Esta sección refleja noticias de la industria que merecen destacarse para conocer el ámbito actual y proyectado de la industria del software en Argentina y en el Mundo.
La Ciencia De Fijar Precios Al Software
Fijar precios no es una ciencia exacta, pero tampoco es magia – es influenciada por percepción que se tenga de su software, las condiciones del mercado y su valor. ¿Entonces cuál es el proceso de encontrar el precio ganador?
Marketing de software
El blog tiene entradas referidas al marketing de productos y servicios de software.
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Estos prestigiosos embajadores tecnológicos describen sus proyectos en organizaciones estadounidenses y europeas, y explican que salir al mundo es muy importante para un investigador; aunque el desarraigo puede resultar muy duro
La Argentina ha exportado cerebros durante casi toda su historia como nación independiente. Hoy, muchos de nuestros compatriotas trabajan en los laboratorios de investigación y desarrollo de colosos de la tecnología, para anticiparse al futuro. A veces, para construirlo. Algunos están desarrollando soluciones que tendrán un alto impacto en la vida cotidiana de gran parte de la población humana.
Bernardo Huberman es uno, y se desempeña como Senior HP Fellow y director del Social Computing Lab de los HP Labs, en Palo Alto, California, Estados Unidos, y fundados por Bill Hewlett and David Packard en 1966. Egresado del Colegio Nacional Buenos Aires, emigró a Estados Unidos para completar sus estudios universitarios como físico, y trabaja en HP desde hace muchos años. Antes, Huberman fue miembro del prestigioso Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), lugar que vio nacer la impresora láser, las redes Ethernet y el mouse y la interfaz gráfica, todas tecnologías que seguimos usando en nuestras computadoras personales a diario.
"Actualmente investigo la interacción entre la tecnología y el comportamiento social. Formo parte de un grupo de profesionales que está ahondando en la llamada economía de la atención. En pocas palabras, como consideramos que la capacidad de atención de las personas es escasa, queremos determinar, en última instancia, por qué cierto video de YouTube es visto por millones de personas, mientras que otro tiene pocos espectadores, y así con los demás contenidos tecnológicos. Como sabemos que esta conducta determina el éxito o fracaso de las soluciones que se lanzan al mercado, estamos desarrollando mecanismos que permitan automatizar el análisis para predecir cómo captar en mayor medida la atención de los individuos y, de esta manera, aumentar las posibilidades de que los productos presentados a la sociedad sean bienvenidos", explica Huberman que, entre otras cosas, es el creador de la aplicación gratis para dispositivos con Android y iOs (iPhone, iPad), llamado HP ePrint, que permite a los usuarios imprimir desde sus móviles en cualquier lugar del mundo sin necesidad de cables, ya que el smartphone o tablet se conecta de forma inalámbrica con las impresoras de este fabricante.
COMPUTACIÓN Y NEUROLOGÍA
Al igual que Huberman, Guillermo Cecchi, de 49 años, vive en Estados Unidos. Este marplatense, licenciado en Física de la Universidad de La Plata, trabaja desde 2001 como investigador permanente del Biometaphorical Computing de IBM, en Yorktown Heights, a unos 40 km de Nueva York.
"Aquí trabajamos en proyectos donde confluyen la biología, la computación, la matemática y la física. Mi especialidad es la neurobiología computacional. Por ejemplo, estoy trabajando en el desarrollo de herramientas matemáticas y computaciones para entender cómo funciona el cerebro humano en base a mediciones que se consiguen por medio de imágenes cerebrales", explica.
En pocas palabras, Cecchi y sus colegas analizan textos producidos durante entrevistas con pacientes psiquiátricos y, con las herramientas mencionadas, diagnostican al paciente en función de lo que éste ha dicho en la sesión médica. "El diferencial de la solución es que el diagnóstico no depende tanto del psiquiatra, sino que se complementa con estos desarrollos que pueden comparar, en pocos minutos, el discurso de este paciente con el de otros miles. En definitiva estamos sistematizando el conocimiento para extender la psiquiatría hacia un campo más analítico", sintetiza.
