Despite a strong focus on education and generous investment in R&D through Horizon 2020, Europe has found itself in an innovation and entrepreneurial rut. International Innovation’s Rosemary Peters summarises some of the thoughts that TomTom’s co-founder shared at INNOVEIT 2015.
What do Nokia, Ericsson and Philips have in common? They are three European communication technology companies that have tried – and failed – to take the global mobile phone manufacturing market by its horns.
These corporations are just three of countless European enterprises that have flung their hat into the global ring and found themselves outpaced by others – and while they have not been knocked out completely, their individual ejections from the marketplace over the past decade have been quite a blow. “We are the only consumer electronics brand to have come out of Europe in 15 years,” said Corienne Vigreux, co-founder of TomTom and its Consumer Business Managing Director, on 5 May at INNOVEIT 2015 – EIT Innovation Forum in Budapest, Hungary.
This comment is all the more serious when Europe’s innovation performance is compared to that of South Korea and the US – which are outperforming the EU by 17 per cent – or Japan, which is outperforming the EU by 13 per cent. In light of this, Virgreux argued that Europe’s future boils down to two options: innovate or stagnate. “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu; there is a real risk that Europe is going to be on the menu,” she asserted. “We need more entrepreneurs, more innovators and more growth in our companies.”
ESCAPING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL RUT
Virgreux outlined three areas that Europe needs to focus on going forwards:
Acknowledging that failure doesn’t make you a failure
Encouraging the changes that will lead to a more innovative and entrepreneurial Europe must start at the root: education. For centuries, the European education system has been penalising failure. “If you fail in Europe, or if you fail at school, you are regarded as failure in life,” Vigreux stated. Because of this, fear of failure has long has a stranglehold on the region, stifling its creativity. As Vigreux put it: “At the core of innovation is the fact that you are doing something that no one else has done before. But, if you are scared to fail, you don’t take risks, and if you don’t take risks, you don’t innovate”.
Big companies need to shake up their organisation to remain innovative
Vigreux aimed another piece of advice at large companies. She encouraged them to create spaces and organisational structures that not only harness the entrepreneurial spirit of their employees, but empower them and inspire creativity. “Not everyone is going to create a start-up and make it successful, but employees can be entrepreneurial in a large organisation,” she enthused. “If you look at companies like Amazon and Google, they are very big and they are very innovative.”
Entrepreneurs need to be willing to grow their start-ups into full-fledged companies
TomTom started 25 years ago with four people – yet today it has 4,500 people, a turnover of just under €1 billion with a presence in 50 countries. However, this consumer electronics giant would not have established itself on the global stage without determination, foresight and follow-through. Therefore, one major piece of advice that Virgeux has for those entering the business world is to aim for big, radical innovation – and to expect to be in it for the long haul. “Start-ups are very hard work. You need a lot of courage and a lot of resilience,” she stated. “Entrepreneurs cannot be going in with the mind-set that they are going to sell out after five years and expect to succeed.”