Key learning points from the anti-conference organized by Business Arena Oy on themes of science-to-business, university-business-cooperation and creating long-term results with short-term projects. Active ownership is the key!

1. SUMMARY FROM
INNOVATION BOOTCAMP 2013
www.businessarena.fi
(c) Business Arena

2. Innovation Bootcamp 2013 was an anti-conference
organized by Business Arena Oy. We had no rigid
structure or fixed program. All we did was to provide
the space and facilitation for our guests.
More than 20 participants came together for two days
of peer-learning around three themes:
- science-to-business
- university-business-cooperation
- creating permanent results with short-term project
funding
This document summarizes the key learning points.
(c) Business Arena

3. SOME LEARNING POINTS FOR PROJECTS
1) Start with an enthusiastic project manager,
who is ready to tackle a challenge
2) Think big - create an exciting vision
5) Act small - develop by experimenting
and learning
- iterate, fail fast and learn fast
- describe what changes in the world, when the
project is finished, but leave plans open
- be ready to fail several times, learning by doing
6) Encourage first followers and make
their participation visible
3) Ensure active ownership
7) Demonstrate the impact and
benefits
- intellectual property
- who has the incentive to utilize the concept
aftewards?
4) Agree on leading thoughts with project
partners
(c) Business Arena
8) Look for the ”black swans”, the
unknown and surprising, not the
known and predictable ”white swans”

4. LEARNING POINTS FOR UNIVERISTYBUSINESS-COOPERATION
CHECKLIST
Remember the many different types
of UBC and avoid silos
People working with innovation
promotion need additional training
to work out soft skills and facilitation
- Don’t always wait for
permission. Act!
From teachers to coaches: evolving
approach to university teaching
Also proper indicators and tools for
measuring / showing the impact and
benefits of UBC are needed (keeping
in mind subtle results)
- Take active ownership of
what you are doing, even in
a public organization
Help students to learn how to create
something new. Involve them in
science-to-business from the getgo.
Don’t get surrounded by emotional
vampires. Remember to promote
first followers, create peer-groups
and change culture from within.
Help companies to find right
questions and hypothesis for
reseachers to work on. Create pull,
not push, to get getting scientists
involved in science-to-business
activity
New financing and cooperation
methods?
People need to perceive drivers and
benefits to become active: money
and financial interests are not
always top priority for scientists and
researchers
(c) Business Arena
- Be visible and nurture your
first followers
- Become too big to fail or to
be prevented
- Start with the individual
and his/her agenda

5. SUMMARY
(c) Business Arena

6. LEARNING PROCESS
1 (socialization)
2 (externalization)
Talking, “throwing ideas”,
“talking during breaks”,
formal dialogue sessions
Finding patterns & leverage
points, tools and new ideas,
making lists of main findings
4 (internalization)
3 (combination)
Action Making plans and prototypes,
Testing ideas in practice, using
creating and finding new ideas
plans to generate action
(c) Business Arena
Source: Nonaka, Ikujiro & Takeuchi, Hirotaka. 1995.
The Knowledge-Creating Company.

7. Victoria Galan-Muros & Todd Davey,
Science-to-Business Marketing
Research Centre FH Münster
Victoria and Todd presented their ecosystem model for UBC
(university-business-cooperation), which was based on their earlier
European-wide research on the subject. HIPPO study can be
downloaded here: http://ec.europa.eu/education/highereducation/doc/business/thematic11/davey_en.pdf
KEY LEARNING POINTS
•
UBC is the engine of knowledge society
•
UBC is diverse: besides commercialization and R&D
collaboration it can also e.g. mean curriculum delivery
(involving businesses in study design) and governance
(involving academicians in business boards for strategic level
impact)
•
Active academicians cooperate in many forms - yet when
universities design cooperation mechanisms, they sometimes
create silos that inhabit real-life behaviour.
•
Academicians have different needs: those with +5 years of
business experience have no trouble approaching businesses,
but might need the help of TTO for fighting bureaucracy
”Impact! We need to elevate the knowledge of UBC impact on the
same footing as teaching and research. This must be managed and
proven. Impact must be evaluated with not just numbers, but also
stories.”
•
•
Output of a project =/ not always outcome for stakeholders
•
(c) Business Arena
UBC is always about selling benefits and outcomes for different
stakeholders
Those who see barriers to UBC, have less cooperation, but
removal of barriers doesn’t automatically create UBC. People
also need drivers! Perceived personal benefits and personal
agenda pushes them to do something.

