Steps2Scale is a new project where the Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club is a partner along with other organisations from Bulgaria, Austria, Spain, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. The project has been co-funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union and aims at creating a harmonized qualification and competence framework for the profession Scaling up Adviser which currently does not exist in any EU country.
​

To those who haven't had a chance of exploring this topic, it is a fact that Europe is hosting around 4200 scaleups (SEP Monitor; Scaleup Europe, June 2017). 

INFO: * Scaleups are high tech companies with minimum 5 years of experience on the local market, already proven and well established market niche, have developed internationalization strategy and readiness to go and find new markets as well as add value by identifying and realizing win-win opportunities for collaboration with established companies. Scaleups are already past the search phase, thrive in the execution phase of the business model and exist on top of a solid startup ecosystem.

​The new Start-up and Scale-up Initiative of the European Commission (EC) focuses on providing opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs to become world leading companies, improving the conditions for startups and scaleups and enhancing competitiveness in Europe. Besides this initiative, there are joint efforts to boost the growth of startups and SMEs in Europe but it has been concluded that very few make it beyond the critical first few years. Therefore, the European Commission is determined to change that and help startups deliver their full potential by creating a culture that supports growth. We all know that it is considered that small businesses are the backbone of a country's economy, but exploring deeper it does appear that growing companies bring prosperity whereas such an ecosystem needs to be cultivated and stimulated.

"The goal is for Europe to become the first choice for ambitious entrepreneurs to set up and grow their breakthrough business ideas into successful companies in well-performing ecosystems. In return, they will create new jobs, foster social responsibility and some will become global leaders." (Start-up and Scale-up Initiative; EC, 2016).

The objectives in the Steps2Scale project are concentrated on the development of support system in the field of adult education and training; support to entrepreneurs in the key phase of the lifecycle of their business and support the entrepreneurial culture in Europe whilst establishing new innovative managers too.

• Bulgarian Industrial Association – Union Of The Bulgarian Business, Coordinator, Bulgaria
• Birmingham Chamber Of Commerce And Industry, United Kingdom
• University of Deusto, Spain
• ECQA GmbH, Austria
• Obrtno-Podjetniska Zbornica Slovenije, Slovenia
• Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club, Bulgaria

​

​On 2 April 2018 all partners in the BASET project gathered for the 2nd project meeting in Piraeus, Greece. The project coordinator Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club (KISMC) and the project partners CEED Bulgaria, IDEC, Caban Capital and Creative District presented social entrepreneurship case studies from each country with regard to the Social Entrepreneurship Development Model (SEDM) for BASET: Boost Aid for Social Entrepreneurship through Training.

​
For more information on the Project Meeting in Greece, please read here

The international conference "Innovation - Creating the Future" was attended by more than 200 delegates from over 15 countries, brought businesses and universities together and provoked them to brainstorm on how to work together for a better future for both parties and how innovation could be an integral part for a better collaboration.

After months of preparation and challenges the team at the Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club together with the State University of Library Studies and Information Technolgies and the partners from the Erasmus+ funded APInno project did host not only a successful event summarising the benefits the results of the project will bring, but an event full of excitement, great networking and plenty of follow ups bringing potential opportunities for everyone. There have been missed flights, travelling for days to come from the other side of the globe, emotions, exhaustion, sleepless nights for some but the enthusiasm and the sparks around the conference main hall and additional rooms were simply amazing.

The whole APInno team were also extremely delighted to have 20+ universities from different countries, 80+ companies, social partners and policy makers which contributed to a valuable discussion throughout the whole day of 21 November 2016 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

If you missed the opportunity to join us at this illuminating event, we have recapped 7 conclusions drawn from the conference day below.

Innovation plays a focal role in the university and business collaboration BUT this role needs to be structured the same way innovation is a systematic process. Therefore, after trials and erros for 2 years the APInno project established an innovation management methodology which is based on expriential learning in order to bridge the large gap between what workforce universities 'produce' and what companies actually need. The methodology shows us that from the messy idea generation moment through concept development and pipeline management, execution and implementation have to follow.

The public is already beginning to question the value higher education provides to society. It is obvious that things need to change as we can all observe how students have troubles finding appropriate jobs after graduating and trying to settle their debts which they took to be able to study at a university. Therefore, instead of making money and contributing to the economy, students waste time and incur expenses. Yes, the university model needs to be fundamentally altered so they could feed businesses with the energy and enthusiasm of skillful employees ready to 'fight' in a competitive world where innovation is not only a buzz word but reality.

We see new mindsets, new generations, new organisations appearing on the horizon. We also see new markets emerging. The world has moved from having thousands of businesses each with millions of customers to millions of businesses with hundreds of thousands of customers. This is a result from shifting to technology-supported industries. However, innovation is not about technology at all, it is about how we efficiently and effectively use what we have in order to produce value for ourselves and others.

