Leveraging new startup-based technologies through effective venture clienting

Today startups are a major source of innovation which has driven corporations to find more efficient and effective ways to collaborate with them. What started as financial driven corporate ventures mimicking private venture capital firms in the 1960s, and later experienced a corporate accelerator boom in the early 2000s, appears to now have its third resurrection in the form of startup supplier programs. However, even though the different corporate venture programs have existed more than half a century, those still appear to stumble to leverage startups full strategic potential in their innovation and new product development practices. Finding perhaps less severe, but similar type of challenges within a Nordic venture client alliance, then gave me an exceptional opportunity to study eight corporations’ best practices to combat typical challenges in their firms’ effective use of venture clienting. To meet the research objective, how Combient Foundry’s alliance companies can use venture clienting more effectively, a qualitative multi-method case study on Foundry firms’ current venture clienting practices was conducted. The primary data was gathered through (i) semi-structured expert interviews and (ii) two workshop sessions, which were complemented with (iii) archive-mediated observation of Foundry’s internal cloud storage, and (iv) direct observation of venture client projects over eight months. Besides interviewing the two chief executive officers of two leading venture client model providers, the interviews covered a total of eleven experts in varying job duties around venture clienting in four Foundry firms. Part of the same experts also participated in the project sourcing and program’ scorecard workshops. The key findings reveal threefold best practices, which include standardized program steering mechanisms, standardized project sourcing practices, and more outcome-driven impact tracking methods. The standardized program steering introduces ways for well-performing company level target setting, steering committee structuring, and methods for raising program awareness. The standardized project sourcing practices on the other hand consider an improved awareness session structure, more systematized project’s marketing material, and introduce an option for incentivizing projects to increase their success rates. Finally, impact tracking takes a stand on the importance of projects’ initial scoping phase, and how those improvements along with standardized pilot and scaleup project checkins can shorten and harmonize firms’ pilot project timelines. The case study contributes to the emerging literature of startup supplier programs and strengthens the foundation of outside-in corporate venturing typologies. In addition, it succeeds to provide a practical recommendation to Foundry’s research problem, which might benefit alike startup programs as well. Finally, the study suggests investing in a quantitative longitudinal study in venture client projects’ value creation as well to focus more research on different types of startup programs and their most suitable use cases in modern corporate venturing.Startup-yritykset ovat nykyään merkittävä innovaatioiden lähde, mikä on ajanut suuryritykset etsimään yhä tehokkaampia ja tuottoisampia yhteistyötapoja näiden välille. Se mikä 1960-luvulla alkoi sijoitusfunktioiden imitoimisena yrityksiin ja myöhemmin koki yrityskiihdytin ryntäyksen 2000-luvun alussa, vaikuttaa nyt heräävän eloon kolmannen kerran ns. startupyritysten hankintaohjelmina suuryrityksissä. Silti yhä yli puolivuosisataa kestäneen kokeilujakson jälkeen yritykset vaikuttavat jokseenkin yhä hapuilevan pyrkimyksissään valjastaa startup-yritysten koko potentiaali osaksi omia innovaatio- ja tuotekehitysprosessejaan. Havaitessani todennäköisesti vähemmän vakavia, mutta vastaavanlaisia haasteista pohjoismaisessa venture client -allianssissa, sain kuitenkin poikkeuksellisen mahdollisuuden tutkia, miten näihin haasteisiin vastataan allianssin kahdeksassa jäsenyrityksessä. Lähestyin tutkimuskysymystä, miten Combient Foundry:n allianssiyritykset voisivat käyttää venture client -mallia tehokkaimmin, laadullisella monimenetelmällisellä tapaustutkimuksella. Data kerättiin lähtökohtaisesti (i) puolistrukturoiduilla asiantuntijahaastatteluilla ja (ii) työpajakeskusteluilla, mitä tuettiin (iii) arkistopohjaisella Foundryn pilvipalveluhavainnoinnilla sekä havainnoimalla venture client -projektien toteutusta yhteensä kahdeksan kuukauden ajan. Kahden johtavan venture client -mallin toimitusjohtajien haastattelun lisäksi haastattelut sisälsi yhteensä 11 asiantuntijaa erilaisissa toimitehtävissä mallin ympärillä. Samoja asiantuntijoita osallistui myös työpajoihin, jotka koskivat projektihankinnan tehostamista sekä ohjelman seurantamekanismien kehittämistä. Päälöydökset sisältävät kolme tehostamiskäytäntöjä, jotka ovat johtamiskäytäntöjen vakiointi, projektihankintakäytäntöjen vakiointi sekä entistä tulosorientoituneempaan mittaamiseen siirtyminen. Vakioidut johtamiskäytännöt ottavat kantaa yritystason tavoiteasetantaan, johtoryhmän strukturointiin sekä tapoihin ohjelman tietoisuuden levittämiseksi. Projektihankintakäytäntöjen vakiointi ehdottaa puolestaan entistä strukturoidumpia tiedonlevitystilaisuuksia, vakioidumpia yritysten sisäisen markkinoinnin materiaaleja sekä kannustinperusteisten projektien mahdollisuutta. Tulosorientoituneempi mittaaminen painottaa projektien ongelmamääritystilanteen tärkeyttä ja sitä, miten se yhdessä entistä vakioidumpien pilottiprojektitapaamisten avulla voisi lyhentää ja harmonisoida eri teknologiakokeiluiden aikatauluja. Tutkimus edistää orastavaa startup-yritysten hankintaohjelmien kirjallisuutta ja vahvistaa typologioita yritysten ulkoa-sisäänpäin yrityssijoittamisessa. Lisäksi se onnistuu tarjoamaan käytännönläheisen suosituksen Foundryn tutkimusongelmaan, josta voi olla hyötyä myös muille vastaavan tapaisille startup-yritysten hankintaohjelmille. Lopulta, työssä esitetään jatkotutkimustarve kvantitatiiviselle pitkittäistutkimukselle venture client projektien arvonluonnissa sekä tarkempaan selvitykseen siitä, mitä eri startupyritysten hankintaohjelmia on olemassa ja mikä on niiden sopivin käyttökohde osana modernia yrityssijoitustoimintaa

