of its facilities. Variable furniture enabling different styles of sitting and use for various types of occasions and events is the basic element. It was also worked with proximity during sitting and audibility for moderate voice. Well thought-out are details such as underlining music or special table designated for those who want to invite other people to join them. It is often used by residents who want to discuss their ideas, validate their plans or just have a chat. Transition from interior to the exterior terrace through greenhouse is spectacular. The rooftop terrace is another meeting point and a positive factor for the in-house community building. It is a place for both formal and informal meetings and events for instance morning yoga exercises again opened for everyone interested. The café is also an appreciable income source as same as workshops, inspirational talks and events organized by LYNfabrikken. Other finance comes from renting, the major part from the offices and minor from other facilities. Office residents have 24/7 free access to all facilities and get 50% discount in café. Those who prefer own food have the use of small kitchen and common room to savour it and have a rest. The office residents can benefit from the strategic location in the centre of the town. All what the town offers is in a walking distance which makes LYNfabrikken also more visible and visited by locals. The place is not advertised and all the energy is put into the people and the facilities. Personal communication is valued the most and helping hand is what you can expect from the people there.

LYNfabrikken

Denmark

Odense The third largest city of Danish Kingdom lies in the heart of Funen Island and is a part of the Region of Southern Denmark. The city is named after the Norse god of war and wisdom, Odin, a fitting patron for this cultural and historical hotspot.1 The territory is full of manor houses and castles such as the stunning Egeskov Castle and everpresent restored historical buildings including the Town Hall and a prominent landmark St. Canute’s Cathedral. Being a hometown of one of the most famous Danes Hans Christian Andersen many city parts are dedicated to his legacy inclusive of Hans Christian Andersen Museum situated in the house that was his birthplace, his childhood home on Munkemøllestræde or Tinderbox, a cultural centre for children, where Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales are brought to life through play, storytelling, theatre and art.2 1 2

VISITDENMARK. Odense [online]. 2017. http://www.visitdenmark.com/funen/art/odense ODENSE CITY MUSEUMS. The Tinderbox [online]. 2017. http://museum.odense.dk/en/ museums/the-tinderbox

Odense

Denmark

Great variety of museums of national importance including Funen’s Art Museum, one of Denmark’s oldest art museums, Media Museum with interactive exhibitions and The Brandts Museum of Photographic Art dedicated specifically to photographic art, can be found in the city. 3 There is also a remarkable open-air museum Funen Village representing continuous exposition of the rural Denmark of the past encompassing guides in costumes, demonstrations of artisan skills, crafts, and cookery, and various old breeds of farm animals.4 As a cultural centre many national events such as Odense International Film Festival, Odense Food Festival, Odense Harbour Culture Festival or Tinderbox Music Festival take place there on regular basis as same as events with local reach like regular farmer’s market with products from the local production, flea market in the historic quarter, children’s toy market or Medieval Days. Also many events reminding H. C. Andersen and his work enrich the cultural programme of the city, Hans Christian Andersen Christmas Market, Hans Christian Andersen Parade, Hans Christian Andersen Festival Plays or even Hans Christian Andersen Marathon.5 The city is a home of Odense Theatre and Odense Symphony Orchestra. It is also a centre for media activity. Headquarters of daily newspaper Fyens Stiftstidende, Centre for Journalism, University Press of Southern Denmark and a major commercial television channel TV 2 is based there. The central position of the city contributed to its role of the most important industrial and commercial hub of Funen. Therefore it is also one of the national convention and congress centres. In recent years a general transformation from manufacturing into the service sector has taken place there. Major local enterprises include Albani brewery belonging to

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

group of Danish regional breweries and GASA, a large horticultural centre, supplying fruit, vegetables, flowers and plants to most of the country as well as for export. Odense is full of shopping opportunities, cafés and restaurants. The city offers a wide choice across educational levels spectre seating University of Southern Denmark, University College Lillebaelt, Funen Art Academy, Odense School of Music, eight grammar schools, 21 state grade schools as well as a number of private schools. Odense presents itself as a city of cyclists and tries to be maximally forthcoming to them by an open network of interconnected cycle paths, sufficient amount of bike stands and places where to inflate tubes. Currently it is more focused on overall well-being of all inhabitants, making the cultural life more varied, cultivating green recreational areas and supporting local production.

entrepreneurial scene In 2015 Odense was repeatedly awarded “Entrepreneurial Municipality of the Year” of Denmark. It has achieved the most outstanding results within entrepreneurship through a systematic and innovative work with the local entrepreneurial culture. It is the area in Denmark where most people consider starting up their own business and the region has the top survival rate for new companies.6 The supportive facilities for entrepreneurs in the area are student incubator BOXEN offering office space and counselling, Coworking Plus and Det Gamle Posthus (The Old Post Office) with both open space and private offices7, entrepreneurial community Dronningegården providing rented space8, online media focused community EPI Center Denmark 9, a science park Forskerparken

→

ODENSE CITY MUSEUMS. Museums [online]. 2017. http://museum.odense.dk/en/museums ODENSE CITY MUSEUMS. Funen Village [online]. 2017. http://museum.odense.dk/en/museums/funen-village VISITODENSE. What’s on [online]. 2017. http://www.visitodense.com/ln-int/search/whatson?ankr-q=%2A&ankr-region=Funen&ankr-city=Odense&ankr-channels=517 STARTUP ODENSE. About Startup Odense [online]. 2017. http://startupodense.com/ COWORKING PLUS. Velkommen til coworking [online]. 2017. www.coworkingplus.dk DRONNINGEGÅRDEN. Velkommen til Dronningegården [online]. 2017. www.dronningegaarden.dk EPI-CENTER DANMARK. Velkommen til Epi-Center Danmark [online]. 2017. www.epi-center.dk

Odense

Denmark

Odense

center for robotics and technology, home to a great number of Danish and international companies, institutes, clusters and centres renting offices10, Mediehuset Cigarfabrikken where entrepreneurs from the fields of photography, communication, graphics, PR, advertising, design and marketing share their second home11, entrepreneurial Munk House for about 20 small-scale companies12, SDU Cortex Lab where students, companies and researchers work together13, entrepreneurial centre Stjerneskibet giving free guidance, organising number of events, courses, and entrepreneurial gatherings as same as renting offices or desk spaces14, Studentervæksthus UCL helping entrepreneurially-minded students of University College Lillebaelt15. Odense Robotics StartUp Hub incubating limited number of start-ups highly specialised in robotics16, incubator Videnbyen17, Voxeværket one of many entrepreneurial buidings, part of the largest office community in Denmark18 and UAS Business Park for drone-related projects19.

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

FORSKERPARKEN. Odense: Forskerparken [online]. 2017. www.syddanskeforskerparker.dk MEDIEHUSET CIGARFABRIKKEN. Om Cigarfabrikken [online]. 2017. www.cigarfabrikken.com MUNK HOUSE. Hjem [online]. 2017. www.munkhouse.dk SDU. SDU Cortex Lab [online]. 2017. www.cortexlab.dk ODENSE KOMMUNE. Starting a business in Odense [online]. 2017. www.odense.dk/startup UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LILLEBÆLT. Entrepreneurship and innovation [online]. 2017. www.ucl.dk/studentervaeksthus ODENSE ROBOTICS. StartUp Hub [online]. 2017. www.odenserobotics.dk FORSKERPARKEN. Odense: Videnbyen [online]. 2017. www.syddanskeforskerparker.dk VOXEVAERKET. Odense [online]. 2017. www.voxevaerket.dk UAST TEST CENTER DENMARK. UAS Denmark [online]. 2017. www.uastestcenter.dk

Denmark

Odense 1

Coworking Plus – co-working

Det Gamle Posthus – co-working

Dronningegården – rented space in entrepreneurial community

EPI Center Denmark – rented space in online media focused community

Forskerparken – science park

Mediehuset Cigarfabrikken – creative community

Munk House – rented space in entrepreneurial community

SDU Cortex Lab – incubator

Stjerneskibet – entrepreneurial centre with rented space

Studentervæksthus UCL – student incubator

Odense Robotics StartUp Hub – incubator

Videnbyen – incubator

Odense

5 2

H. C. Anderson Museum

Møntergården

St. Canute’s Cathedral Munke Mose Park

6 12 The Funen Village

8 53

Denmark

SDU Cortex Lab

Odense

Rasmus Uhre

A goal-driven leading personality aptly representing the values of the place. In his work he is committed to the creation of a win-win situation for students and businesses. With the whole team they are devoted to keeping the quick pace and right course, and ensuring the constant development.

Motto: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Together we create the businesses of tomorrow.â&#x20AC;?

Business Developer at SDU Cortex Lab

Denmark

Young entrepreneurial centre founded under the University of Southern Denmark in 2015 is a student incubator with overlapping into pre-incubation sphere. The centre is very progressive. The span of its activities are growing rapidly but still following the clear vision. The incubator shares its building with various companies adding the value for both the students and companies. It is run by 6 employees and several interns from the ranks of students. Full-time employees encompassing business developer, networking chief, project specialist and coordinator take care about daily running, establishing and strengthening strategic relations and last but not least mentoring on student-generated businesses. Other activities necessary for the development of the centre are provided by communication and innovation specialists who work for the centre on part-time basis. Making the best from the space sharing, communication and networking activities Cortex Lab has during its short existence generated a wide network of external partners such as entrepreneurs, business leaders, advisers and investors available at the disposal of incubated students. Other benefits are facilities covering except office spaces and meeting rooms also prototyping areas with equipment such as laser cutters, 3D-printers, large-format printers, soldering stations, sewing machines or computers for application programming. The development of the whole place goes hand in hand with further and advanced machine equipping and providing workshops for their handling. The full capacity is 15 office spaces for maximum 45 students. The students are accepted already in idea-phase when they are given a shared room for work and maximum guidance. Projects which continue into incubation are chosen according to the biggest expected impact and number of following work positions offered, nevertheless, the feeling from the people, their inner motivation and enthusiasm are given significant weight too. After the selection the incubated students get 24/7 access to the building including office space, meeting rooms, prototyping area, coffee bar and relaxing space on the terrace and sport centre, everything for free. The main focus once

the students are in the incubation process is on their constant progress which is monitored and achieved thanks to the business developers who set regular development meetings and make sure that the teams are reaching their goals. The incubation process is considered finished when the companies are profitable, make stable growth and have sufficient portfolio of clients. These are signals that the company has to move out.