Perhaps most people have already observed that creativity and innovation have become buzzwords for business success, followed by terms such as ‘Design Thinking’ creeping into business education. However, some research shows us that there is around 20% decline in creative capacity of learners in the past 20 years. In an era when creativity is in demand, we need to first understand the creative thinking process and the difference between implementation (doing things that are determined by others and matching against their expectations) and innovation (producing multiple and varied solutions that respond to change and often surprise).

The entrepreneurial journey is simple: starts from an idea, right through a business model to the business plan. However, entrepreneurs need to take into consideration the market desirability, financial viability and technical feasibility of the business they are trying to establish. Therefore,  designing a business model is the essence of a business opportunity, whether it is to be pursued in a start-up, corporate venturing or social entrepreneurial setting.

Universities are a great source for technological opportunities for creating high-technology ventures. Despite that, universities are generally characterized as having weak capabilities for the development of commercial applications. The academic culture values getting its hands on research, but the commercial and entrepreneurial aspect comes right outside it and this is a sensitive issue. Academia has to develop not only creative and confident minds but commercially oriented graduates prepared for the business challenges they will come across.

The APInno project has proven once again the importance of business and academia partnership. But the collaboration focuses on the topic of innovation and this has brought new amazing ideas for future work on assisting the two parties. The project sets out important points to look at, for example, how such collaboration can accelerate the university-work transition for students through internships and how setting real innovation challenges to be solved by students could be a real asset for businesses. Indeed, it's a win-win for everyone.

Don’t miss out on a conference programme featuring speakers from the UK, Spain, South Africa, Romania and Bulgaria who have international exprience in various industries in the area of innovation, entrepreneurship and education.

The event is almost fully booked and we don’t want you to miss out on this opportunity where you have the chance to not only get into great discussions Innovation in Education & Education in Innovation, but play games and network with over 150 guests from 15+ countries.

With only a few days until the "INNOVATION - Creating the Future" conference opens its doors on 21 November 2016 in Sofia, Bulgaria, there are still 18 places left (at the time of speaking). Of course, if these are taken up fast, then you would get on our reserve list and wait until someone already registered drops out. Therefore, you could still have a chance to make the most of such an event and network with all the international delegates on coffee, lunch and a glass of wine by REGISTERING NOW.

Having in mind that the conference does not have a registration fee, all you need to do is hurry up and go to the event page, review the information and register as soon as possible in order to secure your spot at the conference.

REMINDER: The conference registration is by 17 November 2016

The focus of "Innovation - Creating the Future" would be on opportunities and challenges businesses and universities face in working together for mutual benefits. It will give you the opportunity be to contribute to a positive change in the business-university collaboration through innovation.

In this blog publication we are presenting the discussion panels speakers of the international conference "INNOVATION - Creating the Future" which will take place on 21 November 2016 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

We have experts and professionals with experience in the field of innovation, entrepreneurship, new business model generation, knowledge management, open innovation and social innovation, design thinking, R&D, business development, startups, NGOs, etc. In the meantime, if you are also curious to review the experience of our keynote speakers, you can find more information here.

With the event approaching in less than a week and registration closing on 17 November, you can review the speakers at the two discussion panels Innovation in Education & Education in Innovation below and decide if you would like to come and meet all the speakers and international guests from over 15 countries (the number keeps growing with every post we write).

The APInno team behind the international conference "INNOVATION - Creating the Future" which will take place on 21 November 2016 in Sofia, Bulgaria is pleased to have amazing speakers with diverse backgrounds and experience in innovation, entrepreneurship and education.

In this blog post we are showcasing the keynote speakers and their experience while we will still have a publication about our speakers at the discussion and games panels. Although you would notice that most speakers are representing universities, all of them have a broad industry exprience ranging from starting businesses on a variety of continents to management exprience in the creative and hospitality sector, aerospace and electronics to leading institutions commercialising innovation. In addition to the industry practice, our keynote speakers provide trainings and lectures in areas such as entrepreneurship, innovation management, cultural management, design thinking, 3D printing and others.

Our 6 speakers are either former or current Innovation Managers, Entrepreneurs, Senior Managers, Directors, CEOs, Trainers and Researchers. Therefore, you would be able to hear every side of how to make innovation happen.

Take a closer look below to find your added value in the conference where you would not only listen to the speeches, but where you could take part in the discussions and meet all the speakers and international guests from over 12 countries.

