Nordic Innovators are Poised for Growth

I just returned from another trip to the Nordic Region - Helsinki, Finland to be specific. It was my 4th trip in the last 8 months where I've been meeting with innovators in business, consulting and startup entrepreneurship. Before each visit, I spent time with expat Finns, Swedes, Norwegians and Icelanders to learn more about the culture, economics and perspectives of people from the region. I've learned a great deal, but still have a long way to go. That said, I continue to be impressed but what I've seen, both at home and abroad.

I believe that Nordic region is hungry to learn and drive best practices in innovation in order to build leading 21st century growth companies…and they have all the tools with which to do it. I make this bold statement after reflecting on many of the interactions of the past 8 months I've been traveling to Finland, as well as with the interactions I've had in the San Francisco Bay Area with the incubators, innovation tours and technology transfer agents I've met with during the past year.

There are at least three reasons I say this. For the sake of simplicity, and to speak about the region of the Nordics I seem to know best at this point, I'll use the Finns as a proxy for the region (I know that some Norwegians, Swedes and Icelanders might be upset by this, but I've not spent that much time in those countries recently so I cant speak to my experiences there). First, they are extremely well educated. Education at every level is competitive, high quality and free. Finns in all walks of life speak multiple languages and have detailed and intelligent discussions about a broad range of  world issues - I don't find this level of smarts to be ubiquitous everywhere I go. Second, they live in a culture where their social and financial mobility is fully dependent on their individual drive to make something out of themselves. Because of the strong social safety net of that country, there is significantly less economically induced less desperation, abject poverty and hopelessness that plague the US and other countries I've seen. Health care is free. People who cannot afford a home still have one. Violent crime is low to non-existent. Drugs and alcohol are extremely expensive, and treatment programs are readily available. People take pride in being punctual, direct and well-informed - 3 critical traits that should make for great business people and business partners.

To me, their big challenges seem to be in learning how to apply these lessons learned and best practices in innovation to build globally competitive products and services in a resource constrained environment. Despite the advantages I shared before, there are a number of challenges the region faces. The Nordic countries are still very small by overall population size - the region is about half the size of California by population (~9.5M Swedes, ~5.5M Fins and ~5.1M Norwegians versus ~39M Californians). While there is seemingly growth in organizations and events designed to drive innovation, these are still smaller in size than regions with more resource. All that said, you've heard it before and you'll hear it again, size is not all that matters!

The entrepreneurial spirit in the Nordics is alive and well, as is the drive to deliver impactful solutions to local and global problems. Many people from the region come to the US to compete in the startup and corporate business worlds. Companies and government agencies from the Nordics are serious in their desire to develop new leading world-class companies, while expanding their existing ones to be even better (e.g. SuperCell, Ikea and Elisa),all while taking care of the environment. I expect to be back there a few more times in the coming months (hopefully checking out Slush in December 2016 - www.slush.org) and relish the opportunity to help be an economic catalyst for the region both in the Technology and the Clean Tech industries. Its exciting work!

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