Ă&#x2014;

Odense

Denmark

SDU Cortex Lab Location: Odense, Region of Southern Denmark

Webpage: www.sdu.dk/en/cortexlab

Phase: System establishment

Focus: Incubation

Founded:

2015

Number of employees:

Capacity:

Events/year:

48 58

Affiliation to university: Yes

SDU Cortex Lab

provided services

Low-cost/free office space High-speed internet access Help with business basics Mentoring, consulting Help with accounting/financial management

redirect

Marketing assistance

redirect

Comprehensive business training programs Help with presentation skills Management training Networking activities Links to strategic partners Access to angel investors or venture capital Co-funding Technology commercialization assistance (prototype creation)

c o m m u n i c at i o n c h a n n e l s

potential clients

actual clients

Personal communication

Email, newsletter

Social media

Printed media

Radio / TV

Events

Ambient media (OOH)

Web pages

Events

Other

Guerilla marketing Other

Denmark

authenticit y of pl ace

Genius loci Identity Interior expression Atmosphere Visual comfort

pl acement and infr astructure

University campus Municipality

r e s p o n s i b l e b e h av i o u r a n d c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e m e n t

Environmental policy Employee care Responsible design Open events Shared space Community well-being

social inter action

Supported interaction Natural interaction Sociopetal settings

SDU Cortex Lab

work supportive environment

Space variability Somatic comfort Acoustic comfort Olfactory comfort Socio-cultural comfort

s e r v i c e s a n d fa c i l i t i e s

Work supportive services Facilities

financing

User participation Sourcing diversification Autonomy

Denmark

Research SDU Cortex Lab For the purposes of the student incubator a brand new building was designed and built. The concept of the building is a reversed structure of a town, having inner street in its core and office spaces on the perimeter of the building looking into the central street via balconies. Different floors are interconnected by suspended stairs creating a bridging between to-be entrepreneurs and businesses. This symbolises the intention to connect beginning entrepreneurs with those who were successful and already run their own businesses and the effort to support their close cooperation. This interconnection can be perceived as the main added value of the place. As same as in the city space the building streets or more precisely corridors are full of nooks and vacant working spaces resembling street benches which entice to both solitary and team work or rest. To SDU students the environment of Cortex Lab is familiar because its facilities are intentionally open for different classes and university events. The services and overall offer of Cortex Lab is presented at lectures and various SDU events therefore it is well-known among the students. Trustworthiness and attractiveness of the place is heightened by presenters who usually clearly state the benefits and are mostly representatives of the successfully incubated businesses. The already incubated students often appreciate the scale of support, whatever their needs in connection to their entrepreneurial activity were Cortex Lab team was prepared to meet them. In case that the team cannot help them, the wide portfolio of partners enables them to redirect the students to competent people and facilities which will be of help to them. Among other benefits they put consistent guidance and constructive feedback, the facilities with prototyping area and organised networking events. The communication strategy of Cortex Lab lead by a communication specialist is primarily based on personal contact and personal approach to students

maximizing use of the connection to the university. Except the lectures SDU Cortex Lab hosts and co-organizes various events including those of students union, community breakfasts, study fairs and larger events with further reach such as Odense Startup Weekend. As a networking and development tool for the students they hold An Innovation elective course during which students solve real problems of real companies, boosting their CVs and preparing for future jobs and at the same time they again get to know the place and its services for students. The incubated students started to be surveyed on regular basis in order to give the managing team feedback on the centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s running and suggestions for improvements. This should be another tool for improvement of services, flexibility and constant growth in the direction of best services provision.

Ă&#x2014;

SDU Cortex Lab

Sweden

Introduction

S Sweden 65

Sweden

In the Kingdom of Sweden – or Sverige, as the locals say – there live roughly 10 million people.1 More than 85 % of them inhabit larger cities, as a natural result of historical development of the country. Originally fishermen, nowadays Swedes lead the world‘s innovation statistics and young talented people are moving to Stockholm to join the golden path of start-ups and innovative businesses, becoming the future – right now.2

1 2

Introduction

Sweden

family life, healthcare & welfare Among other factors determining the country’s perfect conditions for living and business stands the overall welfare of its residents. Although the income taxes are relatively high (around 50 %) Swedes do not complain because the just financial system of the country secures that the money gets back to the taxpayers in various forms. The tax profits are divided between the municipality, county and central government, meaning that living in a particular place the resident directly contributes to its welfare – thus to his own. 3 Healthcare is provided for free for anyone under the age of 20. After that, so called ‘high-cost protection’ determines the maximum amount (which is about 5 % of an average salary in Sweden) expended on healthcare of any kind in one year per person. The exceeding amounts, if needed, are paid by the system. Sick leave for anyone employed is 80 % of salary (except for the first day off).4 As well as in many other things in Sweden, even the parental leave, a great emphasis is put on gender equality. There are 480 days of paid parental leave, during which an equal amount of days is reserved both for the mother and father without a possibility to transfer it to the other parent. Also, Swedes can shorten their working hours (wage is proportionately reduced too) by 25 % until their child reaches the age of 8 to be able to spend enough time with it. Childcare fees are relative to parents’ income and as a bonus, there is ‘an allowance’ for every child until it reaches the age of 16, paid by the state, tax-free.4, 5 As for the education, it is also for free, including the university education.4 Not having to worry about the costs of healthcare, childcare or education, living can apparently be much easier.

swedish personality & everyday life If a simple word would have been used to describe Swedes, it would probably be ‘balance’. More precisely, there is a Swedish word ‘lagom’ that literally translates as ‘moderate’ and Swedes use it a lot. For them, almost everything is – or should be – lagom. They naturally adhere to a distinctive work-life balance

as they are thorough hard workers when it is time to work, but also great lovers of their time off. There is a commentary that sums it up pretty well: ‘Fair’s fair – when they’re at work they’re very effective. But not before 8:30 as they make use of their flexitime, and not after 16:00, thank you, as they have to pick up the kids from pre-school, and not after 14:00 on Fridays, if you don’t mind.‘ 6 A traditional ritual that dictates the pace of the life occurs twice (or more) a day. It is called ‘fika’ and it means nothing more or less than a break from everything, just coffee and optionally something sweet (or savoury).1 When it is time for fika, Swedes do not say that they do not have time for it or they cannot fika, they simply do it.6 Together with the other things, this concept only contributes to the overall Swedish perspective on the worth of one’s life. To complete this topic, Swedes have strong sense of equality and fairness which reflects in all of the aspects of life. Gender equality, openness in terms of homosexual relations, freedom of the press (to be the first country to adopt it in 1766), are just a few examples.1

economy By continuous pursue of inventive reforms, introduction of the ceiling for government expenses, investments in healthcare, education and research and other similar steps, the Swedish economy has happened to be among those with the lowest levels of national debt in EU. The debt does not accumulate nor it is passed on the future generations, and together with low and stable inflation and healthy banking system it also makes Swedish economy highly enviable. According to the World Bank, Sweden is with its strong export orientation the sixth easiest country in the world to trade with.7 While Stockholm stays the centre of Swedish economic activity, the wealth is distributed across the regions the most evenly within the whole EU; each of the Swedish regions has a higher GDP per capita than the EU average.7

Introduction

business Closely linked to their perspective of private lives, Swedes behave very similarly during their work time. Already mentioned work-life balance, fika, equality and lagom are the foundation stones of Swedish business culture.6 They make use of a lot of short but intensive meetings which are accompanied with a lot of thinking, opinions and compromises, there is a process for everything and everybody is involved in every decision. Informal atmosphere following from the flat hierarchy makes the working environment quite perfect for innovative and entrepreneurial thinking.6 The majority of Swedes belong to one of several labour unions that ensure excellent working conditions, equality and job safety in most of the companies and institutions.8 Recently swedish companies have also introduced a six-hour work day in order to increase the productivity and to make people happier. Apparently, it might be the right way to do things: ‘Toyota centres in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city, made the switch 13 years ago, with the company reporting happier staff, a lower turnover rate, and an increase in profits in that time.‘ 9 Results of a year-long study focused on nurses at a retirement home who have worked six-hour days on an eight-hour salary show the same – the productivity, the happiness and the

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

health and energy of the nurses have increased while the sick time and time off has decreased.10 Scandinavian countries, led by Sweden, thoroughly embrace the concept of problem-solving investments instead of money-making investments, as stated by Marta Sjögren, an investor at Northzone, one of Spotify‘s (one of Swedish start-up unicorns) biggest stakeholders. Thinking like ‘game changers and game winners’ lies deep in the Swedish mentality.11

environment, sustainability & CSR In terms of business, entrepreneurship and affiliated responsibility, the environment and sustainability are very important for Swedes. Only 1 % of all waste in Sweden ends up in a landfill, the rest is recycled or used to produce energy.1 Speaking of energy, 52 % of it comes from renewable sources (83 % of electricity production comes from nuclear and hydroelectric plants).12 An example of sustainability converted into the company’s biggest concern is IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer. It has created a sustainability strategy focusing on energy saving, investments in renewable energy and customer support focused on sustainable choice of products.12

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Quick facts about Sweden. Study in Sweden [online]. https://studyinsweden.se/why-sweden/quick-facts-about-sweden/ History of Sweden. The official site of Sweden [online]. https://sweden.se/society/history-of-sweden/ Sweden Personal Income Tax Rate. TRADING ECONOMICS [online]. https://tradingeconomics.com/sweden/personal-income-tax-rate 10 things that make Sweden family-friendly. The official site of Sweden [online]. https://sweden.se/society/10-things-that-make-sweden-family-friendly/ 5 reasons to work in Sweden. The official site of Sweden [online]. https://sweden.se/society/5-reasons-to-work-in-sweden/ Business in Sweden – an expat’s view. The official site of Sweden [online]. https://sweden.se/business/business-in-sweden-an-expats-view/ How Sweden created a model economy. The official site of Sweden [online]. https://sweden.se/business/how-sweden-created-a-model-economy/ Taking care of business in Sweden. The official site of Sweden [online]. https://sweden.se/business/taking-care-of-business-in-sweden/ MATHARU, Hardeep. Employers in Sweden introduce six-hour work day. The Independent [online]. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-introduces-six-hour-work-day-a6674646.html GREENFIELD, Rebecca. The six-hour work day increases productivity. So will Britain and America adopt one?. The Independent [online]. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/the-six-hour-work-day-increases-productivity-so-will-britain-and-america-adopt-one-sweden-a7066961.html DAVIDSON, Lauren. How Sweden became the startup capital of Europe. The Telegraph [online]. http://www.indhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11689464/How-Sweden-became-the-startup-capital-of-Europe.htmlependent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-introduces-six-hour-work-day-a6674646.html

Sweden

Introduction

IKEA is also a good example of promoter of wellthought-of CSR which is defined by the EU Commission in 2011 as ‘the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society’ 13, it includes efforts to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, promotion of equal career opportunities, involvement in local communities and many other fields of interest.13 While the environmental protection still remains the major area of CSR initiatives (concerning paper recycling, water consumption, use of other resources…), human rights and gender equality, improving work environments or corruption fighting belong to the same category. In Sweden, there are several major institutions ensuring that CSR issues are taken into consideration among Swedish companies, such as The Tällberg Foundation or CSR Sweden. Sweden has a CSR Ambassador, a special post within the Swedish Foreign Office, involving the government directly in the CSR causes around the country.13 In terms of law, Sweden demands sustainability reports from state-owned companies since 2007 and setting up sustainability goals since 2012. Sweden has also significantly contributed to the development of an ISO 26000:2010 international standard, guidance for companies in the field of CSR.13

innovation In spite of Swedish strong belief in community and general welfare, individual abilities are highly regarded, too. Besides, history has proved that in the area of innovation they truly have something to appreciate: in total, Sweden has had 911 Nobel laureates awarded1, including the inventors of the three-point seatbelt, the pacemaker or the safety matches.14 Alfred Nobel was also a Swede. Recent research has also declared Sweden a leader in innovation among EU states (European Commission, Innovation Union Scoreboard 2010), while it was rated second in the field of infrastructure that supports creativity and allows for innovation as well as the actual output (INSEAD Business

12 13

School’s Global Innovation Index 2011). Sweden has also been called the most digitally linked economy; for example, 80 % of all transactions are made via bank cards.14 Swedish government itself belongs to Europe’s top three investors in research and development with 3,6 % of GDP in 2009 (focused on medicine and bioscience, technology and climate as well as on cooperation between research institutes and private and public sectors). To encourage children’s and young people’s interest in technologies and entrepreneurship, Swedish schools organize various activities and initiatives: for example Finn Up (a competition for grades 6 to 9 to inspire new inventors and innovators), Ung Företagsamhet (an opportunity for young people from 16 to 20 to run their own company during a school year) or Snilleblixtarna (tools and working models for teachers to help them stimulate children’s interest in technology, natural sciences and entrepreneurship).14 Quite naturally, a wide network of diverse institutions and universities exists to create an environment for developing new ideas contributing to long-term goals within sustainability. It is for instance The Knowledge Foundation, The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research or The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems 14

design Characterised by minimalism, functionality and sustainability, contemporary Swedish design is represented by H&M, IKEA or Spotify, several most popular Swedish companies that deal with design on daily basis. The design areas that have attracted the most of the interest lately are fashion, textiles, furniture, interior objects and glassware; the crafts within these are gaining popularity, too. Swedish designer companies also focus on incorporating sustainability into their production as well as

