Insights

The Finnish economic success has been based on high-quality education and research. However, Finnish companies are currently investing significantly less in research and development than ten years ago. In 2010, the Finnish government began to decrease its annual support for cooperation between universities and companies by 250 M€. Read here our summary of an article by Swedish Yle where, among other experts, our managing director Laura Koponen was interviewed.

In today’s rapidly changing world, very few organizations or people can make it alone. At best, orchestrated ecosystems built around companies can be strong drivers for growth and competitiveness but building and leading them can be tricky. A group of Spinverse ecosystem leaders recently rolled up their sleeves with Ulla Koivukoski for an interesting book project. The newly published Ecosystem Handbook offers fresh insights for engaging different people and organizations, to work better together to solve complex problems and grand challenges. The book gives practical help both for ecosystem leaders and all people working in them.

When our customers succeed, we succeed. So do our employees. The new promotions in the Sustainable Industries business unit are a result of relentless work in supporting our customers’ projects, big and small. Warm congratulations to our colleagues! This month, we also welcomed a new colleague in the Spinverse team!

The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund supported the sustainable development of the blue economy SMEs across the European Union with an overall budget of 22,5 M€ in its 2019 call for proposals. The BlueInvest Fund addressed the challenge of developing and bringing to market new products, services, and business models for early-stage businesses, SMEs and scale-ups. The next BlueInvest call 2020 with a budget of 20 M€ is planned to be published later this autumn with a deadline in mid-January 2021. Is your company ready to tackle the new opportunities enabled by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund? Find out how Spinverse can help you get ready for the upcoming funding opportunity!

In July, Spinverse Consultant Sonja Lätti defended her doctoral dissertation on the evolution of innovation and strategy processes at Aalto University School of Business, becoming the 14th holder of doctorate degree in our company. She presented her case study on the development of the people flow solutions at KONE between 2004-2015. The findings show how the efforts on both top and middle management levels are interconnected when driving change in a large organisation. We asked Sonja a few questions about her research and how she managed to combine work and scientific study.

In the midst of the pandemic, Spinverse welcomed several new colleagues onboard. Some of them started as permanent employees and some joined us for the summer. Between April and early June, we have onboarded a total of nine new colleagues at Spinverse with little or no face-to-face contact. How did it go?

Nokia and its partners are targeting the global smart city markets, worth tens of billions of euros.  The LuxTurrim5G ecosystem coordinated by Spinverse has just completed a one-of-a-kind piloting environment that boosts the development of new data-driven services for cities both in Finland and abroad. It covers the route from Nokia HQ Campus in Espoo, Finland, to the nearby Kera railway station. Comprising of 19 smart poles with the latest 5G technology and altogether 250 interconnected devices, it brings super-fast connectivity and extensive sensor network available for practical piloting of digital smart city services. 

LuxTurrim5G ecosystem led by Spinverse and Nokia has recently gained outstanding traction by being awarded with honors in the Traficom 5G Innovation Competition. LuxTurrim5G is an intensive innovation ecosystem of 26 partners working closely together to tackle the critical challenges of urbanization through building the digital backbone for a smart city, which enables a multitude of necessary digital services.

New year – new challenges! Mikael Sundholm, Germain Courtois, Amir Moslemi and Patrick Halford all started year 2020 with new and exciting responsibilities by joining Spinverse. Let’s have a closer look.

Business Finland and companies involved in its digitalisation programs have joined forces to fund research and development activities with one billion euros in the upcoming five years. Spinverse is commissioned to help in getting the most out of the billion in this big digital transformation for Finland.