8. ”Innovation managers are generalists
with career councelling skills.”
”Our knowledge of issues takes place in T-shape. We need to know enough about substance to be able
to put different dots together, but not too deep to get lost.”
”We need more soft skills for managing people- participatory skills and methods.”
”Innovation managers don’t have proper training, or places for failing safely. If you’re studying to
become a hairdresser, you need to do several practice cuts beforehand - and fail several times. With
innovation management this isn’t possible. We’re supposed to get everything right on the first try.”
(c) Business Arena

9. Antti-Jussi Tahvanainen, ETLA
DARPA project managers have no sense of security. They have four
years to do the impossible. 85-90% of the projects fail. Those that
succeed, create everlasting changes.
”Everything starts with the individual - the project manager and his
agenda and vision.”
Read Antti’s article on DARPA here (in Finnish):
http://www.etla.fi/wp-content/uploads/ETLA-Muistio-Brief-8.pdf
DOWNLOAD THE
PLAYBOOK INSPIRED
BY DARPA
http://innovation.io/playbook/
(c) Business Arena

10. ANSSI TUULENMÄKI,
MIND / AALTO UNIVERSITY
•
Finding someone’s personal agenda is the key. As
innovation managers, you need to teach people to find
agenda.
”Also DARPA model started with vision and individual
person! Its success relies on excellent project managers.”
•
Valve, one of the most succesful gaming companies,
operates around the idea that everyone needs to find
their own project
•
the company has two processes: employees need to
be excited about creating games, then about making
good games
•
•
(c) Business Arena
Current paradigm of production emphasizes people, not
just customer value
Our universities or education systems don’t educate
people how to create new
Agenda = starting point

11. THINK BIG, ACT SMALL
(c) Business Arena

12. ”In our MIND group, business and research
activities are totally in line with the
incentives - we don’t get money unless we
create value for customers.
It’s easy to measure the impact of
research and teaching. After all, they are
two basic purposes of universities
(citations, study credits, MBA programs
and average salary of participants).
For social impact there isn’t proper
measurement. So we took the initiative
and created our own social impact report
by looking at the number of workshops,
companies we’ve established, radio and TV
apperances, etc. We did at our preChristmas party.
Our work is relatively abstract, but when
you list issues like this, it becomes
concrete. External visibility is also
understandable for management.”
(c) Business Arena
For inspiration, check out the MIND social impact here:
http://www.mindspace.fi/mind-social-impact/

13. LATE NIGHT DISCUSSIONS
Are wicked problems
the way to organize
cooperation?
> You take an important topic,
like aging society.
> Then put multidisciplinary
teams working for visionary
goal, like creating new solutions
for elderly people.
> An ”executive producer” works
as a center of gravity.
”If your idea - or the work
that you do - doesn’t
annoy someone, you’re
not doing something
meaningful enough.”
”We should do something about
youth unemployment.”
- ”Yeah, our parents always told us
to get a good education and it would
lead to a job. Turned out they were
wrong. It’s not how life works.”
2 questions to find out someone’s
personal drivers:
- ”That’s because young adults at
universities are never taught, or
encouraged, to create something
new.”
- What do you want to change in the
world?
- ”They are not prepared for this
world with no permanent jobs.”
- How would you do it?
(c) Business Arena
Broken promises of
Generation Y?

14. LEARNING PROCESS
1 (socialization)
2 (externalization)
Talking, “throwing ideas”,
“talking during breaks”, formal
dialogue sessions
Finding patterns & leverage
points, tools and new ideas,
making lists of main findings
4 (internalization)
3 (combination)
Action Making plans and prototypes,
Testing ideas in practice, using
creating and finding new ideas
plans to generate action
(c) Business Arena
Source: Nonaka, Ikujiro & Takeuchi, Hirotaka. 1995.
The Knowledge-Creating Company.

