Ecosystem: The Key Ingredient of a Successful Company

Every company with an ideal fit for commercial success is on the look-out for an ecosystem capable of addressing their growth and scaling requirements. Choosing the right ecosystem is as important to driving innovation as water is to fish. There are certain parameters that act as enablers of innovation and must be checked off before deciding on a location. Here are 6 characteristics of a successful company.

Skilled Resources

The foot army of any company are their employees. To ensure that your product/service is mobilized optimally, it’s crucial to choose a location that has world-class education. A location like this most definitely has a cultural undercurrent of entrepreneurship and innovation, also indicative of the eminence of human resources available.

Academic Research

Colleges and universities are bedrock of innovations and research and a region with a number of these pedigreed institutions is naturally disposed towards fostering talent. From a product or service development perspective, a region with a strong foothold in versatile research indicates that the needed support and competency are present for a company’s development through various stages of its evolution cycle.

Competition

Innovation is fueled in a competitive environment. R&D focused competitors keep the industry on its toes and at the same time, pushes for continual search for a breakthrough that would set a new benchmark in quality standards. An open, competitive market helps set a bar that serves a dual purpose – it pushes players to constantly innovate and strive for improvement and category creation. Aside from this, a bar set in terms of quality is instrumental in helping regiment a structure for processes and efficiency. All of these are pivotal for the holistic advancement of a global company with multiple markets and long-term objectives.

Investors and Accelerators

Investors are one of the biggest deciding factors of a region’s business capability. A robust investor ecosystem can nurture companies to build their business in an optimum way. Besides the plus of leveraging their network of contacts, investors are also guiding compasses required to understand a market better, both macroscopically and microscopically. Accelerators are critical determinants too. Not only are they springboards for start-ups, helping with customers and investments in their initial stages, but also defining decision makers of the management team consisting of industry experts, marketing strategy and positioning.

Government

An enabling and encouraging socio-political environment should be among the top priorities when choosing a business location. Governments have been actively investing in their technology and infrastructure capabilities to attract companies to set-shop in their regions. Besides incentivizing ventures through lenient taxation, governments are also working towards implementation of programs that provide easier access to financing and innovation platforms.

Open cooperation

Look for a location that hosts a culture of collaboration between various actors - public, private, academia and citizens. A collaborative, open ecosystem is bedrock for opportunities to pilot and demonstrate real-life applicability of proof-of-concepts of new innovations. Access to real-life data through open source utilization is also a great approach to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. A location that has developed its capabilities of producing and utilizing digital services and has a mechanism in place to make the data generated and collected openly available is an advocate of innovation and advancement.

A versatile business landscape equipped to support ambition, with concentration of companies and industries across sizes and structures, and an atmosphere for co-creation and innovation is a stepping-stone. One must always look for enabling factors such as incubators, technology hubs, financing and transfer and commercialization of technology before deciding. Being part of nimble, progressive and advanced ecosystems can push companies further than they could go on their own and should be sought by any company seeking sustenance, growth and success.

By Mr. Sandeep Shah, Senior Business Advisor, Helsinki Business Hub