Además, Cecchi trabaja con científicos de la Argentina para caracterizar el comportamiento humano que conlleva a disfunciones mentales. "Si bien en Buenos Aires los investigadores no tienen acceso a las supercomputadoras que tenemos acá, ellos poseen un gran nivel, a la altura de sus pares de los países más avanzados", opina.
EL DISEÑO MÓVIL
Axel Meyer es diseñador industrial formado en la Universidad de Buenos Aires y actualmente es Head of Design, Emerging Platforms del fabricante de teléfonos celulares finlandés Nokia, puesto que ejerce en San Francisco, Estados Unidos. Con anterioridad, este profesional de 44 años trabajó en las oficinas de Finlandia y previamente ocupó distintos puestos en sedes europeas de Philips y General Electric.
Entre otros hitos, Meyer, casado con una argentina y padre de un hijo de 15 años, formó parte del equipo que diseñó el primer móvil para Philips. Ya en Nokia fue uno de los mentores de los smartphones NSeries, y actualmente está trabajando en el desarrollo de los dispositivos móviles que saldrán al mercado de aquí a dos años como mínimo, teniendo en cuenta no sólo el diseño del hardware, sino también cómo será la experiencia móvil de los usuarios con estos equipos.
CORAZÓN EN COLEGIALES
Con 54 años y radicado en Marsella, Francia, Pablo Gluschankof es miembro del Centro Nacional de Investigación Científica de Francia (CNRS) y fundador, presidente y director científico de AmiKana BioLogics, un laboratorio de biotecnología que imagina, crea, desarrolla y en el corto plazo venderá kits de diagnóstico basados en el concepto de medicina personalizada, que a partir de una simple muestra de sangre ayudará a los médicos a optimizar los tratamientos específicos de sus pacientes para ciertas infecciones virales, como el sida y la hepatitis C, en función de los medicamentos disponibles en el mercado.
Gluschankof emigró a Israel en 1976, porque sentía miedo del contexto social que reinaba en el país por esos días. En aquel entonces, estudiaba Ciencias Exactas en la Universidad de Buenos Aires y terminó sus estudios en el exterior. Entre varios títulos, acredita un posgrado en Química Biológica de la Universidad de Standford. "Aunque hace más de 30 años que vivo en el exterior, mi corazón sigue estando en Colegiales", confiesa este científico, que aún posee la nacionalidad argentina y tiene dos hijos que, aunque han sido criados afuera, hablan en perfecto español.
OTRO ESTILO
Los entrevistados afirman que visitan la Argentina al menos una vez al año y que tienen familiares y amigos aquí, con los cuales se comunican a diario. De la misma manera coinciden en que no volverían a radicarse en el país en el corto plazo. "Hablando de ciencia, Estados Unidos es el lugar más avanzando del mundo. Yo me casé con una danesa y mis hijos crecieron acá. Me encanta estar en el centro donde se está generando el futuro, y me adapté muy bien al estilo de vida estadounidense", dice Huberman, con un marcado acento, parecido al de los norteamericanos que aprenden a hablar español.
Por su parte, Cecchi destaca que en Estados Unidos puede trabajar con la última tecnología disponible en el planeta, y que la sociedad valora y reconoce su labor.
De todos modos, no todo es color de rosa: "Adaptarse a la vida acá es difícil", observa Huberman, y destaca que el componente afectivo de las relaciones es mucho menor en el hemisferio norte, realidad a la que no todos los argentinos se acostumbran.
Meyer disiente. "Justamente, lo más interesante de trabajar en el exterior, sobre todo en lugares cosmopolitas, es que uno puede interactuar y expresarse tal cual es, manteniendo su identidad, y relacionarse así con personas de muchas partes del mundo, y eso es sumamente enriquecedor para los que hacemos innovación", explica, y agrega que, como tiene muchos compañeros latinos, habla con ellos permanentemente en español.
Los entrevistados destacan que la intensidad del trabajo es inmensa. "Llegan e-mails todo el tiempo, incluso los fines de semana. La gente se relaciona a través del trabajo. La dedicación es realmente full life", observa el ejecutivo de HP.