15. LOTUS BLOSSOM is a method for
expanding your ideas
1) In the center, the X, is main theme you wish to expand
upon.
2) Next you create eight different viewpoints (A-H) connected
to the main theme.
3) Create eight new sub-viewpoints (a1-a8) around each
viewpoint. For example:
- Ideas, details, questions,
- barriers, bottlenecks, problems,
- drivers or opportunities
- things you can directly impact with your work
Mikko Markkanen
YRITTÄJÄ, TUOTTAJA
(c) Business Arena
Business Arena OY
Hannikaisenkatu 18
Crazy Town
40100 Jyväskylä
a1
a2
a3
a4
A
a5
a6
a7
a8
D
B
A
D
F
F
mikko.markkanen@businessarena.fi
+358 40 758 8712
B
X
G
C
C
E
H
G
Y-tunnus: 1600226-2
Kotipaikka: Jyväskylä
www.businessarena.fi
E
H

16. - ”Change within university culture is
possible, but it’s difficult to do with the
current structure of universities. Top
structure and policy makes it very hard.”
- ”But that’s why you need to focus on the
small changes you can effect. It’s
important not to get frustrated. Act
without permission. Start something small
and prove the impact of your work with
results. Bottom-up pressure forces also the
higher ups to change.”
”Every innovator needs
a creative bureaucrat
as their best friend.”
(c) Business Arena
”UBC ecosystem, DARPA
model, Tiimiakatemia and
Anssi’s presentation have one
thing in common: they start
with the individual and his
personal agenda in mind.”

17. TAINA LOMMI,
UUSIMAA CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT, TRANSPORT AND
ENVIRONMENT
”Think of DARPA; what is right today, might be
wrong tomorrow. We always interpret state of
affairs based on our current perceptions”.
•
The idea of project concepts in Finland is
often wrong: projects are implemented with
internal focus, too heavy planning and
attempt to control the future
”Everytime we talk about projects, we focus on
bureaucracy and administration. This leads to
control.”
•
Remember the black swans, the
unexpected results. Understand and learn
from failures and divergences - the
abnormal and extreme. Try detecting
hidden effects!
•
Building blocks of sustainable projects:
•
•
collaboration (informal and formal)
•
(c) Business Arena
active ownership
developmental learning

18. ”DARPA projects are expected to fail - and
they are never expected to be continued as a
new project. If they are a success, results will
be carried out by the industry. Sustainability
takes place elsewhere.”
”Financing officers have a huge impact on the
results, but I think this is often forgotten in
the discussion: talk about best practices
always goes around project managers only.”
”If you get a DARPA project, for certain you’re
not able to continue in the organization.
Active ownership of a project should be
emphasized. In the current Finnish projects
there is no need for it. Aim of Finnish projects
is often to have another project.”
(c) Business Arena

19. ”Who here would like to
start building European
School of Innovation?”
Screw it.
Let’s do it.
(c) Business Arena
”I think this kind of
Bootcamp should be
mandatory for all
administrators.”
”I encourage all of you to
create time and space for
these kind of discussions.”
”Active ownership and
love for the sport are
the key motivators for
us. We need to be the
owners of what we are
doing.”

20. ”I started out with mission impossible I didn’t know anything about the subject
of transnational education, but I was
excited about it!
MARI PERLINEN,
UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND
Mari’s checklist for ”transnational
education” ie. education export
•
•
Inspire and encourage: researchers are in an alien
ground, they need to be inspired and supported
•
Know what you don’t know: pricing and customer
relationships are tricky!
•
Benchmark, copy, share
•
Listen to the critics - there is hint of truth
•
Always involve trendersetters - active ones and
those with potential
•
Get excited about all the things what university
has; even about orthodox church music, narrow
down the customer segment
•
(c) Business Arena
Create case descriptions: write down what you
have, go through learning by retracing backwards
steps (rapukävely)
Talk to everyone about what you’re doing, be
visible!