Designing resilient military logistics with additive manufacturing

Purpose In this study, the authors explore how novel and relevant technologies can change the overall design of systems, and which factors influence the design of resilient systems in particular. After evaluating the effects of these factors, the authors describe the potential role of AM-supported maintenance operations in military logistics and draw broader conclusions regarding designing for resilience. Design/methodology/approach The authors build a simulation model of the AM-supported maintenance capability of a mechanised battalion to analyse factors affecting its resilience. AM production capacity specifically refers to metal printing and was verified by data generated from 3D printing of the actual APC parts. Findings The current AM speed is not able to increase resilience at the depot level, so at present, increasing the spare parts inventory is a better way to improve resilience. However, with future improvements in speed the AM may become feasible in battlefield maintenance. Practical implications AM holds great promise in increasing resilience of especially the spare part logistics. At present technology, it is not yet fully realised in the case. Originality/value The authors suggest a concrete system performance measure, where reaching a concrete limit, system resilience is lost. The authors present arguments for a definition of resilience where pre-disruption activities are not part of resilience. The authors maintain that simulation, with its ability to include detail, is well-suited in design-for-resilience because supply chains are context dependent and disruptions unexpected

Eivät pelkästään neuvostosotilaat

Als die Soldaten kamen. Die Vergewaltigung deutscher Frauen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges / Miriam Gebhardt. München : Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2015

Vanhalla tavalla uutta ensimmäisen maailmansodan taustoista

Die Schlafwandler : wie Europa in den Ersten Weltkrieg zog / Christopher Clark. München : Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, cop. 2013

Do adverse perinatal events predict mortality in schizophrenia during midlife?