"Acá podemos definir formas de trabajo de excelencia y los desafíos son constantes. Además, todo está preparado para empujar la creatividad. En el equipo no hay personas conformistas; por el contrario, siempre estamos buscando el error para mejorarlo y trabajamos pensando a futuro", agrega Meyer.
"En Estados Unidos se trabaja bajo muchísima presión porque hay que desarrollar soluciones que tengan un impacto inmediato en la sociedad, ya que la ciencia es parte de la maquinaria económica, mientras que en la Argentina se ejerce con mayor libertad y hay menos competencia porque no hay tantos científicos", compara Cecchi.
DESDE ACÁ TAMBIÉN SE PUEDE
Huberman y Cecchi consideran que muchas veces, la gente idealiza cómo es vivir en el exterior y trabajar en un centro de vanguardia. "Conozco muchos argentinos que intentaron hacer carrera en Estados Unidos y no lograron adaptarse al estilo de vida", dice el ejecutivo de HP.
¿Qué pueden hacer, entonces, los argentinos que no quieren o no pueden viajar al exterior? "Con el avance de las comunicaciones, principalmente Internet, la noción de atraso resulta irrelevante, porque todo se hace a través de la Web. De hecho, estoy realmente muy impresionado por el gran nivel de los científicos que actualmente trabajan en la Argentina", opina Huberman.
Meyer cree que es posible tener centros de investigación y desarrollo aquí. "Como el diferencial ya no está en la infraestructura, porque los proveedores se han globalizado, lo esencial consiste en contar con los mejores talentos y mantenerlos motivados, con ganas de trabajar e innovar. Estas personas están en todo el mundo, lo que hay que hacer es reunirlas. Además, lo cierto es que los centros de innovación no están precisamente en los mismos lugares donde se realiza la producción", resume.
"Trabajar como científico en la Argentina es posible, pero es fundamental viajar y hacer experiencia en el exterior, porque el investigador tiene que tener la mente bien abierta para poder desempeñarse mejor profesionalmente", explica Cecchi.
Gluschankof coincide. "Estoy convencido de que si un profesional quiere ser inventivo y eficaz, debe salir al mundo para vivir nuevas experiencias y descubrir que hay varias formas de responder a una misma pregunta."
CEREBROS DE EXPORTACIÓN
Retrato de la inteligencia nacional en el extranjero
Bernardo Huberman Estudia el comportamiento social relacionado con la tecnología en los HP Labs, en Estados Unidos
Guillermo Cecchi Desde 2001 trabaja en el Biometaphorical Computing Laboratory de IBM, en Nueva York, analizando el funcionamiento del cerebro humano. Tiene 49 años
Pablo Gluschankof Tiene 54 años y trabaja en el desarrollo de kits de diagnóstico en su propia compañía y en el Centro Nacional de Investigación Científica de Francia
Axel Meyer Es responsable de diseño de Nokia, tiene 44 años y entre algunas de sus obras más conocidas están los teléfonos de la Serie N del fabricante finlandés
Tablets Take Off In 2012 According To Millennial, With Kindle Fire And iPad Mini Seeing Rapid Growth
In a new report from mobile ad platform Millennial Media, the company compiles its data on mobile device share across its network for all of 2012, revealing that tablets in particular accounted for a rising percentage of impressions, with Android devices stepping up their game considerably. The Kindle Fire and Samsung tablets were the big share winners, helping Android slates grab a considerable 41 percent of the tablet mix, compared to 58 percent for Apple.
Millennial didn’t actually break out the overall values of tablet traffic in its 2011 report, but you can see from its February 2011 snapshot that the tablet/e-reader and other category had iOS at 80 percent share, with Android at just 17 percent and other at 3 percent. Android has clearly gained a lot of ground, then, and the main OEMs reaping the benefits of that growth are Samsung, which has 45 percent of the Android tablet share, and Amazon, which managed to acquire 26 percent thanks to the release of the second-generation Kindle Fire line, representing over 500 percent growth from its share in 2011.