21. UNIVERSITY-BUSINESSCOOPERATION
- Recycling: we should recycle the
people from businessess, universities
- Project manager pool - people you
can pick-up on need basis
- Headhunting
- New academic image and brand:
better and more exiciting image of
academic work!
- New TV show about professors Next Top Model Professor
- Finnish TED, open to everyone
- More fundraisers and people, who
sell university research to companies
- Pimp my professor
- Co-creation platforms: we want
existing hubs to use universities
”Kukkeli training: valitaan
hulluimmat proffat ja
annetaan DARPA-mahis.
Kukkelitilassa saat leikkiä
turvassa hiekkalaatikolla
ja katsoa tuleeko siitä
potentiaalinen DARPAmenestys”
(c) Business Arena

22. SCIENCE-TOBUSINESS
Showcases are important! Pioneer
scientists need to be involved in
promotion of science-to-business.
- examples and role models
- changing culture from within
Opportunities in spanding
boundaries, measurement and new
methods of networking
Changing face of IPR creation
High expectations of traditional
research groups
- new ways of working
- academic output vs scientific
outpiut
(c) Business Arena

23. PROJECT CULTURE
GROUP
Services for the projects need to be
more connected
Spirit of doing things together - this is
should be incorporated into the
ecosystem
Shared ownership: same as active
ownership; even in joint-projects you
need a person that is responsible
DARPA-way
Experimental culture and also longterm surveillance of projects is needed.
How to think in advance? We should
emphasize license to fail and the ability
to take risk.
Productization!
Many customers of projects: end user,
paying customer, internal customers
(c) Business Arena

24. CHANGE AGENT GROUP
University change agents need a
combination of soft and hard skills, in
particular participatory approach
They must excell at capturing the issues
that drive us to make things happen
Their attributes are very entrepreneurial,
ones that can also be learned!
Seeing opportunity is the key
(c) Business Arena

25. Emotional vampires are
sometimes needed to bring a
different kind of view.
But whatever the case, you
cannot please everyone - so
don’t even try it.
Start by looking for people, who are open to
your ideas. Be easy to follow. Act in public!
When someone joins onboard, nurture and
support them. Having people around you
(first followers) turn you from a lone nut into
a movement. Your followers promote your
activity to their peers, essentially helping to
change culture and systems from within.
Leading a network = helping and supporting
your followers.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
First Follower - Leadership
Lessons from Dancing Guy
http://youtu.be/fW8amMCVAJQ
(c) Business Arena

26. LEARNING PROCESS
1 (socialization)
2 (externalization)
Talking, “throwing ideas”,
“talking during breaks”, formal
dialogue sessions
Finding patterns & leverage
points, tools and new ideas,
making lists of main findings
4 (internalization)
Action Testing ideas in practice, using
plans to generate action
(c) Business Arena
3 (combination)
Making plans and prototypes,
creating and finding new ideas
Source: Nonaka, Ikujiro & Takeuchi, Hirotaka. 1995.
The Knowledge-Creating Company.

27. JUUSO NISSILÄ,
VALKEE OY
Key ingredient of Valkee’s university cooperation:
formulating interesting research hypothesis and questions
for researchers to tackle
”Researchers need to be allowed to freely create new
formation. Valkee has created them new viewpoints to work
on.”
How to balance between short-term business goals / longterm research goals:
”We are making breakthroughs in light therapy all the time.
100% transparency is our main idea. We publish everything
as rapidly as we can. Companies in the future need to be fully
transparent.”
New scientific publications are marketing material:
”Researchers produce small findings all the time, 3-4 times a
year. Our research program and framework have been
always visible and open. This is something we want to hold
on to.”
Universities should have investors walking the corridors, like
they do in USA. ”I have the money, I have the contacts. Would
you like to meet people that make it happen?”
(c) Business Arena
”Finnish innovation system is too much managed.
We have directors, who are not entrpeneurial
Innovation system has a short-sighted view - it
pretends to think what is really needed. Businesses
are not trusted enough . . . Resources should be
closer to the actual beneficiaries. Empower the
researchers and free people to act!”
Example of US-based Third Rock, a venture-capital
firm in biotechnology: http://www.nature.com/
news/biotechnology-the-start-upengine-1.13802?WT.mc_id=FBK_NatureNews