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Energy use in Sweden. The official site of Sweden [online]. https://sweden.se/society/energy-use-in-sweden/ CSR in Sweden. The official site of Sweden [online]. https://sweden.se/business/csr-in-sweden/

Sweden

the future use of their products. Except well-known IKEA, other examples are Norrgavel – a furniture and interior fittings maker, first to be awarded the pan-Nordic Swan ecolabel, and Bolon – a traditional family carpet-making business based on using raw non-toxic materials.5 In addition, Sweden has the oldest design society in the world – the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design, Svensk form in Swedish. It was established in 1845 and works to promote Swedish design, even with the help of a government mandate.15 Its purpose is to inspire, to refer to the current possibilities design can offer, and also to support smaller start-up designer brands in terms of entrepreneurship and business.16, 17

14 15 16 17

Innovation in Sweden. The official site of Sweden [online]. https://sweden.se/business/innovation-in-sweden/ Swedish design. The official site of Sweden [online]. https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/swedish-design/ Svensk Form (the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design). Government Offices of Sweden [online]. http://www.government.se/government-agencies/svensk-form-the-swedish-society-of-crafts-and-design/ About Svensk Form. Svensk Form [online]. http://svenskform.se/en/about-svensk-form/

Introduction

Sweden

Start-up scene in Sweden There are approximately 70 000 new businesses founded in Sweden every year1 from plumbing to high-tech production companies. According to AngelList, the average valuation of Swedish start-ups is $3,3 million, while the average salary within these is $60 000. Among the most valuable belong Spotify, Klarna (both start-up unicorns) and BlogLovin’.2 Regarding the unicorns – Stockholm is the second place on Earth (after Silicon Valley) having the most of them per capita.3

What might seem obvious is that the most valuable and thriving start-ups operate within the digital sector. The Swedish success in this field is probably also caused by what might have appeared as a minor issue back then, by what pays off multiple times now – Swedish government introduced tax breaks on buying a computer in the 1990s, and also supported the establishment of high-speed internet in the country. As stated by Robin Teigland, Professor Department of Marketing and Strategy: ‘The experiences and money gained by entrepreneurs and others during the 1990’s IT boom have been fed back into Stockholm’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, enabling today’s entrepreneurs to successfully overcome the many challenges to success.’ 4 Current conditions for start-ups in Sweden have been observed and measured by several research teams. In terms of growing, attracting and holding on talent, Sweden has been only beaten by the United Kingdom among the EU countries. The European Digital City Index, covering the strengths and weaknesses of local ecosystems for start-ups, ranked Stockholm 2nd thanks to the high coverage of residential broadband, fibre broadband connection and a great share of ICT specialists in the economy. The importance of these factors has also been confirmed by new research carried out at the Stockholm School of Economics, declaring that ‘infrastructure, networks, business climate and supportive policies are key factors that explain Sweden’s success.’ 5 When it comes purely to creative industries, they do not stay behind the technology and ICT companies at all. Especially Stockholm’s conditions for collaboration between artists, designers, filmmakers or musicians are more than friendly – short distances, local atmosphere and business supportive attitude allows artistic people to meet easily, feel homely and thus develop new ideas and concepts naturally. The design fields mostly represented in Stockholm are also food, fashion and gaming.6

Start-up scene in Sweden

An example of successful cooperation is Accelerator, ‘an interdisciplinary artistic laboratory for studying the intersection of science, art and society’. Accelerator opened by a private museum and Stockholm University, providing young creatives with an underground hall, a video black box, an auditorium, a café and a research laboratory. There are seminars and exhibitions planned to be open to the public, which will together with education and research complete the founders’ mission to interact with society. 7 To sum it up, among other Sweden’s regions Stockholm particularly has a start-up ecosystem exceeding the qualitative level of the attempts of the rest of the world. Caused historically, with that many inventors and entrepreneurs originating from Sweden, startups can derive from experience of the others who have tried to accomplish the same before – and succeeded. The quality of life, in general, is significant as well, helping particularly young people to combine work and free time without worrying about the costs of basic welfare. Stockholm itself seems to be creating the entrepreneurial vibes through the omnipresent clean design, making people generally happier just looking around, while maintaining functionality.

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PERNESTAM, Erik a Lars WATTSGÅRD. Open Innovation for small companies: How should an open innovation model be designed to increase the innovation capacity for small companies? [online]. 2016. http://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:939161/FULLTEXT02.pdf Sweden Startups. AngelList: Where the world meets startups [online]. https://angel.co/sweden/ Invest Stockholm: The official business guide [online]. http://www.investstockholm.com/ TEIGLAND, Robin. New research explores the success of Swedish high-tech startup companies. Stockholm School of Economics [online]. 2016. https://www.hhs.se/en/about-us/news/2016/new-research-explores-the-success-of-swedish-high-tech-startup-companies/ Stockholm second best in Europe for startups. The Local [online]. 2016. https://www.thelocal.se/20161121/stockholm-second-best-in-europe-for-startups/ Creative Industries. Invest Stockholm [online]. http://www.investstockholm.com/investment_opportunities/creative-industries/ Accelerator – Where science meets art. Invest Stockholm [online]. http://www.investstockholm.com/news/accelerator---where-science-meets-art/

Sweden

Stockholm 1

Tällberg Foundation – CSR initiative

The Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen) – research & development funding

Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (Stiftelsen för Strategisk Forskning) – research

Spotify headquarters

H&M headquarters

Norrgavel – sustainable business

Klarna headquarters

Accelerator – interdisciplinary artistic laboratory

Stockholm University – educational institution

Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship – educational institution

Karolinska Institutet – educational institution

Royal Institute of Technology – educational institution

Stockholm School of Economics – educational institution

Sting – incubator & accelerator

SUP46 – start-up hub

Impact Hub Stockholm – incubator & co-working

Amplify – incubator

Introduction

8 10

14 15

17 13

10 16 6

7 5 3

2 Vasa Museum

The City Hall

Gamla Stan

Moderna Museet

Fotografiska

Sweden

Lund

Situated only 15 kilometres from Malmö and its famous Øresund Bridge across the sea between Sweden and Denmark, Lund is a charming historical and university city full of stone and brick buildings, green parks and tiny cafés. Thus, it still keeps the pleasant feeling of a small town even though about 90,000 inhabitants live there and the Lund University – one of Scandinavian largest educational institutions with 41,000 students and over 2000 courses – also makes its part. Thanks to the university, the city actually became what it is now, establishment of such an important institution had helped the development of population, infrastructure and economy.1, 2 1 2

Lund

Sweden

Lund University is recognised as one of the top 100 universities in the world and provides education as well as research in the fields of engineering, science, law, social sciences, economics and management, medicine, humanities, theology, fine art, music and drama. It proudly claims that its campus is as much international as possible with students of 130 nationalities, global class environment and English spoken by 90 % of the Swedish population.2 Apart from the formal education, Lund is considered a perfect student city with all the traditional student unions that organise events throughout the whole year. The history and cultural heritage combined with the dynamic and contemporary flow of activities coming from the students and also academic staff create unique combination. According to StartUs Magazine, the region of Lund and Malmö is considered among the 4th most innovative areas of the world. The exhaustive list of advantages of setting up a new business in Lund includes the presence of the university being an unlimited source of knowledge, culture and scientific findings as well as of an enormous amount of young people (those from abroad included) willing to engage in the innovative and business community, the nearness of other big start-up hubs like Malmö and Copenhagen, good infrastructure or the overall positive entrepreneurial mind-set of the city with cooperative municipality, willing investors, mentors and educated workforce. The cons of choosing Lund as a start-up base could be difficulties with renting a space (high costs and low availability) or the issues of Sweden such as high taxation on employee stocks, business bureaucracy or difficult climate.1, 2, 3

1 2 3

MORAR, Teodora. The Complete Lund Startup City Guide. StartUs Magazine: Your European Startup Daily [online]. 2017. http://magazine.startus.cc/complete-lund-startup-city-guide/ About Lund University. Lund University [online]. http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/about/about-lund-university Why Study at Lund University. Lund University [online]. http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/international-admissions/why-study-at-lund-university

Lund

Sweden

Lund 1

VentureLab – incubator

Ideon Agora – accelerator

Lund University – educational institution

Södra Esplanaden – creative studio

The Creative Plot – creative initiative

Lund Life Science Incubator – incubator

SmiLe Incubator – incubator

Lund

6 3

University Library

Botanical Garden

Kungshuset Lund Cathedral

Sweden

VentureLab

Lund

Johanna Östberg

Innate manager with the ability to meet the needs of LU students who want to become entrepreneurs, helping them with pre-incubation and incubation of their businesses. Managed to inspire everyone around to start thinking about their own business ideas and to let people know that VentureLab is willing to support them.

Motto: “What’s your idea?”

Executive Director of VentureLab at 2016

Sweden

Since 2001, VentureLab has helped thousands of Lund University students – independently of their subject of study – to realise, develop and deliver their ideas that could mean a significant shift in their professional career. Be it a product, project, innovation or a solution – everything has the potential to grow into a business when there is a will and hard work behind it. VentureLab primarily offers inspirational activities aimed at encouraging students to start thinking about entrepreneurship like various events, pitches, workshops and lessons. The second pillar of its aim is an idea development with the help of business providing free office space for chosen projects. VentureLab, an institution established within the roots of the Entrepreneurship Master’s Programme held by the university, is run by three students (or recent graduates) who are dealing with all the managerial tasks like administration, business coaching, networking and community engagement, incubation programs, communication and event organisation. There is an Executive Director leading all of the processes who is a representative of the organisation. The second full-time position belongs to a so called Inspirer, taking care of the communication and inspirational events. The last student position is called Incubator Manager, dealing with the idea development and coaching. Nowadays there are two other important people at VentureLab, the Idea and Business Developers, helping students directly by coaching and discussing their ideas.4

During a school year, managers at VentureLab meet around 5000 students during their inspirational activities, approximately 250 who express a need of help with their idea development and 20 actual projects which get a space in the incubator where they can stay within the incubation program for one year.5

VentureLab occupies quite a large space inside a former university building which was reconstructed to serve to its needs as much as possible. The interior of the whole institution is very modern in pure Scandinavian design, full of wood, natural materials and light. There is a large foyer including a café, a presentation hall, lecture hall, office spaces, a dining hall and various hidden corners and spots for a peaceful work.

