A cross-disciplinary incubation environment with the involvement from entrepreneurs from the industry.

Transcription

1 A cross-disciplinary incubation environment with the involvement from entrepreneurs from the industry. Introduction: Next Step is the name of the University College of Northern Denmark s (UCN) incubation environment. The incubation environment is created in order to offer selected talents a course for contemplation and developing their skills in entrepreneurship. To give the students the opportunity to develop knowledge of creating businesses and jobs. To give each student the opportunity and the tools to work with intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship. To give the student the opportunity for personal development as a contractor. To give students the opportunity to strengthen network relations within entrepreneurship. The four objectives above are all complementary and are the main elements of the Next Step program. In addition, the objectives of the Next Step course can be seen in conjunction with the professional skills from the educational programme which the student is primarily attached. The student will after completion of the course in the Next Step course have to meet the learning objectives of the Next Step process as well as the learning objectives laid down in the student s primary educational curriculum for that period (primarily an internship period). The student will at the end of the Next Step course be evaluated in the learning objectives of the course and at a pitch-exam, where they pitch for investors and success-full entrepreneurs. Moreover, the student will have to also have to take any examination/evaluation that they might have had on their primary programme in the given period. The challenge of the organizational development of Next Step has been and still are two sided. A challenge is how to get students from different educations to be able to participate, and moreover, to motivate the students from different educations to participate in the cross-disciplinary course. (Another challenge has been - and still is, how to get the course funded. This is due to the fact that because for this intern-ship periode there is very little founding for the students.)

2 It has also been necessary to find teachers and advisors with experience in both educational aspects of entrepreneurship and practice from starting companies. Strategy & activities: Throughout the process we have worked with four main dimensions: Action, Creativity, External Environment Relationships and Personal mode (Fonden for Entreprenørskab, 2015). These can be seen in relation to the objectives and in relation to the learning objectives of the course. In addition, the structure of the respective workshops in the course also build on these four dimensions. Action - "makes the students able to initiate, plan, manage and execute various projects and activities." Creativity - "enables students to create ideas, see opportunities, divergent thinking and to give open, experimental and improvisational." The external relation - "the way students perceive their environment as an arena of entrepreneurial activity - entrepreneurial actions requires insight into the context in which these actions should be in." Personal settings - "development of students believe that their own resources can act in the world and affect the life, career and external circumstances." (Taxonomy from Fonden for Entreprenørskab, 2015) The process is based on the possibility of an interdisciplinary collaboration between students on the Next Step course. The students in the Next Step course come from different programs under UCN, so there is every opportunity for increased interdisciplinary cooperation. Here the focus is constantly on entrepreneurship, but here the emphasis is on the creation of innovative new concepts/products across their professional disciplines. This process will allow the emergence of new businesses among students at Next Step, as they may have, alongside their existing businesses. The list below shows the progress of the nine workshops in the Next Step course. Workshop 1 - Intrapreneur vs. Entrepreneur - Business Model You - Insights discovery personal profile Workshop 2

3 - Business Model Canvas - Economy - Value creation Workshop 3 - Skills dating, innovative process across the educational programmes. Workshop 4 - Skills dating, innovative process across the educational programmes Workshop 5 - Presentation from an accountant, what to do and not do, questions and answers - Preparation for idea pitch Workshop 6 - Innovation Cube Workshop 7 - Presentations from successful entrepreneurs and relevant professional players within the area of entrepreneurship. Workshop 8 - Pitch training Workshop 9 - Exam in the Next Step course (a pitch in front of a panel of business angels and investors) In addition to these 9 workshops, students will be offered individual coaching and guidance with the associated teachers from the Next Step course in relation to their business concepts. Furthermore, the student will throughout the Next Step course be given a mentor. This mentor is an entrepreneur and will be able to guide the student in current conditions in the industry, in order to help the students with the development of the company. The mentor is found through cooperation between the associated teachers and the students. The mentor participate voluntarily (unpaid) in the process, and it is the student's responsibility to contact the mentor through the process and make appointments etc.

4 The intention behind this cooperation is that the mentees draw on the experiences that their mentor has had within the field of entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the mentees can learn from and be inspired by their mentors and thereby improve their own business model. Outcomes & impact: The program for entrepreneurs has been developed the last 1 ½ year. The first year was a pilot-project, with only 5 students, the second year we have had 20 students. The result with the students of the first group was that everybody started out as entrepreneurs; they started their own companies and common companies. After a short time as entrepreneurs they were all headhunted to jobs in larger companies in Denmark. However, they all kept some of their onlinecompanies so they are working as both intra-preneurs and entrepreneurs. The second Next Step class of entrepreneurs will finish their studies in January. By now the results are that more than half of the students will continue working in their own and common companies after they finish their studies. A group of three companies and four persons have rented, at shared office-space. A few students will continue their studies, and they have asked to still be part of the incubator. Currently, we can see that many of them are already generating a decent income and they all have customers. Moreover, the students have gained a larger network during their time in the Next Step course. The larger network has among other things been established through the mentor relation. The mentors have given the students inside knowledge into the industry in which they are hoping to operate. The mentor s involvement in the course has given it another dimension as they have been able to contribute with other elements than the presented in the course. Furthermore, we have during the course work together with organizations and other local companies besides the mentors companies. This cooperation has manifested itself in giving the students teaching sessions in relevant topics such as accounting, idea pitch, silent knowledge of entrepreneurship.

5 We have worked together with, Business Park North, and they gave some of the students a unique opportunity to have a free stand on a large business-event. The students got valuable contacts and good training in pitching their company idea, and some of them got new customers out of the business-event. One of the results of the course is that we can see the students during the course period have taken all the challenges that we ask them to do and thereby increasingly have become more and more action oriented, which was one of our goals (see section above). In the end of the semester on the 23rd of November, The Minster of Education and Research Esben Lunde Larsen visited UCN, we only knew of the visit a few days before but still two of the students said yes to meet him and tell about their experiences with Next Step. This was the second time that the course had a visit from a Minister. This first time was during the pilot-project, where two of the then residing Ministers came to meet and talk with the involved students and teachers. The students made an idea pitch for a panel of business angles and investors. Five of the businesses were hereafter by the business angles given the opportunity for a further collaboration. One of the companies got an offer from the investment fund Borean to get their company Level-up funded. The name of some of the students and their companies are: Claus Stig Christensen, companies: and Martin Bindslev, companies: and Bot ApS Daniel Bloch, companies: and Rasmus Øvad Pedersen, companies: Christina Feder Svendsen, company: Albert Just Rafal Piotr Markiewicz + Rimniceanu Sabin, company: Level Up Jonas Graversen, company: Lasse Hede Juul Sørensen and Tine Fuglsang Overby, company: Notre Design Andreas Aaholm Hestdal Rye og Stefan Bols, company: Mekko Jeppe Møller Rahbek, company: Jeppe Rahbek ( Morten Reetz-Engell, company: RE-software (

6 Anne Sharck, company: Magnificent Mama ( Kasper Legarth og Kristoffer Kjær Nielsen, company: Weboholics ( Camilla Behr Carlsen, company: House of Concrete (