I have been interacting and observing with Finnish Innovation system and the country culture with reference to the entrepreneurship.
In my view this country does not tolerate failure as it is prevalent in Japan where people committ suicided if they fail in theri new venture development. In my view failing forward is the only way to succeed
which makes Silicon Valley the most innovative centre of the world. In Finland, various technology parks and state money
has been pumped including the state funded venture arm Veraventure but without satisfactory result. In various discussions with innovation experts they pinpoint the culture of the country as a challenge.
They ask the questions as following:
1. Do we nurture diversity or despise it?
2. Do we celebrate failure as next success path or reject the failed entrepreneurs?
3. Are we run by the market economics or state subsidies?
4. Are we just creating patents or commercializing it?
Answers to the above mentioned questions suggest that just copying the models from Silicon Valley without building the culture to appreciate failing forward–success is a distant future. Recently Russia has initiated this copycat models of Silicon Valley without understanding the need to build educational systems and country culture.
Japan has initiated such top-down innovation experiments without a real breakthrough for decades. The after war success stories of multinationals faded away. On the other hand China has invested heavily on the R&D and patenting has evolved pretty well but the innovation has faltered.
Let us look at US innovation system on the other hand. This country thrives in innovation when there is recession is there. More than half of all Silicon Valley start-ups created in the past recession turned out to be a great success. Innovation experts are betting that the same history will be repeated in the
future as well.
According to Vivek Wadhwa, the lesson that other regions need to learn from Silicon Valley is to glorify and embrace their failed entrepreneurs. Countries such as Germany, Japan, France, and India need to change their laws to allow high-tech companies to be started and shut down more easily. Their leaders need to work toward removing the stigma associated with failure. Their public needs to be educated to understand that, in the high-tech world at least, experimentation and risk-taking are the paths to success; that success is often preceded by one or more failures. This must be discussed frequently by political leaders and taught in schools. They should establish venture funds for entrepreneurs who are starting their second or third businesses after failing.
Vivek’s conclusions generates a compelling hypothesis for Finnish start-up ecosystem to embark into and making the future success stories from the Finnish garages.