4 5

Lund

Sweden

VentureLab Location: Lund, Sweden

Webpage: www.venturelab.lu.se/en

Phase: Fixed functional system

Focus: Pre-incubation, Incubation

Founded:

2001

Number of employees:

Capacity:

Events/year:

49 88

Affiliation to university: Yes

VentureLab

provided services

Low-cost/free office space High-speed internet access Help with business basics Mentoring, consulting Help with accounting/financial management

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Marketing assistance

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Comprehensive business training programs Help with presentation skills Management training Networking activities Links to strategic partners redirect

Access to angel investors or venture capital Co-funding Technology commercialization assistance (prototype creation)

c o m m u n i c at i o n c h a n n e l s

potential clients

actual clients

Personal communication

Email, newsletter

Social media

Printed media

Radio / TV

Events

Ambient media (OOH)

Web pages

Events

Other

Guerilla marketing Other

Sweden

authenticit y of pl ace

Genius loci Identity Interior expression Atmosphere Visual comfort

pl acement and infr astructure

University campus Municipality

r e s p o n s i b l e b e h av i o u r a n d c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e m e n t

Environmental policy Employee care Responsible design Open events Shared space Community well-being

social inter action

Supported interaction Natural interaction Sociopetal settings

VentureLab

work supportive environment

Space variability Somatic comfort Acoustic comfort Olfactory comfort Socio-cultural comfort

s e r v i c e s a n d fa c i l i t i e s

Work supportive services Facilities

financing

User participation Sourcing diversification Autonomy

Sweden

Research VentureLab The purpose of VentureLab is to inspire and motivate students to come up with an idea, turn it into a project and finally make it a (profitable or non-profit) business. At VentureLab motivation is the most extensive activity people are devoted to most of the time. VentureLab is situated in the Lund University campus, in a ‘city inside a city’. It is in a walking distance from the other university facilities and from the city centre, but there are also bus stops nearby. Students coming to the incubator encounter light, wide spaces. The whole place is visually very attractive; although a lot of wood and traditional sense of design is present in interior, it stays very modern. There is a foyer serving as a crossroad of the whole building, café in the middle of the whole space creating an important meeting, networking, relax and conversational zone. They are serving bio sandwiches, salads and fair-trade coffee. The coffee spot seems to be very important and not only for students. Swedish fika also plays its role there. According to the research, it appears that there can almost be no natural meeting and talking without the hot drink anywhere in the world. The entrance hall also accommodates various interesting and curious objects. There is a large piano – free for anyone willing to play some tunes; a wooden formation resembling a sculpture but serving as a table; a large area full of comfortable couches and chairs assembled into little corners and spaces that allow to feel private enough to have an important business conversation as well as a casual chat; a music shower – a spot to stand at and let psychoacoustics do the work to make one feel revitalized, more creative and taking the stress away; a box full of used ground coffee to take away (for free, of course) and use it as a fertilizer in gardens or pots. On the walls there are posters of successful projects and businesses and other printed materials resembling the achievements of incubated students so everyone

entering the place immediately feels motivated to follow their example. For those who become engaged in VentureLab, incubating their ideas, there are lots of other spaces that can be used, too. There is a large meeting ‘room’ that is separated from the foyer by colourful fabric curtains, making it somehow more pleasant to spend some time in than in a regular conference room. One of the walls is basically just a large French window so that a lot of natural light comes in. Light comfort plays an important role in VentureLab (and in Sweden generally). Moreover, there is a lecture hall, a pitching corner, several free coffee stations, the offices (with glass walls, large windows and visible wooden beams) and in addition, a DIY corner for various crafty activities needed often for example for promotion. Everyone can also use the university dining hall serving typical Swedish food in a clean and sophisticated environment (with fresh flowers on the tables). It may seem to be a long description of the interior but this is very characteristic for Swedes. They highly value the environment that surrounds them. A piece of knowledge gained at VentureLab is that what is needed to cultivate the soul, the brain and the mind starts at cultural, nice-to-look-at, connected-with-nature environment. What was the most emphasized thing within the interview with the Executive Director was the inspirational phase of the whole incubation process, though. During that, VentureLab team inspires students to listen, to come to VentureLab and have a look around, and possibly to start thinking about their own idea, project or business. They do it mostly by organizing various events – IDEA Café being the most successful so far. It includes setting up a pop-up stand at any place within the university, usually during some interesting event or gathering, and inviting people wandering around for a free cup of coffee in exchange for listening to the introduction of VentureLab – what

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Venture Lab

Sweden

it is focused on, what are its activities and what it has to offer. One noticeable thing is the free coffee. It proved itself (or a hot drink generally) a great icebreaker and people generally find it easier to talk over a steaming cup in comparison to just standing next to a no-name stand and looking into strangers’ eyes, trying not to feel pushed or weird. Grabbing the paper cup, occasionally sipping the drink, having some activity to fill in the blank space until some interesting information reach their ears, that is what makes perfect circumstances for creating a real interest. The second relevant thing is the personal encounter of a representative of the VentureLab (always from a peer group) who has first-hand experience with VentureLab services, and a random passer-by who might be the next Elon Musk, but he just does not know – yet. If the meeting between these two goes well, it might actually come true. After the ambassador catches students’ attention, he invites them to come to VentureLab, eventually scheduling a meeting with them. The ambassadors are students or recent graduates themselves so it feels very natural and easy for the other students to interact with them; it would not be the same if a teacher or any other adult person would be talking to them. Without the motivation phase, there would be significantly less applicants and interested people coming. There are young people who have not yet started to even think about something they could achieve themselves (or they could do for others as a non-profit) based on their ideas. There are people who might have an idea but they are too afraid to take the next step, they think that their idea is not worth it or they don’t know where to start. Within the idea development phase, the ‘clients’ meet an expert from their field of interest and they work together on the bigger picture of the initial idea. VentureLab claims that any idea is worth developing. What is very important during this stage is a goal setting workshop. It lets the applicants see the whole thing on a larger scale, helps them realize the real hard work behind it and also serves as a springboard for the potential incubation programme – the success

of the future project/business would be based on the assessment of fulfilment of these goals. Every start-up has its own milestones and each one can individually set something else as a success or a failure indicator. Afterwards, when a clear idea has been developed, students can apply for a place in the incubation program itself. The offices of the incubation are located in a building of Ideon Agora – a business accelerator just across the street. Probably the most important thing of the incubation is giving students (to-be entrepreneurs) their own working space, literally a chair with a table in a closed space – an actual office – which according to the managers means for the students that this is for real and someone believes in them. There is then no other barrier they could not overcome after overcoming a possible self-doubt. It appears to be as simple as that. The application form for the incubation program can be found online. After the form is sent, there is an interview scheduled. If the applicants succeed, they get a 6 months contract for the incubation, the office etc. If their project is successful in the longer term, the contract can be prolonged to one year. The incubation itself means that they are free to consult any business issue, anytime. There are no given ‘office hours’, they just need to schedule a meeting with the chosen consultant. Every Thursday, there is a workshop on a topic the incubated students collectively request. After the topic is announced, they can submit questions that weigh down on them the most and afterwards, everyone who attends the workshop benefits from the answered questions of others. This practice proved itself much better than individual meetings. Requirements for the incubated are 20 hours spent in the incubator a week working on their project, 80 % of workshops attended and becoming an ambassador for the incubator. This is especially important among other students because when they see they peers successfully taking part in the incubator, helping at the workshops and events, when they listen to their friends and not to anonymous strangers, they tend to think ‘I could easily do that, too’. That is the key for their motivation.

Venture Lab

Other practices that proved themselves successful are for example teaching students the basics of business, open offices of the incubator management with doors opened to anyone, incubated students exchanging ideas with each other, getting to know students individually to be able to help them effectively. What caused difficulties to the management was the general process of making students realize when it is the time to move out of the incubator, also finding the fine line of not being too hard on them while still making them improve and learn, and finally they were struggling with getting them back to help with the supplement activities. Incubator graduates (alumni) usually meet once a semester to share new experience among themselves and the current incubated students, too. When they want to continue in a business support program, they are welcome to apply for the Ideon Agora business accelerator located just next to the VentureLab. In terms of communication, VentureLab uses mainly events, e-mail communication and Facebook administrated by the Inspirer and website curated by the Executive Director. VentureLab’s target groups are the municipality (face-to-face personal communication and meetings), region, university itself (newsletters re-mailed by the communication department of the university to all students, shared Facebook posts, official reports to the board), external companies (usually VentureLab gets contacted by the companies while they scout for possible innovations and skilled employees) and the public (press releases – e.g. on the topic of successful attraction of women to the incubator increasing their participation from 20 % to 66 % by an inspirational weekend event called Believe in your ideas). What did not really work for VentureLab was Twitter, Instagram and too many newsletters. Their communication budget is very low and thus the means have to be creative. The best proofs of VentureLab going the right way are its thriving graduates. For example Tamam, a non-profit project of students of the Faculty of Humanities aiming to get every immigrant student a buddy running already in six cities in Sweden; John

Henric, a men fashion brand of students of business with 7 stores opened; Nordic Surface, having a value of 17 million. SEK producing innovative artificial grass products.

Sweden

Uppsala

Being the fourth largest Swedish city, Uppsala lies 70 km north from Stockholm, the capital.1 In the Scandinavian scale, it is considered to be still in the wider Stockholm region. In effect, it means that while maintaining a small town character, Uppsala can share its bigger neighbourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s options and opportunities â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the modern infrastructure provides convenient means of transportation between the two cities making it even easier. 1

Uppsala. Sverige.cz [online]. 2013. http://www.sverige.cz/uppsala

Uppsala

Sweden

By all means Uppsala is a historical city. It is a seat of the first Scandinavian university, The Uppsala University, founded in 1477, or the largest cathedral in Scandinavia hiding the remains of Gustav Vasa, King of Sweden, and founder of the famous Vasa ruling line.1 The old-time panorama is accompanied by a picturesque city centre gathered on the riverside of the Fyris river with little squares, parks and cafés. Everything is in a cycling distance which is very comfortable and warmly welcomed by Swedes.2 In addition to Uppsala’s app. 150 000 inhabitants, Uppsala University brings another 40 000 students to the city. Making it a quarter of the total number of the people present, it can be considered a student city. The university is internationally oriented and carries out leading research with a real application potential in many fields, being the true heritage of its ancient education roots. 3 Uppsala also hosts one of the facilities of another university, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, that focuses on science and education for sustainable life (natural, biological and water resources sustainability).4 Apart from the formal education, Uppsala offers e.g. Entrepreneurs Academy. Founded in 2006, it is a student-driven community aiming to inspire others and let them find their passion in terms of business. EA organises many events to fulfil its goals, for example Female Start-Up Day or the Anders Wall lecture.5 Taken in Scandinavian scale and counting in the great infrastructure, Uppsala is very close to Stockholm. People generally do not consider travelling between these two cities a problem – by train it takes less than 40 minutes (and the Arlanda Airport lies right in the middle of the distance). While the costs of living are much lower in Uppsala than in the capital, so it pays off to live in Uppsala and work in Stockholm.6 Apart from the facts stated above, so called Uppsala-Stockholm region is a perfect hub – most importantly a tech one. Start-ups in this location are appearing every other moment. It was made very easy by the Swedish government to establish a company and the people in the field naturally tend to help young and talented people with their business

beginnings, be it in the terms of investment, mentoring or teaching.7 Previously mentioned Uppsala University plays an irreplaceable role in the growth of the start-up scene. It gives a natural opportunity to the most talented researchers from all over the world to meet each other. The university area is perfect spot for networking – which is a foundation stone for successful multidisciplinary business teams. Researchers themselves frequently start their own companies, too.7 Stockholm does not fall behind, advertising its high-quality education for future entrepreneurs: The Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES). It is a joint education programme uniting several partners – Karolinska Institute, Konstfack (The University College of Arts, Crafts and Design), Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm School of Economics and Stockholm University. Together, they provide top academic education in medicine, technology, economics, design and humanities. Via SSES they complement their own educational programmes and let students learn in a different environment from their home institutions.8 On a global scale, the Stockholm region is the second most successful start-up hub in the world, following the seedbed of start-ups – Silicon Valley in California. Jens Munch of iZettle explains that it is because of the Swedish nature. “Swedish people embrace entrepreneurship. We don’t mind testing ideas out and giving them a go.” The main disadvantage of the location is a relatively small domestic market that forces Swedish start-ups to expand quickly to be able to compete with American players. Being the capital, costs of living and doing business are also quite high. Nevertheless, Swedish start-up success is high, assigned by Munch to the fika which allows people to take a break, step away, breathe and then focus again.9, 10