Smartphone share also grew during the year, up from 68 percent to 75 percent, with non-phone connected devices (including tablets) also growing considerably as well, from 15 to 25 percent. The feature phone category gave up tons of ground, going from 17 percent to 5 percent share. Overall OS mix, despite Android’s tablet gains, actually didn’t shift all that much, with Android gaining one percentage point overall in 2012 versus 2011, and iOS losing one. BlackBerry remained steady in third, and Windows Phone gained a single percentage point.
Millennial notes that Android continues to take up more places in the top 20 mobile phones list on its platform, while Apple continues to be the market leader with its devices in each respective category, generating an outsized helping of traffic share from just a few core devices. The iPhone ranks number one among mobile phones, growing its share from 14.67 percent in 2011 to 15.59 percent in 2012. Samsung took over the number two spot from BlackBerry with its Galaxy S line, with 4.24 percent of impressions for 2012, growing 182 percent year-over-year.
The iPad mini was among Apple’s strongest performers, growing its share of impressions at an average daily rate of 28 percent within just weeks of its initial launch. Millennial says that’s a new best for the 7-inch tablet category, eclipsing the rapid 19 percent daily average established by the original Kindle Fire during its launch back in 2011. Overall, the picture that’s shaping up looks like it will see smartphone share start to even out as they eclipse feature phones entirely, with tablets making up an increasingly important piece of the pie, if the trends Millennial is seeing continue.
La compañía presentó una versión de su sistema operativo para dispositivos portátiles; como la versión para celulares, está dirigido a fabricantes para que lo incluyan en sus equipos
Ubuntu para tabletas no puede instalarse en cualquier equipo como sucede con las PC; está pensado para que lo preinstale un fabricante.
Aunque la noticia quedó un poco opacada por la presentación del nuevo móvil de HTC , Canonical se dio el gusto de redoblar la apuesta y meter sus manos en el agitado mundo de las tabletas.
Así, presentó Ubuntu para tabletas , una versión de su distribución de Linux dirigida a esta clase de dispositivos. Y al igual que Ubuntu para móviles (que anunció en enero último ) la propuesta no está dirigida a usuarios finales, sino a fabricantes de equipos que lo quieran incluir en sus diseños. Es decir, no está disponible para descarga hoy, ni existe una versión universal al estilo de lo que hay para PC. Por ejemplo, mañana estará disponible una versión para desarrolladores que tengan un Nexus 4 o un Galaxy Nexus y quieran probar Ubuntu para móviles.
Esta versión tiene una interfaz gráfica que no usa botones de control; se maneja con gestos desde el borde hacia adentro de la pantalla, al estilo de la PlayBook de BlackBerry y, en menor medida, Windows 8.
Está pensada para correr sobre un procesador ARM de doble núcleo (como el que se usa en la mayoría de los smartphones modernos) con 2 GB de RAM y una pantalla de 7 a 10 pulgadas, con una segunda versión para hardware más poderoso.
La compañía asegura que su implementación de la multitarea es mejor que la de sus contricantes, con la posibilidad de tener dos aplicaciones en pantalla al estilo de Windows 8 y la Samsung Galaxy Note, además de sumar soporte multiusuario (para equipos compartidos) y controles verbales.
Al igual que con su versión para smartphones, Ubuntu apuesta por las aplicaciones hechas en HTML5 (mini páginas Web encapsuladas), QML y C, entre otros lenguajes de programación. Y asegura que la misma aplicación correrá igualmente en un móvil, una tableta o una PC con Ubuntu (algo que también permiten sus competidores).
Para Canonical, la apuesta es interesante: el mercado de tabletas creció un 75% en el último año, según la consultora IDC , con 52,5 millones de tabletas vendidas en el último trimestre de 2012 ( la consultora Canalys calcula un número algo menor, con 46 millones de equipos), mientras los envíos de PC declinaron en ese trimestre por primera vez en 5 años.
Apple se llevó el 43,6 por ciento de las ventas en el último cuarto del año, con Samsung como segundo (15% de las ventas) y Amazon tercero (11,5 por ciento de las ventas gracias a su plataforma Kindle). La Surface de Microsoft no tuvo buenas ventas (menos de un millón de equipos enviados en el período)..
