Good practice:

Yritystakomo ("enterprise smithy")

Problem Addressed:

Nokia invested billions in R&D investments at Oulu. This was the biggest factor in “Oulu miracle” resulting in 15,000 IT jobs during 2000’s.
Nokia lost its competitiveness leading also many subcontractors and also other big companies down.
In it’s worst there were 3500 – 4500 IT specialists unemployed in the Oulu region.

How Objectives are reached:

Peer networked enterprise incubator included:
highly skilled and networked facilitator
supporting personnel to management consultation
open and peer-evaluating information sharing practices
frequent networking events and training courses.
Incubator was formed by public project funding as an enterprise form.
Attendants were engaged in the formal agreement of practices and confidentiality.
The aim was to develop and evaluate business plans and establish a company.
In addition, matchmaking, job and employee services, and different training courses.

Stakeholders:
Business Oulu, Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, local government officials, universities, unemployed professionals and start-ups.

The cost of the project was 400 000 € a year, including premises, events, pieces of training.
There were one full time employee and one or two part-time workers.
The budget was covered together by the City of Oulu / (Business Oulu) and Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environme

Concrete outcomes include:
1000 people participated in the activities
109 start-ups and 400 jobs
The online services for matchmaking and job offers delivered 1900 open positions and over 2000 registered job seekers.
Innovation courses have introduced new industries such as health care, energy, and insurance for participants.

There is a need for a suitable professional person(s) to create the right atmosphere, Gaining critical mass can be difficult and also creating this kind of trusty environment if people do not know each other at all before.

This good practice was indicated as a highly valuable project by it’s concrete outcomes.
Originally the project designed to continues 3 years, but because of its success it was extended to 7 years.
The city of Oulu was going through a rapid, prolonged structural change.
More than five years after the worst of the Nokia layoffs, tech employment was higher than ever because of a growing number of startups.
That resilience was created as the result of bringing together local government officials, universities, and entrepreneurs to share ideas in the playful atmosphere of trust.