Uppsala

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Uppsala. Sverige.cz [online]. 2013. http://www.sverige.cz/uppsala About Uppsala University. Uppsala University, Sweden [online]. https://www.uu.se/en/about-uu Uppsala University in brief. Uppsala University, Sweden [online]. https://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/in-brief A broad-based university. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences [online]. http://www.slu.se/en/about-slu Entrepreneurs Academy Uppsala, Sweden [online]. http://www.entrepreneursacademy.se Cost of Living Comparison Between Stockholm, Sweden And Uppsala, Sweden. Numbeo [online]. ©2009-2017 https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Sweden&city1=Stockholm&country2=Sweden&city2=Uppsala How Stockholm University helps shape Europe‘s startup hub. The Local [online]. 2017. https://www.thelocal.se/20170328/revolutionary-research-how-stockholm-university-helps-shape-europes-startup-hub-stockholm-university-tlccu Member Schools. SSES [online]. http://www.sses.se/about/member-schools HENRY, Zoë. Why This Tiny European City Is a Hotbed For Entrepreneurship. Inc.com [online]. 2015. https://www.inc.com/zoe-henry/stockholm-sweden-as-a-hotbed-for-startups.html COLEMAN, Alison. The world‘s best start-up hubs: Stockholm, Sweden. Virgin [online]. 2014. https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/worlds-best-start-hubs-stockholm-sweden

Sweden

Uppsala Innovation Centre

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Uppsala

Michael Camitz

Motto: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Do you have any idea?â&#x20AC;?

Transferring his vast experience with management of various companies, business building and development to the clients, meeting their needs on a daily basis. Giving valuable insights and advice, expanding on ideas, accelerating businesses and elevating them to higher levels and markets.

Senior Advisor Business Development & Head of International Relations

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Sweden

Uppsala Innovation Centre (UIC) belongs to the world’s top 10 and Europe’s top 5 rated business incubators that have an affiliation to a university, as published by UBI Global in 2015.1 It has a connection with both Uppsala universities, Uppsala University and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, which have each a 25% ownership share. The rest of the shares is equally divided between the Uppsala region and the municipality. UIC’s mission is to support entrepreneurs, scientists and innovators from all industries in terms of business development, growth and entering international markets. Its success rate is proven by 9 out of 10 companies that graduated from UIC remaining active in their business. This is achieved via 5 business development programmes, 70 business coaches and 20 specialists taking care of start-up clients. UIC originated from entrepreneurship initiatives taking place at the Uppsala University since 1998. It transformed into its current form in 2004 and nowadays there are 8 full time employees taking care of its running (from CE and CFO through several Business Development Advisors to Marketing & Communication Manager). The main coaching and mentoring is done by carefully chosen external experienced business advisors. In case of UIC, it is important to mention several figures. Data from 2016 show that there were 731 people taking part in the client companies, their turnover was EUR 49.9 mil. (compared to investments of EUR 46.7 mil.) and UIC’s public ROI was 15.1 Funding of the UIC services comes from 25 private partners (which are also the advisors within the incubation and acceleration programs, usually being service providers such as banks etc.) financing 50 % of the costs and another 50 % come from the government funds.

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BHATLI, Dhruv. Top University Busines Incubators Global Benchmark 15/16. 2nd release. Stockholm: UBI Global, 2016.

Uppsala

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Uppsala Innovation Centre Location: Uppsala, Sweden

Webpage: www.uic.se/en

Phase: Fixed functional system

Focus: Incubation, Acceleration

Founded:

1998

Number of employees:

Capacity:

Events/year:

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Affiliation to university: Yes

Uppsala Innovation Centre

provided services

Low-cost/free office space High-speed internet access Help with business basics

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Mentoring, consulting

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Help with accounting/financial management

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Marketing assistance

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Comprehensive business training programs

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Help with presentation skills

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Management training

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Networking activities

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Links to strategic partners

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Access to angel investors or venture capital

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Co-funding

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Technology commercialization assistance (prototype creation)

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c o m m u n i c at i o n c h a n n e l s

potential clients

actual clients

Personal communication

Email, newsletter

Social media

Printed media

Radio / TV

Events

Ambient media (OOH)

Web pages

Events

Other

Guerilla marketing Other

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authenticit y of pl ace

Genius loci Identity Interior expression Atmosphere Visual comfort

pl acement and infr astructure

University campus Municipality

r e s p o n s i b l e b e h av i o u r a n d c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e m e n t

Environmental policy Employee care Responsible design Open events Shared space Community well-being

social inter action

Supported interaction Natural interaction Sociopetal settings

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Uppsala Innovation Centre

work supportive environment

Space variability Somatic comfort Acoustic comfort Olfactory comfort Socio-cultural comfort

s e r v i c e s a n d fa c i l i t i e s

Work supportive services Facilities

financing

User participation Sourcing diversification Autonomy

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Research Uppsala Inovation Centre Uppsala Innovation Centre occupies very little space as it is mainly focused on the immaterial part of entrepreneurial support. There are few offices of the management but neither available space for rent nor co-working space or café. The physical space in this case is of no importance – UIC encourages its clients to find themselves a place that suits them best. If needed, they are offered help with finding the right location via a wide network of cooperative subjects of UIC in Uppsala and Stockholm. At the UIC’s headquarters, there is a spare meeting room in which the clients are allowed to meet and work, but it is not meant to be used in the long term. Not offering physical space for rent – that is just one of the main UIC principles. They call this way of helping young entrepreneurs the “Nordic Way” of doing start-ups. There are several things UIC values when it comes to supporting young people on their entrepreneurial way of life. One of the most important issues is that business professionals offering help, advice and experience are coming from outside, from the real business, not from the academic or other theoretical environment. They share first-hand experience and knowledge – probably the most valuable lesson anyone starting his own business can get. UIC draws from an extensive stock of successful people that are affiliated to the university, coming from the non-profit sphere, business angel network and public and government institutions. Another significant fact that forms the “Nordic Way” is that at the universities that UIC co-operates with exists something called the professor’s privilege. The term means that university researchers own full rights to their inventions or innovations (even though they might be achieved thanks to public or government funding), whereas usually it is the university who claims the intellectual property. This gives the professors and researchers an important advantage and ensures that a great part of them founds their own companies to transfer their inventions in practice. Not

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only students, but also the academics make an important part of the start-up scene in this case. Of course, the natural process continues: they become a part of the real business scene, gain experience and then can share it with their students like the other professionals coming from independent companies. There are also some trends contributing to the image of the UIC start-up way. Regionalization, when companies make sure to meet the needs of a certain area, so called open innovation which basically means not to be afraid to step out of the company’s closed internal processes and e.g. use also external sources of innovation such as experts from other fields or someone else’s research, or they focus on the ecosystem (developing smart solutions concerning climate, nature, ecology). When it comes to the business development programmes, there is “The UIC model” encompassing all its activities. The UIC model represents five business development programmes, carefully chosen business coaches and advisors, focus on the mental support and not physical space rentals, not taking ownership in the client companies (resulting from strong ethics coming from inside of the UIC), required monthly reporting from clients and a wide network of business partners. The programmes are based on Steve Blank’s principles of doing start-ups described in a book called Start-up Toolbox, a well-known source of useful advice and tools from the field of entrepreneurship. There are 3 basic phases of the company development recognized according to these principles – the pre-incubation, company building or incubation and the acceleration. UIC decided to offer five business development programmes that can but do not have to cover all of them. UIC Business Start-up allows to go from idea to the market in just three months. The criteria to enter this programme are not as strict as when it comes to the following ones, the main focus is on developing a feasible idea. It should be focused

Uppsala Inovation Centre

on innovation, something that stands out and can be patented or trademarked, something with international and growth potential. There are various tools used in this program that are well known among the community of start-ups, like the Lean Canvas or product and market fit. This programme fits into the pre-incubation phase and takes place in a once-aweek workshop format. It is free of charge and participants can work in Uppsala Science Park premises. Clients are encouraged to meet their customers in the early phase of their idea development to be able to assess its viability.1 UIC Business Lab is focused more on the company anchoring, organisation and the concept. It goes deeper into knowing how to run a business and expand the network. There are only 3 start-ups accepted each year that are allowed to take something like a condensed MBA studies during this programme. At the end, there is a sharp business plan to be pitched in front of a row of potential investors. Business Lab is a pure incubation program consisting of half-day seminars, homework and individual meetings with advisors.1 UIC Business Prep is a little interchange station and allows a few strong companies to polish some specific areas to be ready to enter the accelerator – it gives them time to work on their projects. It is a highly individual program and companies can work on various aspects of their business from team building through financing to industrialization. It includes 30 hours of consultation with a business coach and maximum one year duration.1 UIC Business Accelerator is the most advanced of the programs. It helps companies to enter the market with their service or product. There are 15–20 companies accepted each time into 2 years long program that allows them to consult 8 hours a week with

a professional business coach or advisor for $140 an hour – due 6 years after the successful completion of the program if the company is still active in the business sphere (until then UIC pays for it). This makes the start-up teams feel the responsibility but without a terrific pressure from a debt in a case of termination of their businesses due to various reasons that could possibly happen. Post-completion programme is called UIC Alumni and allows the clients that have completed their previous programs to meet, network and to continue consulting with business coaches. Each year, UIC evaluates 200 projects or ideas and accepts 80 companies in some of their programmes. Their advice on how to build a similarly successful incubation or acceleration centre is to focus on getting at least one prestigious business partner (preferably from the region) on board to help with persuading the others, to choose and value the people recruiting the business coaches, not forgetting local media collaborations and sending out newsletters to stakeholders, alumni and clients (about workshops, seminars etc.). Among successful graduates from UIC belongs for example OssDsgn, a company which found out an innovative way of how to repair bones, or Strandberg Guitars, a custom-made guitars manufacturer.1

UIC [online]. http://uic.se/en/

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Finland

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Introduction

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Finland

Republic of Finland, in Finnish known as Suomi, is the sixth largest European country and one of the member states of the European Union. It is a land of contrast and wilderness. Three quarters of the country are covered by woods, there are over 190 thousand lakes and 180 thousand islands and most of the 5.5 million inhabitants live in the large cities (one million living in the Greater Helsinki area) in the south. Those living in the northern part, Lapland, have to cope with 73 days of full daylight and 51 full-time polar nights caused by the polar circle intersection. Thanks to the significant differences between summer and winter, the agricultural countryside and vibrant cities and between the remnants of various historical periods, Finland earns a title of the ‘country of extremes’.1

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Fakta o Finsku. Velvyslanectví Finska, Praha [online]. [cit. 2017-08-06]. Dostupné z: http://www.finland.cz/public/default.aspx?nodeid=31400&contentlan=34&culture=cs-CZ

Introduction

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everyday life, family & welfare

finnish personality

In the latest World Ranking of Happiness from the years 2014–2016, Finland took the 6th place. Counting all the countries of the world, it is a notable result. One of the reasons of the overall happiness of Finns is definitely the social support of the state.2 Finland,