Online Employees have Increased by 42% in the year of 2012. This makes online jobs the biggest job industry in America.The reason this growth is so massive is because huge companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc, need people from every part of the world, making availability for this jobs limitless.
Patricia Feeney of Houston, Texas never thought she would have a job working at home until one day she filled out a simple form online. Before she knew it, she discovered her secret to beating the recession, and being able to provide for her family by working from home.
I asked her about how she started her remarkable journey. "It was pretty easy. I filled out a short form and applied for Home Cash Success. There is a small shipping and handling fee, its not really free but it was under $10. I got the Kit and within four weeks I was making over $5,000 a month. It's really simple, I am not a computer whiz, but I can use the internet. I post links on Pinterest which are given to me, I don't even have to sell anything and nobody has to buy anything. They are constantly recruiting people to post links, you should try it."
What makes a job best or worst? Sometimes it comes down to “brain power vs. brawn power,” said Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com’s 2012 Jobs Rated Report. Many of the worst jobs on the list are physically demanding, have difficult work conditions and often don’t pay well. The jobs that top the list are often a bit cushier, require a degree of some sort and pay higher wages.
The list changes with the ups and down in the economy as well as societal changes, such as the growing elderly population. Two job categories — roofer and painter — ended up in the bottom 10 for the first time mainly because of the recession’s impact on the construction sector, Lee said. Online Employees made the top ten because of the massive quantity of job opportunities and rising salaries. One of the biggest corporations hiring people online is Home Cash Success hiring over 25,000+ people a month its easy to see why this job made it to the top of the ladder.
Here’s a rundown of the five worst and best jobs, according to CareerCast, and a look at what the jobs pay, job prospects and working conditions based on CareerCast's research and data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We’ll start with the five best.
No. 1 best: Online Employees
Adriana Garcia / AP
Job Description: Work online posting links for big corporations like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Verdict: This low-stress, high-paying job made the top of the list because of two emerging industries: Web applications and social networking. Also, Who doesn't want to work in the comfort of their own home? Not to mention its one of the easiest jobs to get out there. One of the top online corporations giving jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans is Home Cash Success.
The job brings in about $87,000 annually and the hiring outlook is among the best of the ranking. Positions are expected to increase by about 42 percent by 2018, the fastest of any occupation, according to the BLS.
Wondering how to get started?
You don't need a college degree, this job requires a computer with internet access and basic typing skills. Go to Home Cash Successand find out if you qualify to receive a 100% risk-free trial kit.
Job Description: Applies mathematical theories and formulas to teach or solve problems in a business, educational or industrial setting.
Verdict: Kids, you might want to rethink your hatred of math. Mathematicians make the most among the top 10 jobs with an average income of about $95,000, and they enjoy a great work environment and few if any physical demands, according to Mathematican Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At minimum you’ll need a Ph.D for most jobs (and a love for numbers, of course) to join this small group that includes only about 3,000 nationwide right now. That number is projected to rise by 22 percent in the next seven years.
No. 3 best: Actuary
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Job Description: Interprets statistics to determine probabilities of accidents, sickness, death and loss of property from theft and natural disasters.
Verdict: This job makes the list in part because of the “pleasant” work environment it provides. The salary is pretty pleasant too — about $87,000.
Actuary typically have a bachelor’s degree, but many also have to take a host of examinations to get full professional standing. Most employers are in the insurance industry. There are about 20,000 actuary employed in the United States, and the employment outlook is strong. Employment is expected to rise by 21 percent in the next seven years.
No. 4 best: Statistician
Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Job Description: Tabulates, analyzes and interprets numeric results of experiments and surveys.
Verdict: Most statisticians need a master’s degree in statistics or mathematics, and about 30 percent of those in the field work for government agencies. The job may require long hours and tight deadlines, but it pays $73,208 a year pm average. The number of jobs in this occupation is projected to climb by 13 percent to 25,500 by 2018.
Job Description: Plans and develops computer systems for businesses and scientific institutions.
Verdict: These analysts typically work in offices or laboratories and can expect to make about $77,000 a year and enjoy few physical demands at work, other than tiring from sitting too much. Bachelor's degrees aren’t required to do this work, but most employers want one.