28. JOHANNES PARTANEN,
TIIMIAKATEMIA / PARTUS OY
New vocabulary: teampreneurs, not students
Coaches, not teachers: Team coaches help the
individual and team to learn. They do not control
teampreneurs, but rather support their ideas, ask
questions and give guiding principles.
Learning in teams, not alone: In the end, individual
learning is the most important goal -> team is only
a tool for faster learning
Physical space = unlike any typical school
environment. ”Learning environment is important.
I didn’t first understand how important it really is.
People first understand what they see. They don’t
hear or listen.”
Sticking with the idea and fighting against
standards, even if it’s not appreciated by everyone.
-> These are some building blocks of a strong
culture, community and viral brand.
(c) Business Arena
We’re a global micro company. People own the
Tiimiakatemia brand. We have brand advocates that
sell the model - without us even knowing it. They
just ask: which way can I start my own
Tiimiakatemia? Tiimiakatemia Australia started on
its own. It’s the Tiimiakatemia users that keep
brand alive and sustain the ”active ownership”.

29. PITCHING AND PRESENTING THE SOLUTIONS
Participants were tasked with finding solutions to pressing challenges. They had only few
hours to come up with answer - and present it in an entertaining way.
”We work to solve
wicked hard problems
with big impact.
Projects are vehicles
that you use to reach
goals.
. . . but you should need
a license to operate
these vehicles.”
(c) Business Arena

30. AFTER
BEFORE
PROFESSOR ESCORT APP
www.businessarena.fi
(c) Business Arena

31. HOW TO CREATE UNIVERSITY CHANGE AGENTS?
Start with participatory evaluation
Deliver training (in modules?)
•
•
•
Practical training for teachers: how to do UBC and
evolve from teachers to coaches?
A - ABCD license training for project managers and
innovation personnel
Productization training for researchers: how to
communicate and market your benefits to
companies?
Organize ongoing activity
•
•
•
• Based on UBC ecosystem model and HIPPO study
• Scalable to university unit/faculty, university and
•
(c) Business Arena
regional level
Identifies problem areas, linkages and bottlenecks
- helping to coordinate activities
•
•
•
•
Selling university services (benefits) for companies
Innovation events
Peer group activities for ”first followers”, scientists
and staff members who are active in UBC
Student and HEI personnel activation
Creating subtle UBC impact indicators for ongoing
measurement and proof of relevance
Professor Escort App®
Investor matchmaking

32. WHAT DID WE LEARN?
”All the presentations and stories had one
same thread - people and individuals!”
”Most important learning point:
there are other people like me with
similar challenges.”
”I will use you
people here.”
”Kind of strangely, what I learned were reminders of what I
already knew. Live your work. It makes you a complete person.”
”To get the people do things for you,
you need a shared experience to go
through. Not just workshops!”
”I have to rethink my
teaching style.”
”Sometimes in Germany
we occasionally beat
out the passion.”
”I found the purpose of project
life - learning by doing.”
”Grab the people you can work
together with. Hold onto them.”
”Storytelling in workshops and
leadership training.”
(c) Business Arena
”Give space and time for
creative people to fill it with
their ideas. This is the only
way.”

33. INNOVATION BOOTCAMP
in numbers
24 PARTICIPANTS
13 ORGANIZATIONS REPRESENTED
500 POST-ITS USED
2 OUTDOOR JACUZZIS TESTED
(c) Business Arena

34. LEARNING PROCESS
1 (socialization)
2 (externalization)
Talking, “throwing ideas”,
“talking during breaks”, formal
dialogue sessions
Finding patterns & leverage
points, tools and new ideas,
making lists of main findings
4 (internalization)
Action Testing ideas in practice, using
plans to generate action
3 (combination)
Making plans and prototypes,
creating and finding new ideas
= HOW WILL YOU PUT THE NEW IDEAS TO USE?
(c) Business Arena
Source: Nonaka, Ikujiro & Takeuchi, Hirotaka. 1995.
The Knowledge-Creating Company.

35. Presentations and resources © their respective authors
Bootcamp documentation © / CC-BY Business Arena Oy
Under Creative Commons license you may copy, distribute, display and
perform the work and make derivative works based on it, but only if credited.