Finns are said to be rather reserved, shy, introverted, rather peculiar and mischievous, and they usually do not deny it. In reality, they just enjoy telling the ‘tale’ and knowing that inside they are actually very warm, kind, humour-loving (even the self-deprecating one), talkative and hospitable. They are honest and genuine, casual in their way of living, loving their short-butsweet summertime when they usually leave to the countryside or to the cottage on the shore to forget about the daily worries.10

a parliamentary republic, represents a typical Nordic welfare state which means that the government can and intervenes on behalf of the citizens’ good. The state has a comprehensive system of social insurance, welfare and health system ensuring decent living conditions for all. 3 For instance, when a child is born, Finnish government ensures each one the same start in life by providing so called ‘baby box’ containing all the necessities for a new born – in winter, it also includes a snow suit and the box itself can be used as a crib. The maternity pay is around €450 per month and every child is given €100 per month as a benefit until the age of 16.4 Finns have two official languages, Finnish and Swedish, but they are also widely fluent in English. Both official languages are compulsory in primary school and all of the official (even road) signs include both of them.4 Smoking is forbidden in restaurants and other public places. Finns hold approximately as many public holidays as Czech Republic, when most banks, schools and companies are closed.5 84.2 % of Finns live in urban areas and 83 % of them belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church.6,7 A curiosity is that there are currently 187 reindeers officially kept as pets in Finland.7 Finnish education system has been titled ‘the world’s best school system’ and according to a teacher and blogger Tim Walker, following principles are the reason of the excellent results: the Finnish education system is sensible, independent, modest, playful, lowstress and equitable.8 When it comes to gender, Finland could not possibly be marked as unequal or stereotypical. In 1906, it became the first country in the world to enable women to vote and to run for the election, while nowadays Finland launches International Gender Equality Prize.9

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If fika is the signature of Sweden, sauna is the one of Finland. There is the highest number of saunas per capita in the whole world, on average every household has one (even in the apartments and there is one in the parliament, too). It is a way to relieve both the physical and spiritual body, to relax. Saunas are part of Finnish culture and joining one is a great way to get to know Finns.11 Finns love and appreciate their surroundings, nature and wildlife, and they enjoy the time spent outside – in the woods, skiing, or even driving. Vast forests, thousands of lakes and gorgeous scenery are to be seen and enjoyed by everyone – they are free to wander through, pick berries and mushrooms and to stay as long as they desire. With many national parks, numerous bear – or seal – observing opportunities and some of the best hiking, canoeing and kayaking experiences, it is an outdoor lovers’ paradise.10, 12 In addition, what Finns do not miss is innovation and creativity – coming with new theme days for the whole country is just one proof. World-known Restaurant Day, when anyone can set up his own restaurant anywhere and become a chef for a while, Sauna Day and Nature Days are the exclamation marks after the list of Finns’ characteristics that only underline the importance of the things they love.13

culture & design Finns seem to be born with the right taste in design, music and the simple way of living. They enjoy using beautifully designed everyday objects, women casually wear the world-known Marimekko dresses, children are used to see timeless patterns and designs everywhere and they learn to give every single day the

Introduction

feeling of genuineness. Even this makes living in or visiting Finland such a beautiful experience – regularly encountering something that the rest of the world would consider designated for special occasions and maybe even luxurious, just because the life should be enjoyed, is something every nation could definitely learn from.10 Summer in Finland is quite short therefore Finns enjoy it utterly with a large amount of various cultural and music events and festivals. There are music festivals featuring every genre imaginable; opera festival overlooking Finnish biggest lake, the Midnight Sun Film Festival taking advantage of the orange-red night light bringing ineffable atmosphere, Lapland hosts the Reindeer Cup Championship Drives, The Night of the Arts in Helsinki featuring giant helium filled balloons etc. 14 There are also some jocular events Finns hold and enjoy having a great sense of humour even though they might appear a little reserved. World championships in swamp soccer, berry picking, air guitar playing or wife carrying are just a few examples.15

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When it comes to design, Finland belongs to the few places you remember thanks to its omnipresence. It does not take just a physical form – Finnish sense of pure beauty, genuineness, rhythm and simple things in life take design to the next level. It is a way of living, incorporating nature into everyday life and into objects people use and see, dreaming in colours and displaying them everywhere, paying attention to every detail. Finns try to make their lives beautiful. Marimekko, Alvar Aalto, Iitalla, Arabia or Jopo are some of the most iconic Finnish designer brands.16 To make sure these qualities are passed on future generations, during the Helsinki Design Week the children take over for Children’s Weekend and during many activities they learn how to design anything from a robot to an architectural work and once again they are taught the essences of Finnish design – and a way of living.17 Primary school children also take part in the creation of Finnish design scene by contributing their drawings and texts for a publication of an annual magazine called Kevätpörriäinen (‘buzzing

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Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. World Happiness Report 2017 [online]. New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network. http://worldhappiness.report/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/HR17.pdf Finnish Social Security. Expat Finland [online]. http://www.expat-finland.com/living_in_finland/social_security.html STEVENS, Tom. Living in Finland: readers‘ perspectives. The Guardian [online]. https://www.theguardian.com/world/guardianwitness-blog/2014/dec/06/living-in-finland-readers-perspectives Life in Finland. Hanken School of Economics [online]. https://www.hanken.fi/en/studies/apply/masters-degree-programme/student-experience/life-finland ALHO, Olli. A guide to Finnish customs and manners. ThisisFINLAND [online]. 2010. https://finland.fi/life-society/a-guide-to-finnish-customs-and-manners ThisisFINLAND [online]. https://finland.fi/category/life-society WALKER, Tim. The simple strength of Finnish education. ThisisFINLAND [online]. 2016. https://finland.fi/life-society/the-simple-strength-of-finnish-education/ ABDULKARIM, Maryan. Finland launches International Gender Equality Prize. ThisisFINLAND [online]. 2017. https://finland.fi/life-society/finland-launches-international-gender-equality-prize What are the Finns like?. The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com [online]. http://www.visitfinland.com/article/what-are-the-finns-like/ About Finland. The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com [online]. http://www.visitfinland.com/about-finland/ Introducing Finland. Lonely Planet [online]. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/finland/introduction 17 Reasons to Visit Finland in 2017. The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com [online]. http://www.visitfinland.com/article/why-come-to-finland-in-2017/ Year-round Festive Spirit. The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com [online]. http://www.visitfinland.com/article/finlands-year-round-festive-spirit/ The Silliest Events in Finland. The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com [online]. http://www.visitfinland.com/article/the_silliest_events_in_finland-2/ Falling in Love with Finnish Design. The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com [online]. http://www.visitfinland.com/article/falling-in-love-with-finnish-design/ CORD, David J. Bringing up new designers. ThisisFINLAND [online]. 2015. https://finland.fi/arts-culture/bringing-up-new-designers/

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spring bee’) which is being sold on the streets of Helsinki region. Its profit goes to charity and manyFinns consider it a tradition to buy a copy and enjoy its youthful spirit.18

economy Finnish economy has returned to growth after the decline in economic indicators in 2009 and although it still has not achieved the previous performance level, nowadays it has a GDP per capita just as high as Germany or Belgium. More than 70 % of GDP comes from services. 28 % of people are employed in this sector (the most numerous occupation is in the field of construction with over 70 % of labour force).19 The unemployment rate is quite high (8.8 %) and so are taxes that can get over 50 % (in Finland income tax is progressive; among other tax types belongs for instance municipal income tax, church tax or social and health insurance contributions).20 From the 19th century forestry was the leading industry which changed 30 years ago, after quite belated joining of the industrial revolution. Nowadays the most capitalizing export industry of Finland is machinery and electronics.1

comes from renewable sources and 90 % of bottles and cans are recycled.22 There are several initiatives encouraging and helping companies with sustainability. For example, Nordic Ecolabel and Nordic Swan are the official sustainability ecolabels that guarantee that a hotel meets highest environmental standards, has a comprehensive sustainability program and uses resources efficiently. Quality1000 and Green Start help companies to learn how to be responsible and independent in their own development and communication. Even in fashion, there is a new approach – there are already three stores in Finland from which clothes and accessories can be borrowed instead of bought, just like in the library.23

business & sustainability Sustainable future is a hot issue in the whole world, Finland being no exception, although it has always been one step ahead with its system of nature protection and appreciation already incorporated into everyday life. Anyway, by 2030 Finland aims to reduce the consumption of imported fossil fuels by 50 %, to ban the use of coal-produced power, and to increase the ratio of electronic cars up to 10 % of the total and biking and walking as the means of transport (over 30 %).21 Nowadays, 32 % of the total energy use

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Kevätpörriäinen. Revolvy [online]. https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Kev%C3%A4tp%C3%B6rri%C3%A4inen&item_type=topic The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency [online]. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fi.html Income taxes abroad – Finland. EUROPA [online]. http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/work/taxes/income-taxes-abroad/finland/index_en.htm Finland moves towards a sustainable future. ThisisFINLAND [online]. https://finland.fi/life-society/finland-moves-towards-a-sustainable-future/ ThisisFINLAND [online]. https://finland.fi Sustainable Finland x 5. The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com [online]. http://www.visitfinland.com/article/sustainable-traveling-in-finland-x-5-2/

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Start-up scene in Finland Finland is, as well as its neighbour Sweden, home to several world-known start-up companies standing behind some revolutionary technological innovations and novelties. For example, the operation system Linux or the mobile game Angry Birds by Rovio come from there. However, Finland could easily come up with more similar successful projects because the talent and technology is not scarce, if only it was easier to access local funding and investors.1 At present about 2000 start-up companies exist in Finland.2

A change in the funding situation is taking place thanks to Slush: with a claim that ‘nothing normal ever changed a damn thing’, the world’s leading start-up event is held annually on the end of the year in Helsinki to bring together 17 500 tech leaders and attendees (with more than million viewers online) to push business further and higher. Last year, 2300 companies and 1100 venture capitalists came to look for investors, customers, exposure or mentoring. 3 So far, over 383 million euros was invested in more than 400 Finnish start-ups in 2016 4, most of them being IT and gaming companies. The majority of start-ups is led by students, early initiated by Aaltoes (Aalto Entrepreneurship Society) established in 2009 by an interdisciplinary student team. The Finnish government encourages young entrepreneurs to set up a business and universities to make profit of their innovations and ideas too.5 There are many initiatives and organizations helping companies in their early (and also more advanced) stages to be able to compete on both local and international markets. For example, Tekes is a Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation focusing on public funding for start-ups that are younger than 5 years, the Finnish Business Angel Network (FIBAN) offering help with private funds or Boost Turku, a student Turku-based network connecting young entrepreneurs.5, 6 According to Coworker.com, there are 13 co-working spaces in Finland that can be used by start-up teams for their meetings and work.7 From the many business accelerators, Startup Sauna, an Aalto University business accelerator, is ranked #5 in Europe by UBI Global 15/16 Benchmark. It focuses on finding the right product-market fit and strategy. Its program is free and in addition the participants get a financial voucher or free accommodation, meet real investors, get a chance to visit Sillicon Valley and attend Slush, the start-up conference.8

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Start-up scene in Finland

A final mention is devoted to an extraordinary startup called I’m Blue, founded in 2016 by primary school children in Espoo. This very young initiative makes healthy blueberry soda to let people try the true taste of Finnish nature.9