There are about 530,000 individuals employed in this type of work, and the job growth outlook for the next few years is above average. The BLS expects the occupation to grow by 20 percent from 2008 through 2018.
No. 1 worst: Roustabout/roughneck
Charlie Neibergall / AP
Job description: Performs routine physical labor and maintenance on oil rigs and pipelines, both on and offshore.
Verdict: This job makes its second straight appearance at the top of the worst list. The demanding, dangerous work is what gets the gig its crummy distinction.
“Roustabouts routinely perform backbreaking labor at all hours of the day and night in conditions that can range from arctic winters to desert summers to ocean storms,” the CareerCast jobs report found. “Braving these inhospitable surroundings, roustabouts work on the front lines, getting hands-on with dangerous drilling equipment and risking serious injury or worse — as last year’s explosion at the Deepwater Horizon facility in the Gulf of Mexico illustrates.”
About 60,000 individuals hold such jobs, which typically require little advanced education. Wyoming has the most roustabouts, but Alaska pays the best. Midlevel income for this job averages $32,123, according to CareerCast, but Willis said depending on experience and what they do, roughnecks can make as much as $60,000. Unfortunately job prospects going forward are lousy with a jobless rate upwards of 14 percent.
No. 2 worst: Ironworker
Mark Lennihan / AP file
Job Description: Raises the steel framework of buildings, bridges and other structures.
Verdict: This job brings in a bit more money than a lumberjack (see below) at $34,127, but it also requires much more training, as much as four years as a paid apprentice. The work environment is also dangerous and stress levels on this job are high.
The number of iron and metal workers is expected to rise to 110,000 by 2018, up from about 100,000 today, according to the BLS, which expects “many job openings will result from the need to replace experienced ironworkers who leave the occupation or retire.”
Job Description: Fells, cuts and transports timber to be processed into lumber, paper and other wood products.
Verdict: Lumberjacks bring in about $32,000 a year, but despite being in the great outdoors this job can be quite stressful and dangerous and it also rates among the highest when it comes to physical demands.
Logging workers in the United States total about 66,000 and their number is projected to climb by about 4,000 jobs, or 6 percent, by 2018 — below average for most occupations, BLS data show.
No. 4 worst: Roofer
MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ / AP
Job Description: Installs roofs on new buildings, performs repairs on old roofs, and reroofs old buildings.
Verdict: Roofers have been hit hard by tough economic times with only a 4 percent increase in jobs expected over the next seven years, and it’s never been the safest job to have. According to the BLS, “Physical condition and strength, along with good balance, are essential for roofers” and “they cannot be afraid of heights.”
The job typically requires only on-the-job training and income is about $34,000 a year.
No. 5 worst: Taxi driver
Mary Altaffer / AP
Job Description: Operates a taxicab over the streets and roads of a municipality, picking up and dropping off passengers by request.
Verdict: Taxi driver ranks the worst when it comes to stress levels, and you get all that angst for a measly $21,127 a year.
Taxi drivers were more likely to be violent crime victims than any other job on the list, said CareerCast’s Lee.
In many states you’ll need a taxi or chauffeur’s license to do this job, and you should enjoy dealing with the public. Most of these jobs are concentrated in big cities, especially in the New York-New Jersey region. Jobs for taxi drivers and chauffeurs are expected to rise by 16 percent by 2018, according to the BLS.
El sitio The Pirate Bay es sinónimo de un protocolo (torrent) y de una práctica: el compartir todo tipo de archivos en Internet. Llegó a ser el más grande de su tipo (un buscador de archivos que vinculaba a quienes tenían el contenido y quienes se sumaban a su descarga distribuida), motivó la creación de un partido político (el Partido Pirata , con presencia en el Parlamento europeo) y en 2008 llegó a la Justicia por una demanda que la industria discográfica y cinematográfica le inició a sus fundadores.
