{"id":326241,"date":"2020-05-08T10:35:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T09:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/?p=326241"},"modified":"2020-05-08T13:08:41","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T12:08:41","slug":"fa1-ego-system-or-eco-system-how-to-achieve-collaboration-between-start-ups-and-enterprises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/nb-no\/making-a-difference-nb-no\/finance-insurance-nb-no\/fa1-ego-system-or-eco-system-how-to-achieve-collaboration-between-start-ups-and-enterprises\/","title":{"rendered":"Ego-system or eco-system? How to achieve collaboration between start-ups and enterprises"},"content":{"rendered":"

The keyword that determines successful collaboration between start-ups and enterprises is trust. <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sopra Steria Scale up and Microsoft for Startups assembled 35 start-ups and enterprises in October 2019, which they invited on a cruise ship to Copenhagen to discuss innovation. The very first \u201cOpen Innovation Cruise\u201d in Northern Europe was organized to gain a better understanding of how to achieve successful collaboration between start-ups and enterprises to achieve innovation.<\/p>\n

\u2014 By getting enterprises and start-ups together and allowing them to have open discussions, we hoped to gain a valuable insight into achieving better collaboration and an increased understanding of why we need one another, says Tobias Studer Andersson, who is the Head of Sopra Steria Scale up in Scandinavia.<\/p>\n

In the past, a lot of innovation within enterprises took place in-house\u2014let\u2019s call it the ego-system\u2014where they thought they could meet all challenges on their own. Now, several organizations are considering the opportunities that open innovation represent. Henry Chesbrough, a renowned American organizational theorist who coined the term open innovation, defines open innovation as follows:<\/p>\n

Open innovation is \u201cthe use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively\u201d[1]<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 We believe that a lot of the external expertise that can create future innovation for enterprises comes from start-ups, says Silje Gulbrandsen, Team Lead in Microsoft for Startups Norway, and continues:<\/p>\n

\u2014 For that reason, we wanted to learn more about experiences that have been gained from already established collaboration between start-ups and enterprises. We could then figure out what works and what is not working. One objective of the cruise was that all parties would gain a better understanding of each other\u2019s challenges and priorities.<\/p>\n

Communication and mutual understanding<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For open innovation and collaboration to be successful, certain elements must be in place. The most important ones are good communication, and mutual understanding. Start-ups generally have technology solutions that they believe are a perfect match for a customer, but start-ups have to understand that enterprises have internal processes for establishing new partnerships or acquiring new technology. These processes can be long or short, depending on each company’s policies. In addition, the technology solution should ideally complement the existing IT-strategy and, possibly, an established, complex application portfolio.<\/p>\n

Moreover, be it a public or private enterprise, they must be aware that time is a scarce resource for a start-up. A start-up must always consider what gives the best return on the time invested in a potential customer.<\/p>\n

Some of the most interesting findings from our cruise were:<\/p>\n