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HÄRD, Christina. Finland‘s hot startup scene has huge ambitions — there‘s just one problem. Business Insider Nordic [online]. 2016. http://nordic.businessinsider.com/finnish-startup-scene-could-explode-2016-8/ Infographic about startups in Finland. Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation | Tekes [online]. 2015. https://www.tekes.fi/en/funding/startup/startup-in-finland/ Slush 2017 [online].http://www.slush.org/ Finnish startup investments break new record €383M in 2016 - growth 42%. Finnish Business Angels Network [online]. 2017. https://www.fiban.org/news/finnish-startup-investments-2016 CHARPENTRON, Céline. What‘s the startup ecosystem like in Finland?. Entrepreneur | ICT | Face entrepreneurship [online]. 2016. http://www.face-entrepreneurship.eu/en/blog/articulos/what-s-the-startup-ecosystem-like-in-finland LIM, Patrick John. Lessons from Finland‘s startup world. Channel NewsAsia [online]. 2016. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/lessons-from-finland-s-startup-world-7672558 See All Coworking Spaces in Finland. Coworker.com [online]. https://www.coworker.com/search/finland Startup Sauna Spring 2017. Startup Sauna [online]. http://startupsauna.com/accelerator RUOHONEN, Anna. Finland devotes energy to Astana Expo 2017. ThisisFINLAND [online]. 2017. https://finland.fi/business-innovation/__trashed/

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Helsinki

The capital of Finland, called Helsinki in Finnish and Helsingfors in Swedish, is a vibrant city with more than 600 000 inhabitants. When counting in the close neighbourhood municipalities of Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen (aka Greater Helsinki), the number rises to more than 1.3 million.1 The city of Helsinki is located on the seaside of the Southern part of Finland and it comprises more than 300 islands. An average year temperature is about 5 °C. The city is also the country’s largest harbour.2 1 2

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Helsinki and Finland in figures. Visit Helsinki [online]. http://www.visithelsinki.fi/en/come/welcome-to-helsinki/helsinki-and-finland-in-figures Helsinki. The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com [online]. http://www.visitfinland.com/helsinki/

Helsinki

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There is everything one needs in the city centre that can be easily reached by walking. Helsinki offers something for everyone – it is full of architecture, design, food, culture, history, shopping, events and even nature and outdoors. There is colourful nightlife, there are numerous parks and green escapes, including the close islands like Suomenlinna with UNESCO fortress only about 15 minutes from the shore by ferry, there is Kallio, the district that rose from the ashes with the help of young people establishing trendy cafés, restaurants and boutiques in the old factory buildings.2

faculty of agriculture and forestry, arts, law, medicine, science or theology, and the facilities are divided between four campuses in Helsinki and four other research centres in the country.4

One part of Helsinki also happens to be a Design District, a true design-lover’s paradise. Over 200 art museums, galleries, cafés, boutiques, ateliers and brand shops like those of legendary Marimekko, Artek or Iittala, and even vintage stores can be found there. This creative hub also experiences many innovative approaches like open studios allowing to meet the local artists, multiuse of space by connecting for example a shop, gallery and a café or winery, Late Night shopping, Restaurant Day and even a Cleaning Day when anyone can set up a stall anywhere and sell whatever he or she desires – a great potential of finding true vintage treasures. Knowing that Helsinki was given the title of the World Design Capital during 2012 and that there is an international Helsinki Design Week held each September, it is indisputable that Helsinki has a lot to offer also when it comes to design. 3 In terms of academic education, the city is a seat of the University of Helsinki which is the oldest (founded in 1640) and the largest (with over 40 000 students and researchers) educational institution in Finland. It has 11 faculties, such as the

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Helsinki. The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com [online]. http://www.visitfinland.com/helsinki/ Design District Helsinki. The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com [online]. http://www.visitfinland.com/article/design-district-helsinki/ The University of Helsinki in Brief. University of Helsinki. [online] https://www.helsinki.fi/en/university/the-university-of-helsinki-in-brief HELLSTEN, Jussi. Helsinki develops reputation as next startup hub. Good News from Finland [online]. 2016. http://www.goodnewsfinland.com/helsinki-startup-hub-finland-geektime/ Pre-Startup Services. NewCo Helsinki [online]. http://www.newcohelsinki.fi/en/grow/pre-startup-services Helsinki Business Hub [online]. http://www.helsinkibusinesshub.fi/ Aaltoes [online]. https://aaltoes.com/ BABET, Addou. The Startup City Guide To Helsinki. StartUs Magazine [online]. 2016. http://magazine.startus.cc/where-innovation-meets-talent-helsinki/

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Finland FInland

Helsinki 1

University of Helsinki – educational institution

Helsinki Think Company – incubator

Iitala headquarters

Tekes – funding agency

FIBAN – private funding

Artek Helsinki – design store & centre

Artek 2nd cycle – vintage & second-hand design store

NewCo Helsinki – entrepreneurship centre

Helsinki Business Hub – development agency

Vertical – accelerator

HUB13 – co-working & accelerator

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Helsinki Cathedral

Central Railway Station

5 10 4 11

Uspenskin Cathedral

SkyWheel

Old Market Hall

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Helsinki Think Company

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Karri Liikkanen

Young enthusiastic leader of the community whose mission was to inspire as many people as possible. With the fresh perspective on start-up building and the drive to connect students with public, companies and other stakeholders through great events, he managed to help thousands of youth on their path of making a change.

Motto: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Anyone can be a change-maker.â&#x20AC;?

Chairman of the Board at 2016

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Helsinki Think Company belongs to the start-up scene of the Finland’s capital since 2012. Although the name might suggest something else, it is actually not a company but rather a community and a co-working space bringing together people who are curious, want to be active and create an impact in modern society – shortly said for entrepreneurially minded people. HTC’s aim is to connect academic knowledge, real world issues and entrepreneurial action by putting together an interdisciplinary community that is eager to seek solutions. It is an initiative arising from the University of Helsinki, which is also a partial owner, while the other half belongs to the city of Helsinki. These two subjects fund HTC. Its co-working spaces are situated at three locations in Helsinki with the base in the city centre on the main walking road next to the entrance into the university library and a few metres from the main university building. At this venue an open working space with couches, chairs and tables as well as an equipped kitchen with a coffee machine, free wi-fi connection, various flipcharts and post-its and design-looking green wall full of plants and flowers can be found. There is always a member of the HTC waiting for anyone who would stop by, staying ready to help, give advice, information or just to chat. The purpose of HTC is to enable likely-minded people to meet, talk and share ideas and thoughts, to inspire them with various events (there is something happening almost every day) and to help them with a starting-a-business struggles by directing them to the right places and people. The team of HTC consists approximately of 25 people from the ranks of students, academics and other entrepreneurially minded people. They organize events and activities, host in the co-workings and generally take care about HTC.

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Helsinki Think Company Location: Helsinki, Finland

Webpage: www.thinkcompany.fi

Phase: Fixed functional system

Focus: Pre-incubation, Incubation

Founded:

2013

Number of employees:

Capacity:

Events/year:

609 130

Affiliation to university: Yes

Helsinki Think Company

provided services

Low-cost/free office space High-speed internet access Help with business basics

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Mentoring, consulting

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Help with accounting/financial management

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Marketing assistance

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Comprehensive business training programs

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Help with presentation skills

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Management training

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Networking activities

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Links to strategic partners

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Access to angel investors or venture capital

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Co-funding

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Technology commercialization assistance (prototype creation)

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c o m m u n i c at i o n c h a n n e l s

potential clients

actual clients

Personal communication

Email, newsletter

Social media

Printed media

Radio / TV

Events

Ambient media (OOH)

Web pages

Events

Other

Guerilla marketing Other

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authenticit y of pl ace

Genius loci Identity Interior expression Atmosphere Visual comfort

pl acement and infr astructure

University campus Municipality

r e s p o n s i b l e b e h av i o u r a n d c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e m e n t

Environmental policy Employee care Responsible design Open events Shared space Community well-being

social inter action

Supported interaction Natural interaction Sociopetal settings

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work supportive environment

Space variability Somatic comfort Acoustic comfort Olfactory comfort Socio-cultural comfort

s e r v i c e s a n d fa c i l i t i e s

Work supportive services Facilities

financing

User participation Sourcing diversification Autonomy

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Research Helsinki Think Company Since Helsinki Think Company is not a proper business incubator in the theoretical sense, its strongest side is not a support program but events and inspirational activities. Due to its affiliation to the largest university in the country (and the location in the very middle of the capital) it has the opportunity to affect thousands of young people from the university itself but also those who do not belong to it – HTC is opened to anyone. Using co-working space or attending the events is completely free, the only thing HTC requires from the people coming is to be friendly, enthusiastic and to keep the place clean. Anyone, from those wanting to start their own business to people who just enjoy working in such a young and creative environment, is welcome. HTC also offers the possibility of reserving the space for public events for up to 100 people. The main activity of HTC remains organizing events (or letting other organize a good event in their spaces) focused on various topics but closely touching either entrepreneurship, social activism, real world problems, inspiration, networking or combination of them. There are numerous workshops, seminars and lectures during the whole year (some even taking place at the same day): there was for example Elsevier Hacks 2017, Biofinland Pitching Competition Final or lecture on innovation selling and legal matters Aalto Fellows Goes Hy and that is just a little fraction. However, in the terms of direct business support, there are three main events of each academic year that could substitute continuous incubation or acceleration programmes. The first one is called Mini Challenge. It is a twoday event focused on teambuilding based on various problem solving in a form of an intensive workshop. Each time the main topic is different and even companies and external partners assign them. There are 2–3 a year and anyone can apply through an online form.

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The second and bigger event is Bootcamp which lasts for a month and people have to apply like an already formed team, however, they can make a use of a pre-event focused on teambuilding for those who are solitary creatives. Bootcamp comes in a form of an idea accelerator and at its end stands a finished business plan of each team. What is important after the teams graduate from this one-month-long experience there is a follow-up – there is no point in leaving the newly established nearly-companies hanging in a thin air not knowing what to do next. Someone with sufficient knowledge or experience is waiting ready to give them instructions and advice. The largest event organised by HTC is called 4UNI. It is a two-month course for university students from the whole country. People enter as individuals and end up as a part of a newly-formed team of 5 working on a solution of one selected world problem and creating new business concepts. The teams are formed carefully according to each participant’s application to make sure there are all the necessary skills (such as programming, selling, designing etc.) represented within each group so that all the crucial dynamics of a teamwork can work. There are companies, experts, mentors and the city involved in the partnership of the event. Through all these activities HTC does or is involved in so called ‘Think Company Way’ of doing things. By that, HTC claims that its initiatives are being prepared for the ‘change makers’ who could then be divided into three groups according to the phase of their ‘change-making’ (let it be imaginable that the change can be related to themselves or the environment). The early-stagers are called the ‘curious’ and what they need is inspiration, community and push to step into action. Then there are the ‘impact seekers’ and there is business advice, legal consulting or funding advice for them. The most advanced in their

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business-making or activism are the ‘experimenters’ who look for team members, mentors, challenges, partners and first customers.1 For each group, there are suitable activities, such as the events, that they can take part in without limitations. What is important is that there are other subjects close to HTC doing similar things and HTC is actively promoting them to ensure that there is the whole spectre of business support available to those who seek it even if HTC itself is not able to provide it all alone. Be it the activities done by faculties such as work life orientation, project courses, master classes or entrepreneurship courses, or by partners – the enterprise info and pop-up business counselling by NewCo, Startup Fund of the University of Helsinki investing into the most promising start-ups or Helsinki Challenge (a science based competition).1 According to the interview with the chair of HTC, there are several important things to keep in mind when trying to build an entrepreneurial support environment at a university and to offer services leading to start-up establishment. The whole community should be student-driven so that potential ‘clients’ feel like they were asking a friend for a help, not a teacher or anonymous stranger. There is a natural comprehension between fellow students and psychologically it is much more pleasant for student to talk to a person who is close to his own age and situation. The location of the main venue is to be chosen well – possibly so that it stands out, the entrance is well visible from the street, and placing it in the city centre or where students stroll often, which helps the attendance a lot. The emphasis should also be put on interdisciplinarity – students from all faculties (and even public) must be able to come so that the network of people with knowledge and skills from various fields is growing and potential start-ups can be formed with all the necessary skills on board. By the way, HTC never pays to its lecturers, mentors or speakers, who come only by their own belief of paying back to the society.

