Thriving growth through international collaboration
2021-03-15
Working on international initiatives is always an adventure: you meet new people, perform different tasks, and introduce yourself into a diverse working culture. How can you make it even more fun? Choosing wisely the institutions you collaborate with!
A collaboration success case
Estonia is a rather small country. Its entire territory covers an extension as large as the two Polish provinces of Wielkopolska and Lubuskie together: 45,000 square kilometres; and its population, about 1.3 million people, is only slightly larger than the one in the Poznań metropolitan area. Yet, it is in this little country of adepts to the sauna where some of the most globally renowned startups, such as Skype, were created. And it is also in Estonia where one of the key international partners of Poznań Science and Technology Park (PPNT) operates: the Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol.
Every story has a beginning
It was more than five years ago, during a conference organised by the International Association of Science Parks (IASP), when this cooperation story began.
“PPNT has a long history of collaboration with foreign partners, both as consortium members and as coordinator of international projects. We are convinced that the success of these initiatives is not only determined by the concept being developed, but also by the merit of the partners involved, and Tehnopol is certainly an example of excellence in this”, says Anna Tórz, Incubation Expert and Scale-up Champions’ Project Manager.
“At Tehnopol, we have a rich experience in international projects and partnerships, but the cooperation with PPNT is definitely one of the most outstanding ones,” adds Martin Goroško, Director of Business Development at the Tehnopol.
What’s the key behind the success of PPNT and Tehnopol’s joint activities? The answer is simple: despite being 1,500 kilometres apart, both entities have a similar strategy and values alike, such as their customer-oriented philosophy and their constant-improvement culture. The thrive of this collaboration is boosted in two ways: by mutual learning, so that each entity learns from the other, and a continuous growth, testing and improvement of their offer.
Exchanging knowledge
PPNT and Tehnopol are actively involved in several projects about internal processes improvement, team competence development, and the professionalisation of services, for which they leverage their experiences in a mutually beneficial knowledge exchange.
An example of a successful initiative of this kind was Target SME, where both entities shared good practices to boost emerging communication and marketing tools to enhance the collaboration between SMEs and Technology Parks, facilitating interaction and partnerships in the European innovation ecosystems.
Another mutual learning initiative is Innoinvest, which started in February 2021.
“As part of Innoinvest, we are defining the role of technology parks in managing capital investment and financial support for SMEs and designing a model investment process,” says Katarzyna Wlaź, Innoinvest’s Project Manager and Manager of the Capital Investment Team.
“During the project kick-off meeting last month, it was clear that we are all geared up for substantive cooperation and a fresh perspective on the investment processes we are involved in,” adds Kert Kaljula, Tehnopol’s Chief Financial Officer.
Accelerating growth
Supporting emerging companies in their development and growth is another area of activity in which both parks have joined forces. This collaboration has materialised in Scale-up Champions, a programme that aims to comprehensively support disruptive technology start-ups to grow, strengthen their business plans and expand beyond their borders. Networking and going international are key in entrepreneurship. The more global you go, and the more connections you have, the closer you will be to success. These are two of the main matters that the Scale-up Champions project is addressing by connecting start-ups with an international network of entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and corporates. The project is implementing three complementary paths to support start-ups: an international online incubator, a programme to boost cooperation with large corporations, and an investment-readiness training to enhance their fundraising capabilities.
Participants engage in economic missions, technical challenges, meetings with experts, cooperation programmes with corporations, webinars, networking events, and soft-landing support in five European start-up ecosystems. And guess what? One of them is Estonia!
“To offer our customers high-level services that really support their growth, we have to put emphasis on the international aspect. Building a network from scratch in a technologically developed market such as Estonia is complicated, but thanks to our partnership with Tehnopol, we have access to this entire ecosystem at our fingertips”, says Anna Tórz.
Collaboration: the key to success
From the example of the Poznan and Tallin Technology Parks, it can be inferred that collaboration and partnerships between organisations of the same kind are a win-win. But there are other factors, such as the commitment of the team, that are often determinant for success too.
“Working together on many initiatives we have earned mutual trust. We highly value the commitment of the PPNT team – I know that they put effort into their tasks so that we achieve the set results and KPIs on time,” adds Martin Goroško.
Another crucial point for a successful collaboration is to understand that joint activities are a thriving way to develop the offer and follow global trends in providing services to companies.
“Our goals are aligned, and our strategies are being developed in similar directions. It is crucial for both institutions to support the scale-up of emerging innovations and to engage in new topics like the Green Deal. It is in this framework that we have recently submitted a joint proposal to the COSME programme: the GreenTech 2.0 project” Anna Tórz concludes.
Despite the distance and the use of different languages – one of which is more complicated than the other, by the way – the collaboration between PPNT and Tehnopol has led to a very satisfying balance: 1 project completed, 2 projects in progress and 1 submitted for evaluation. We don’t know what the future will bring, but we’re sure that we will face it together!