With the “Innovation – Creating the Future” conference approaching, we advise you to register as soon as possible because places are filling up fast. We would like to remind you that there is no participation fee and you can REVIEW THE CONFERENCE INFORMATION and REGISTER HERE

On 25 October 2016 the Sofia City of Knowledge Cluster (SCKC) was established where the Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club is one of the 26 founding members.

The initiative of founding the cluster is a common endeavor of a group of entitites located in Sofia such as science, education and business representatives which are all supported by the Sofia Municipality in response to the need of creating conditions for the implementation of the Strategy for Smart Specialisation of Sofia.

The SCKC aims at transforming the city into a national and regional centre for education, advanced research, innovation and entrepreneurship based on information and communication technologies.

The international conference "INNOVATION - CREATING THE FUTURE" will present the results of the Action Project for Innovation (APInno) under the EU Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport - ERASMUS + . The conference will showcase the final results of a two-year project where international partners from the UK, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria had been working on developing an experiential learning methodolgy in the field of innovation management  for fostering the partnership between business and universities.

"INNOVATION - CREATING THE FUTURE" will take place on 21 November, 2016 in Inter Expo Center Sofia, Musala Hall, blvd. "Tsarigradsko shose" 147, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria.

The topic and concept of innovation management is still underexploited in Europe despite the efforts and financial resources provided by the respective framework programmes and financial instruments. Although а common standard is established, the concept of systematic management of innovation is not very widely used in reality. Business leaders agree that the insufficient innovation and entrepreneurial culture is holding back Europe’s economic growth. In this respect innovation management is and will be the necessary tool for businesses to achieve higher competitiveness and better conditions for economic results.

The APInno project aims at fostering business–university collaboration as one of the key factors enhancing the innovation culture in organisations. The project partners followed an innovative approach, developed and tested a new model and methodology for new skills and knowledge development in the field of systematic management of the innovation process. Moreover, a flexible and holistic model for successful partnership between companies and universities has been developed. Its further use and implementation could help organisations be more innovative and successful.

The conference will provide the opportunity for discussion of the future challenges higher education and business organisations face; exchange of good practices and experience, both by business and several academic organisations in Europe. The keynote speakers and panelists  have many years of experience of teaching and consulting in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship.

The partners in the project are: Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club, University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, Anfi Ventures, Tecnalia, JODA Training and Middlesex University.

We advise you to register now to secure your place at the conference.

The Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club joined the Bulgarian Network of the United Nations Global Compact in September 2016. KISMC was awarded a Certificate for joining the Global Compact and committing to promote the Ten principles of Global Compact in its everyday operations. The certificate was received at the National Council meeting on 20th September by Mr. Ognian Trajanov, Chairperson of the Steering Committee.

The Global Compact is the worlds largest corporate sustainability initiative with over 12 000 organisations involved from 170+ counries. The Compact is a voluntary initiative of the former UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, bringing together business and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, cities and UN agencies in a truly global forum to promote sustainable growth and civic responsibility. The ten Principles of the Global Compact are aimed at the implementation of responsible business practices in the field of human rights, labour standards, environment and anti-corruption.

The Bulgarian Network of the UN Global Compact, which operates as part of the global network and was officially launched on May 6, 2011 by H.E. Ban Ki-moon – Secretary General of the UN, is an association of companies and NGOs.

One of the main reasons for KISMC to join is to contribute and support one of the Sustainable Development Goals, i.e. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. This objective foresees the following development locally in Bulgaria:

1. Development of the intelligent specialization in Bulgaria
   
   
2. Areas for improvement (weaknesses) – lack of:

• Integration and collaboration between academia and business
• Market for innovations
• Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) culture
• Financial instruments and sources for innovation
  

The Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Global Compact strive for improving the world via a collective way. In September 2015 a plan for achieving a better future for all was adopted, i.e. to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and protect the planet Earth. At the heart of “Agenda 2030” are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

For more information on the Sustainable Goals, please read here

The UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles are derived from: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

1. Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights.
2. Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
3. Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
4. The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour.
5. The effective abolition of child labour.
6. The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
7. Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges.
8. Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility.
9. Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.
10. Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

During 2013-2015 CSI, in cooperation with the Knowledge, Innovation and Strategies Management Club, betahaus Sofia and Sofia Tech Park had been organising the so called Mercury - Jupiter Meetings to bridge the gap between scientists and business people in Bulgaria and help them understand each other’s culture. At those meetings groups of scientists and business people talked about their cultures and  discussed ways to bridge the gap between each other.

For the span of those two years the meetings gathered interest from the Bulgarian community and many attended to get involved in the discussions and look for the best ways to reduce the size of the gap between scientists and businessmen.

The Mercury - Jupiter meetings were also attended by guest speakers who would guide the meeting towards a specific topic. The topics of discussions had been related to the experience of the speakers. Below you could see some of the guest speakers during 2013-2015.