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In terms of communication, the most successful way of promoting proved to be the world of mouth. Sharing positive experience remains the most powerful tool of advertising all over the world. The second tool of use is, quite naturally in the student environment, the social media (Facebook, Twitter – most followed, Instagram and Youtube). HTC also came back to using newsletters after a period of inactivity, and apart from that, it uses posters, flyers and for internal purposes the Slack app. There are no other paid methods of advertising. The aim of all the tools is to get people involved personally, to come, see and engage. The target groups of its communication, apart from potential students and public coming, are the municipality, being one of the investors, the university management as a superior authority, and the local, regional and even international companies because of existing or possible partnerships (what is lucrative for them is that for a relatively small amount of money they can get fresh ideas from young people through the co-operation on events or programs).

Think Company Way. Helsinki Think Company [online]. http://thinkcompany.fi/think-company-way/

Helsinki Think Company

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Communication activities

Promoting own services and talking to the target groups may take different forms according to specific needs and goals of each institution. At the five places analysed â&#x20AC;&#x201C; LYNfabrikken and SDU Cortex Lab in Denmark, VentureLab and Uppsala Innovation Centre in Sweden and Helsinki Think Company in Finland â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both common and also rather exceptional tools were being used to communicate and advertise their existence and services they provide. 138

Communication activities

Methods, channels, tools and strategies described by the interviewed representatives as the best and time-proven practices of their institutions were divided into several groups according to standard marketing communication structure. The most significant part dedicated to events was given a special chapter which follows.

external communication personal communication Personal communication was one of the most emphasized tools of successful self-promotion. Simple personal talks, meetings, appointments, visits and world of mouth meant the most effective form of letting other people know about the institutions. These were the best proven practices: ∙∙ open office of the management enabling anyone to pay a brief visit and ask anything ∙∙ personal appointments arranged previously on an event ∙∙ uncomplicated visiting of the place by someone interested so that all important information could be passed on quickly and all the questions of the newcomer could be answered (connected to the location) ∙∙ presentation of an event or the institution at students’ lectures and seminars ∙∙ maintaining close relationship with the communication department of the university so that it could share the information coming from the institution in its all-university communication system that usually reaches each student (for example the mass e-mailing, internal TV, shared Facebook posts etc.) ∙∙ representatives and volunteers from the institution visiting potential partners, building strategic relationships, ensuring their clients support from the created partner network ∙∙ personnel training and education so that the highest service standards are kept, making loyal people coming back (particularly if there is a café, etc.) ∙∙ The whole personal communication is closely connected to the events, which naturally include

meeting new people, talking to each other, networking and gaining information apace.

online media In today’s digital age, tools that are offered by internet and mobile applications cannot be left out. The best practices in online media covered: ∙∙ polished website copywriting to catch a visitor’s attention ∙∙ sending newsletters to stakeholders (the university management, municipality, or even partners) to keep them updated and to let them know that they are held in high regard ∙∙ sending newsletters to alumni to keep in contact with them in case of lecturing or mentoring opportunities, alumni events or even investing chances ∙∙ sending newsletters to current clients about workshops, seminars, events, latest news or changes ∙∙ social media and particularly Facebook for keeping everyone updated (the other social networks used were Twitter, Instagram and Youtube) The younger the audience, the more important the online environment is. However, during the interviews not a single crucial campaign or strategy realized via e-mail, social media or website was mentioned. Online was considered more supportive, normal, a musthave. The reason may be that it was curated mostly by students for students so they considered it natural and not worthy mentioning.

printed media Traditional printed media, such as newspaper and magazine advertisements, posters and flyers mostly served as a supportive mean of communication among the explored institutions. Paid ads were the least used among all of the communication methods (be it in the newspaper or audio-visual media). On the other hand, posters and flyers proved well especially at the university facilities, because usually all university sections or affiliations are allowed to self-promote freely in its premises. When the graphics is made by

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a skilled student and all is printed low-cost, it becomes an effective method of raising awareness of the institution or its events.

OOH media Out-of-home means of promotion, such as posters, city light vitrines and other outdoor displays, mostly in the city centre or at the most exposed places, were used only by two institutions.

mass media Just two institutions used radio as a communication channel and none of them has ever used TV advertising. Mass media do not seem to be the right fit for the incubators, accelerators and co-workings may it also be for their financial demandingness.

∙∙ getting to know students/clients individually to be able to help them effectively ∙∙ clients exchanging ideas with each other – thanks to the common rooms or meetings organised for them (e.g. ‘business breakfast’) ∙∙ using the Slack app for the team communication

internal target groups ∙∙ clients (regular meetings, newsletters, closed Facebook groups, noticeboards) ∙∙ stakeholders ∙∙ the university (newsletters, shared Facebook posts, official reports to the board) ∙∙ the municipality (face-to-face personal communication and meetings, official reports) ∙∙ partners (newsletters, personal meetings)

events

unsuccessful communication activities

See the next chapter.

∙∙ mass media: TV and radio ∙∙ excessive amount of newsletters ∙∙ some social networks such as Twitter or Instagram

external target groups ∙∙ potential clients (those who could incubate their ideas in future, start-up owners, team members, researchers, academics) ∙∙ the municipality and the region (face-to-face personal communication and meetings) ∙∙ external companies, potential partners (arranging personal meetings) ∙∙ the public (press releases, local media)

internal communication The significant difference between the communication with an unknown person and the people we know or we at least can contact directly leads to obvious change of the communication means. The most used internal communication best practices described by the institution representatives were: ∙∙ regular meetings of the management with the clients to give feedback and report ∙∙ open office of the management visibly ‘inviting’ anyone who might want to ask for help ∙∙ personnel training and education of the staff

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insight Based on the shared experience, own observation and obtained information, an insight on the ideal communication activity of a university based business incubator was concluded. 1. Personal communication is the key part. Knowing involved sides personally, meeting the university management, arranging meetings with municipal authorities, and contacting the local business non-profit sector representatives, visiting close institutions with similar interests etc. Knowing the clients personally, talking with them, listening to them and doing the best to help them. 2. Events are the most visible and prove to be the most engaging form of communication especially with students. Attending an event means personal experience, emotional activity that leads to remembrance, and it is the easiest way of transferring the message – by speaking to one or many. Remember Cicero. 3. Social media are good for maintaining something like a physical presence by publishing actualities,

Communication activities

news, background pictures, reports, offerings and basically anything that is happening right now or will be happening in close future. Young people are used to check them often and in addition, it is a great ‘customer service’ channel. 4. Flyers and posters are good if a low-cost printing method is available (or in a case of budget presence). 5. Usage of any free form of communication or free advertising space is a bonus at universities (or municipality) and should be mined. 6. Being aware of the importance of stakeholders – they like to be appreciated and informed. 7. After finding one big well-known partner, intensive promotion of his patronage (e.g. displaying his logo in connection with reference to the patronage), motivating and keeping the others coming. 8. Crucial is the own team and staff. They must be kept engaged and updated. 9. Leaving out mass media. 10. Having passion for the cause.

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Events Events represent a strongly specific form of communication. Its characteristics cannot be traced in any other communication tool as same as no such distinctive impact can be created with any other. Events are the closest to experience, then emotions, and finally engagement. During the research, it gradually became obvious that they are also irreplaceable in the communication strategies of the institutions visited. From onehour seminars to multiday all-university contests, each of the events has its place and purpose in the course of attracting attention, gaining new clients and partners, and satisfying and gaining loyalty of current ones. These events are organized beyond the basic incubation (or acceleration) programs. Based on the interviews, events were categorized into several basic groups according to their resemblance in key principles. 142

Events

workshops, seminars, presentations & lectures

community breakfasts

Usually lasting from one to few hours, either the institution’s clients, public or invited guests gather to gain valuable information, knowledge or experience from the key speaker (or speakers) of the event. These gatherings are usually focused on a specific topic that can be popular, requested or clearly inspirational. The attendance may even be obligatory for the clients as a part of their incubation program duties (it is in their own best interest to learn something new and very often focused on their development). The speakers are usually invited to give a talk for free or just at travel costs, they may come from the partner companies, the ranks of alumni, external experts or directly from the university itself.

So-called community or business breakfasts for the clients of the institution usually take place regularly and serve as a perfect opportunity to share recent experiences, struggles and ideas that each project or team member might have. Various project members might not meet on regular basis but the morning coffee and food might serve as an excellent psychological hook and ‘an excuse’ to come, ending in a kind of internal networking session enriching each other’s perspectives.

informal gatherings To strengthen clients’ relationships among themselves, with the institution, to increase their loyalty and to make them feel good within its premises (or roofs, gardens and terraces), informal meetings and activities are organised. Some examples are morning yoga sessions, mid-week community lunch or various parties organized by the institution management. A special illustration of a perfectly functional informal activity comes from LYNfabrikken: in the café, there is a round table at which whoever is sitting, expects anyone else to join and begin a conversation. They may talk about business or not, they may seek advice from one another or just casually chat. Often, the owner of the place takes a seat himself and awaits his clients, knowing that this is the right time if they need to ask, talk, or consult.

pop-up stands Bringing events to people instead of people to events is definitely a good idea, so a concept of a pop-up stand emerging at various events organized by e.g. student unions was born. While serving coffee or something like that institution’s representatives introduce the institution to the participants, talk to people about its activities and services, and possibly arrange a meeting directly at the institution to convince them with the help of its environment.

pitching events Organized officially and formally, the pitching sessions might be taken as a trial of presentation of business ideas of the clients in front of a crowd giving valuable feedback; or real potential investors can be invited so projects, usually close to finishing the program, might try to gain their first capital.

alumni meetings Besides meeting old friends and visiting alma mater, coming back to the institution also means getting to know new interesting people, projects, investing opportunities, young talents and news from the entrepreneurial environment generally. Sharing own experience via workshops and listening to those of others’ back is a nice bonus to this pure networking activity.

multiday events Probably the most demanding of the events when it comes to organization, the multiday events, might include an intensive problem-solving workshop, series of lectures and workshops concerning one main topic (might as well be spaced with informal and fun activities such as an afterparty party) in the format of a conference or for example an inspirational women-only weekend focused on boosting their entrepreneurial confidence. The longer they take, the longer is the opportunity to leave a strong impression and raise later engagement.

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Mgr. Kateřina Šimčíková

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A postgraduate student of Multimedia and Design at Tomas Bata University in Zlín, researcher, department support & event operative. Personally focusing on brand development with concentration on brand image and customer loyalty, event design, graphic design, copywriting and service design.

Authors

Mgr. Kristýna Kovářová

A doctoral candidate major in Multimedia and Design at Tomas Bata University in Zlín. University event, project and research team coordinator. Having a keen interest in human centred design and with professional focus on sphere of design, branding and event management.

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copenhagen

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Cultivate Talent and Idea Cultivation: University based entrepreneurship environment and talent development in Scandinavia

Authors: Mgr. Kateřina Šimčíková, Mgr. Kristýna Kovářová Graphic Layout: BcA. Michaela Nerudová Photography: Mgr. Kateřina Šimčíková, Mgr. Kristýna Kovářová Production: MgA. Dušan Wolf Print: KODIAK print Ltd., Nábřeží 599, 760 01 Zlín, Prštné First edition

2017

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