Los tres suecos fundadores (Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde y Gottfrid Svartholm Warg) y su principal socio financiero, Carl Lundström, fueron condenados en 2009 por la Justicia sueca a un año de prisión y a pagar 3,5 millones de dólares a sus demandantes, en un polémico juicio sobre el valor de los derechos de autos y la distribución digital de contenidos en el siglo XXI, que incluyópedidos de nulidad del juicio . Luego de una apelación, en 2010 se redujo la pena de los condenados, pero aumentó el dinero a pagar.
El documental, llamado TPB AFK , fue presentado en el marco del Festival de Cine de Berlín , y ya puede verse online en sitios como YouTube , o descargarse vía torrent. Es gratis, pero sus creadores también venden un DVD y reciben donaciones para pagar los costos..
The Nordic region is becoming a hothouse of entrepreneurship
IN 2010 A GROUP of students at Aalto University, just outside Helsinki, embarked on the most constructive piece of student activism in the history of the genre. They had been converted to the power of entrepreneurialism during a visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When they got home they organised a “summer of start-ups” to spread the word that Finland’s future lay with new companies, not old giants. The summer of start-ups turned into a season of innovation.
The Start-Up Sauna—a business accelerator that is still run by young enthusiasts but now funded by government, business and academia—occupies a dilapidated warehouse next to the university. It offers a wide range of services: working space, coaching for budding entrepreneurs, study trips to Silicon Valley and plenty of networking opportunities (including in the Sauna’s many saunas).
The Sauna-masters have an understanding of entrepreneurship in advance of their years. They recognise that there is more to innovation than high tech: the Sauna also has design and knitting factories. They understand the importance of bridging the gap between engineering and design. They realise that promoting entrepreneurship is a matter of changing culture as much as providing money. They look to Russia and the Baltic states as well as to Boston and San Francisco.
No more Nokias
The student revolution was part of a wider reconsideration of the proper relationship between government and business. This had started in 2008, when the Finnish government shook up the universities (and created Aalto) in an attempt to spur innovation. But it was speeded up by Nokia’s problems. Finland had become dangerously dependent on this one company: in 2000 Nokia accounted for 4% of the country’s GDP. The government wanted to make the mobile-phone giant’s decline as painless as possible and ensure that Finland would never again become so dependent on a single company.
The Finns created an innovation and technology agency, Tekes, with an annual budget of €600m and a staff of 360. They also established a venture-capital fund, Finnvera, to find early-stage companies and help them get established. The centrepiece of their innovation system is a collection of business accelerators, partly funded by the government and partly by private enterprise, that operate in every significant area of business and provide potential high-growth companies with advice and support from experienced businesspeople and angel investors.
As a result, Finland has become much more market- and entrepreneur-friendly. It has produced an impressive number of start-ups, including 300 founded by former Nokia employees. Microtask outsources office work. Zen Robotics specialises in automating recycling. Valkee makes a device that lifts wintry dark moods by shooting bright light into the ear canal. The country has also acquired the paraphernalia of a tech cluster, such as a celebratory blog (Arctic Startup) and a valley-related name (Arctic Valley). The fashionable argument now is that Nokia’s decline is “the best thing that ever happened to this country”.
The new Finland is particularly proud of its booming video-games industry, including successful companies such as Rovio Entertainment, the maker of Angry Birds and a leading supporter of the Start-Up Sauna, and Supercell, the maker of Clash of Clans. Supercell’s employees are what you would expect: men with beards and ponytails who take time out from their computer screens to show off their collections of action figures.
Ilkaa Paananen, Supercell’s CEO, points out that Finland has spent years preparing for its current success. Helsinki started to host a festival for gamers in the early 1990s. Today the festival is so popular that the organisers have to rent the city’s biggest ice-hockey stadium, with room for 13,000, and still turn people away. Kajak University offers courses in video games. Finns have a comparative advantage in the four things that make for great games—blood-soaked storylines (all those sagas), bold design, ace computer programming and what might be politely called “autistic creativity”.
The arrival of the iPad and its apps allowed the Finnish industry to break out of its frozen ghetto. Mr Paananen says he now has the wherewithal to build the “company of my dreams”. Screens on the wall display how Supercell is doing against its rivals in real time. The games-masters talk about IPOs and “massive growth curves”. The company recently moved into new headquarters which, poignantly, used to be Nokia’s R&D centre.
