Inspiration lunch: There are new rules in global business – and we have to adapt

Tuesday, 14 April 2015
Form left: moderator of the event Tõnu Runnel, Kalle Viira, Seren Eilmann and Christina Forsgård. Form left: moderator of the event Tõnu Runnel, Kalle Viira, Seren Eilmann and Christina Forsgård. Photo: Grete Kodi/norden.ee

"We're constantly in the midst of change, and our work has transformed beyond all recognition, which is why you have to be prepared to reorient yourself within a very short space of time," says Netprofile founder and trainer Christina Forsgård from Finland at the 'Tried and tested innovation model: creativity + IT' inspiration lunch held on 14 April in Tallinn, Estonia. "The founding of Aalto University in 2010, which brought together a number of fields which to that point had been separate from one another, was a sign that we'd have to start thinking differently. Creative people had to start taking business, IT and engineering into account, and they had to start taking creative people into account."

Sharing their experiences and inspiring the audience in addition to Forsgård were creative tourism professional and Faralong founder Kalle Viira from Finland and Heelosophy founder and CEO Seren Eilmann from Estonia. The lunch was organised by the Finnish Institute in Estonia, Creative Estonia and the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia.

Public relations and information technology are Christina Forsgård's twin passions. Over the years she has advised hundreds of up-and-coming seed companies in Finland, helping them put in place a PR strategy suited to them personally. She has been the communications guru behind the likes of Startup Sauna, Rails Girls, Slush and Claned.

All of these companies are cases in point of cooperation between fields. Forsgård gives the example of the now worldwide Rails Girls movement, which mentors girls in self-expression through coding. When Linda Liukas, the driving force behind the movement, decided to write a children's book based on it which used coding terms and in which the characters inhabited a world of code, the beautifully illustrated book generated 380,000 euros in Kickstarter and was a massive success.

SLUSH and Claned

More than anything else, Forsgård considers cooperation, networking and exchanging information vital – and SLUSH was a great place for all three. "When the founders of Slush came to me with the idea of getting a bunch of people from different fields together in Helsinki in November, at first it seemed crazy – you know what Helsinki's like in November!" she says. "But 14,000 people were involved in SLUSH last year, and it's become Europe's biggest investing event. The need for cooperation between fields is definitely there."

For a seed company to be a success it takes more than being open to new ideas – it needs a great team. Forsgård highlights Claned as an example: a platform that helps people learn. "It turns the principles of education on their head," she explains. "It's not some prestigious university that's at the centre of things, but you yourself, what you need, what your interests are. It allows you to design your own study programme. And the programme's playful – it includes gamification. The Claned team are a unique bunch from all walks of life. There are professors, film-makers, funding specialists, programmers and people with a strong background in business."

A new kind of travel platform

The team at Kalle Viira's Faralong.com also features a diverse group of people from a variety of backgrounds. Since the company is developing a new kind of marketing model for adventure tourism services, the team includes experienced tourism workers, marketers, programmers and branding specialists.

"We based our service development on the client – how to give them the service they want without us sacrificing profit in the process," Viira says. They arrived at the new business model by writing down everything they didn't like in their business and pondering how to make it better for the client. This led to them to social marketing. The price is determined based on the number of people travelling – the more people there are going on a trip, the cheaper it is. "By sharing our social media posts people can earn hundreds of euros," Viira explains. "The more who join a trip, the cheaper it becomes for everyone taking part." Different price packages have been developed for different numbers of participants. This way the organisers avoid trips that are called off due to a lack of interest but which people have already spent money on.

Viira says that organising trips is simple – what's far more important is how you market things. In addition to a new approach to price-shaping, their site offers content produced by users themselves so that future travellers know what's in store for them.

Faralong.com recently received a 500,000-euro investment and will be opening an office in Tallinn.

The pleasure and pain of actual product development

Sensors, programming, manufacturing, mass production, orthopaedics, fashion and marketing all come together in Heelosophy, a company whose dream is to make wearing high heels a comfortable experience. Seren Eilmann, the founder and CEO of the company, describes the day-to-day challenges you face in actual product development: "Manufacturing that involves a variety of areas requires equipment, knowledge and skilled specialists from different fields. Everything costs money, but you have to eat, too. You've got to love what you're doing – you have to love creativity and engineering, and your own ideas. But you can't love them too much: you have to take a critical view of your ideas and what you're producing."

Eilmann says there are two ways of obtaining funding: from clients who actually need the product; or from investors, whose ideas about your business can differ markedly from your own. "And in the middle of all that you have to work out what your own take on it is," she says.

Getting a physical product off the drawing board and onto shelves takes a long time. "It's no good for your health comparing yourself to, say, an IT company," Eilmann remarks. "IT companies can develop at a rate of knots and be earning millions in turnover before you know it. With actual products it normally takes six years to develop them from concept to sellable item. But you've got to be realistic about it. It's good if there are examples you can follow."

There are a lot of technological challenges involved in physical products, too. How can you make support heels that are designed for every user's feet and for lovers of high heels available to the masses? "You have to bring your prices down when you enter the mass market," Eilmann explains. "Luxury isn't meant for the masses in the fashion industry, and equally, if you try to introduce mass production to the luxury market there's an obvious conflict." She says she likes new solutions that are aimed at first-time users, but that mass market follow-up production can prove challenging.

Successful seed companies are open to new ideas, are marked out by a spirit of enterprise (which is often lacking in the creative economy) and require a playing field in which they can test what they do.

Speakers' recommendations

  • Keep your head held high – everything depends on your faith in your own ideas. You have to think that clients really are waiting for you.
  • With enough love and money, anything is possible.
  • Working somewhere other than the seed company slows things down.
  • The best funding you can get is your clients' money – investors always have other interests.
  • Always listen to your clients and be flexible in terms of implementing changes.
  • Everything you do in social media represents marketing and networking.

The next inspiration lunch, going by the title 'Business models without borders', will take place from 12:00-14:00 on 28 April at the Artis cinema in Tallinn, Estonia. At it we will look at how you need to stand out, find new ways of reaching the market and exporting and earn smartly in order to break through amid fierce competition. Many creative and technology-based companies have come up with new business models. We'll look, listen and learn from their experiences. What are the latest trends in business models in the world of seed companies? Perhaps some of the examples will inspire you to review your own business model in a situation where resources are limited but the market is global.

The Inspiration Lunches are organised by the Finnish Institute, Creative Estonia and the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia. The series of seminars started in 2013 and the overview of this year's second Inspiration Lunch was compiled by Tiiu Allikmäe from Creative Estonia.


Newsletter sign up

  • news
  • events
  • funding deadlines
  • recent publications