Business schools do not teach the startup spirit, so we launched a Startup Academy

Alex Barrera is the co-founder of the Tetuan Valley, a network of web companies based in the North of Madrid, in Spain.

According to him, no business school in Europe teaches the spirit neither the vision of a startup runner.

“In Business Schools, we learn to replicate a business model that works elsewhere. Not to be and entrepreneur inventing something new. Operate a company is easy to learn. That is no rocket science. Starting a company requires another set of competences, though”.

That is the reason why Alex Barrera (who has his own startup, Inkzee) has launched, along with other, a startup academy.

It brings coaching, vision and entrepreneur solidarity. Here is his interview

Will a European blogosphere first arise within the community of European entrepreneurs ?

The precedent post about the reality of a European blogosphere on this website triggered a lot of reactions.

The words of Nicole Simon, German English-writing blogger, have hit.

“A European blogosphere remains and will remain a myth as far as local bloggers in Europe don’t look after a international audience. More precisely, as far as they produce content in their national idioms rather than in English, the most shared language among Europeans, it is an illusion to think an actual online European public opinion will ever take off”, can we sum up in a nutshell.

Nicole was attending the EventoBlog 2009 in Sevilla (the biggest event organised in the hispanic world regarding the web, and the second in Europa, according to some standards). She was invited with  other famous bloggers coming from Belgium (Robin Wauters, TechCrunch) or Italy (Luca Conti, Pandemia.info).

Like for Nicole, we asked Luca Conti his opinion about the reality or not of a European blogosphere (watch the video above).

“I don’t think we will see it coming ever, does he say. Culture and interests in our countries are too different and too singular”, he says.

Eurosphere vs European blogosphere ?

Julien Frisch, Eurosocialiste, Andreas Karsten, Joe Litobarski and some other reaction promptly to the statement of Nicole Simon, in the first post :

“No European blogosphere ? Are you kidding ? Every day, we write about Europe on our blogs. Look at BloggingPortal.eu, for instance, on which 488 blogs are now aggregated. Isn’t it the clue of the existence of a consistent European blogosphere ?”, all seem to say.

It is true that Brussels is growing more digital, today. The discussions around the European institutions are now taking place on blogs and social networks, thanks to energetic individuals and bloggers speaking up on the web 2.0.

However, the so called “Eurosphere” (community of bloggers speaking about European Union stuffs, mainly politics) is no synonym for a European blogosphere. The latter should be understood as the cloud of bloggers, writing about stuffs from their home country but looking for an European outreach.

A European blogosphere will arise from European conversations about day to day concrete issues

For my part, I think a European blogosphere will arise sooner or later.

The fathers of Europe used to say that Europe would be built on top of concrete projects (European Coal & Steel Community, Internal market, SIgne currency…). I think a European online public opinion will emerge from online discussions between European individuals, talking about concrete issues.

It happens already, sometimes, with topics like agriculture, altough I’m not sure the conversations occur digitaly at a European level.

But as far as people feel they experience the same problems and expectations, they will feel more tuned to each other. Then… they will talk, chat, comment, post or yell directly on the web, can we assume, and move the “agora” (I hate this word) online.

The Eventoblog in Sevilla (with a delagation of Belgian web startups, for instance, taking part) had that purpose. I was one of them.

In spite of many differences and roots, Belgian, Spaniards, Portuguese, German, British,… we all felt very European there. That is why I think a true European blogosphere could arise first within the community of Entrepreneurs. Squeezed in our national markets and looking after more European/International challenges, we will increasingly search for international contacts and conversation online.

Jean Monet or Robert Schuman would applaud…

What is lacking in Europe’s innovation policy

Here is a thought about Europe’s innovation policy I wrote as a comment on Innovation Unlimited, a forum collecting ideas for “reinventing Europe through innovation”.

1. Left and right brain innovation

European policy makers have long seen innovation as a left brain thing: scientific, rational, processed, structured, top-down…
Europe has been pretty good in doing that. Many European companies are world leaders in a number of key sector, like aerospace, chemistry, automotive, etc.

But innovation is also a right brain stuff, based on creativity, imagination, entrepreneurship, emotional behaviour, human and social relationship, bottom-up… This part needs informality, serendipity, interactivity, unleashed thinking…
Those later aspects are as important to drive the innovation potential up. To let right brain innovation grow, we need to set up open and inspiring environments (physical or virtual), to ease and amplify human interactions, to free up radical imagination, etc.
On that field, though, Europe is lagging behind.
We use to say that succesful companies have managed to create a right balance between left and right brain. So can it be with economies.

2. Untapped bed of creativity and innovation within corporations

Huge innovation potentials sleep in employees head, untapped by their employers. Top-down, command management focuses on efficiency at the expense of creativity and side moves. Hereabove, “Job” told about management innovation. Perhaps is it the most difficult to achieve. However, there lies one of the biggest innovation tank we can dream of.
A.o., it can pave the way for more intrapreneurship, then more innovation.

3. The tight link between entrepreneurship, innovation and culture

Should it be within (intra) or outside an organisation, innovation comes with entrepreneurship. Foster people to speak up, believe in their skills and ideas, help them interact with the best experts to make the case for their project, will boost innovation.
A European economy with many startups, well connected, with access to bigger corporation’s open innovation processes, or just cluster of SME’s, could sparks.
For sure, that is a matter of culture. Europe should lead by as many examples as possible. We should also tell the story of a changing economical environment. Why are we heading toward a more innovative economy ? A.o., because knowledge, today, is almost everywhere. Globalisation has made the world economy so fluid that, soon, anyone can become a partner or a competitor. Change comes from the outside as well.

A European video contest to promote entrepreneurship

2009 is the European Year of innovation and creativity. For those European not surfing from time to time on the jumble of European internet portals , it is a pretty hidden information. Though, a number of events organised during the year at the occasion are worth a glimpse. Undoubtly, the European Entrepreneurship Video Award initiative, organised ahead of the European SME Week, is part of the category.

Almost 250 internet video producers, rookies up to professionals, have uploaded their footages (maximum 3 min.) where they bore a message promoting either entrepreneurial spirit, innovative entrepreneurship or responsible entrepreneurship. The winners were announced in the award ceremony of May 6th, in Brussels.

The winner in the category Entrepreneurial spirit comes from Hungary. Ducsai SZABOLCS shows a race between two hamsters. The first is an employee, the second is the entrepreneur. No surprise, the latter demonstrates much more innovative skills and out of the box thinking than the “employee hamster”. At the end of the story, the entrepreneur gets it all: freedom and food.

I especially like the second best video selected by the jury, coming from Greece. Technicaly  simpler, the end message is targeted and strong.

The third award in the category goes to a Italian footage, advocating through a “dolls metaphore”, virtues of collaboration between entrepreneurs.

The other video a to be discovered on SME Week Channel. Or on Youtube ( tag: EEVA 09)