The mood reflected in the summer of start-ups can be found across the region: investors everywhere are looking for new opportunities and bright young things are running companies in converted warehouses. Hjalmar Winbladh, one of Sweden’s leading entrepreneurs, says that the atmosphere has changed completely since he started out in business in the early 1990s. Back then people like him were oddities. Today fashionable young people worship successful tech entrepreneurs such as Niklas Zennström, the co-founder of Skype, and Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, the co-founders of Spotify. Mr Winbladh says that his biggest problem is to attract young talent from other start-ups. They all shudder at the thought of spending their lives in big organisations.
Nordic governments recognise that they need to encourage more entrepreneurs if they are to provide their people with high-quality jobs, and that they can no longer rely on large companies to generate business ecosystems on their own. They are creating government agencies to promote start-ups. They are encouraging universities to commercialise their ideas and generate start-ups. They are telling their schools to sing the praises of entrepreneurship.
Many of the region’s most interesting entrepreneurs operate at the low end of the tech spectrum, often to help parents deal with the practical problems of combining full-time work and family. Niklas Aronsson, co-founder of a company called Linas Matkasse, has applied IKEA’s do-it-yourself model to family dinners. He delivers bags containing all the ingredients needed for a meal, chopped up and ready to cook—a perfect solution for people who are short of time but prefer not to bring up their children on takeaway pizza.
Monica Lindstedt, founder of Hemfrid, is also in the business of selling time. She has turned her company into a house-cleaning giant, applying professional management to domestic cleaning and turning it into an employment perk. Hemfrid has persuaded the government to treat house-cleaning as a tax-deductible benefit, like a company car. It has also convinced companies that this is a great way to reward their employees and free them from domestic distraction. Hemfrid now has 10,000 regular customers and 1,326 employees, 70% of them born abroad.
Nordic entrepreneurs are also reinventing retirement homes for baby-boomers. A Finnish private housing association, Asunto Oy Helsingin Loppukiri, has built a housing community in the suburbs of Helsinki that is dedicated to the idea of helping people help themselves. The residents took an active part in designing both the buildings’ common areas (which include saunas and exercise rooms) and their individual flats. Most of them own shares in the company. It tries to offer a balance between independent living and community involvement. The members eat together once a week and tend a communal allotment whenever they feel like it.
Don’t go
Despite all this entrepreneurial energy, the Nordic region still finds it hard to turn start-ups into enduring companies. There are too many examples of successful entrepreneurs who have upped sticks and gone elsewhere. These include not just members of the post-war generation such as Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of giant IKEA (who lives in Switzerland), and Hans Rausing, the founder of Tetra Pak, a huge packaging company (who went to live in England), but also members of the up-and-coming generation. Mr Zennström, along with many of the brightest Swedish investors and entrepreneurs in his age group, lives in London. Too many successful start-ups still choose to sell themselves to foreign (mainly American) multinationals rather than becoming local champions.
Despite all its entrepreneurial energy, the Nordic region still finds it hard to turn start-ups into enduring companies
Still, there is reason to hope that the entrepreneurial boom will also produce a new generation of global champions. The region’s lifestyle entrepreneurs have a chance of becoming global moguls for the same reason that Mr Kamprad did: because they are riding the wave of demographic change. And the region’s high-tech entrepreneurs have a chance of founding enduring companies because they are building up businesses as well as mastering technology.
One example is Rovio Entertainment, which struck gold with Angry Birds, a game that involves catapulting irascible avians at elaborate fortresses constructed by evil pigs. It was downloaded more than 600m times in 2011. Having produced one big hit, most games companies would have started looking for the next one, but instead Rovio set about turning Angry Birds into a brand and extending its reach. It struck licensing agreements with a range of companies to make Angry Birds-branded products, from toys to chocolate to theme parks. It raised capital from outside investors such as Microsoft, which chipped in $42m. Rovio now has 500 employees in Finland and had a turnover of $100m in 2011. Michael Hed, the company’s CEO, has a traditional corner office, but it is full of stuffed birds and pigs.
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Juan MC Larrosa
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