Background: We examined mortality in schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) and non-schizophrenic psychosis (NSSD) compared to individuals without psychosis, and whether perinatal factors predict mortality. Methods: Within Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (n = 10 933; 203 with SSD, 178 with NSSD), mortality was followed until end of 2011 by national register. Wantedness of pregnancy, mother's antenatal depression, smoking and age, parity, paternal socio-economic status (SES) and family type at birth were examined as predictors of mortality. Results: Mortality was higher in SSD (hazard ratio (HR) 3.60; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.38-5.45) and NSSD (4.05; 2.65-6.17) compared to persons without psychoses after adjustment for gender. HR for natural death was 2.01 (0.82-4.91) in SSD and 4.63 (2.43-8.80) in NSSD after adjustment for gender. Corresponding figures for unnatural deaths were 4.71 (2.94-7.54) and 2.94 (1.56-5.55), respectively. Among non-psychotic persons, mother's depression, smoking and low SES predicted mortality after adjustment for gender and parental psychoses (and SES), whereas among psychosis those whose father was a farmer had lower risk of mortality compared to those with high SES. Conclusions: Individuals with SSD had a higher risk of unnatural death and individuals with NSSD of natural and unnatural deaths. Perinatal factors seem to be more important predictors of mortality in individuals without psychoses than with psychoses. According to population-based long follow-up data, it is important to pay attention to somatic morbidity behind natural causes of death in psychoses and to prevent suicides in order to prevent excess mortality. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Off-label prescribing of antipsychotics - a questionnaire survey of Finnish physicians

English abstract.Peer reviewe

Prophylactic retrorectus mesh versus no mesh in midline emergency laparotomy closure for prevention of incisional hernia (PREEMER) : study protocol for a multicentre, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial

Background: Despite the fact that emergency midline laparotomy is a risk factor for an incisional hernia, active research on hernia prevention in emergency settings is lacking. Different kinds of meshes and mesh positions have been studied in elective abdominal surgery, but no randomized controlled trials in emergency settings have been published thus far. Method: The PREEMER trial (registration number NCT04311788) is a multicentre, patient- and assessor-blinded, randomized controlled trial to be conducted in six hospitals in Finland. A total of 244 patients will be randomized at a 1 : 1 ratio to either the retrorectus mesh group, featuring a self-gripping prophylactic mesh, or to the no mesh (control) group, both closed by small-stitch 4 : 1 closure with continuous slowly absorbable monofilament suturing. The primary outcome of the PREEMER trial is the incidence of incisional hernia 2 years after surgery, which will be detected clinically and/or radiologically. Secondary outcomes are the Comprehensive Complication Index score, incidence of surgical-site infections and fascial dehiscence within 30 days of surgery; the incisional hernia repair rate and mesh- or hernia-related reoperations within the 2- and 5-year follow-ups; the incidence of incisional hernia within the 5-year follow-up; and quality of life measured by RAND-36, the Activities Assessment Scale and the PROMIS questionnaire within 30 days and 2 and 5 years from surgery. Additionally, health-economic explorative measures will be explored. Conclusion: The PREEMER trial will provide level 1 evidence on incisional hernia prevention in an emergency setting.Peer reviewe

Impact of sphincter lesions and delayed sphincter repair on sacral neuromodulation treatment outcomes for faecal incontinence : results from a Finnish national cohort study

PurposeThe aim of this multicentre study was to analyse the effects of patent sphincter lesions and previous sphincter repair on the results of sacral neuromodulation (SNM) treatment on patients with faecal incontinence (FI).MethodsPatients examined by endoanal ultrasound (EAUS) with FI as the indication for SNM treatment were included in the study. Data was collected from all the centres providing SNM treatment in Finland and analysed for differences in treatment outcomes.ResultsA total of 237 patients treated for incontinence with SNM had been examined by EAUS. Of these patients, 33 had a history of previous delayed sphincter repair. A patent sphincter lesion was detected by EAUS in 128 patients. The EAUS finding did not influence the SNM test phase outcome (p=0.129) or the final treatment outcome (p=0.233). Patient's history of prior sphincter repair did not have a significant effect on the SNM test (p=0.425) or final treatment outcome (p=0.442).ConclusionsResults of our study indicate that a sphincter lesion or previous sphincter repair has no significant effect on the outcome of SNM treatment. Our data suggests that delayed sphincter repair prior to SNM treatment initiation for FI is not necessary.Peer reviewe

Orgaanisten kierrätyslannoitevalmisteiden metsäkäyttö tukee kiertotaloutta

Orgaanisia kierrätyslannoitevalmisteita käytetään tällä hetkellä maataloudessa, mutta niiden käyttö metsissä ei ole ollut sallittua. Kansallisen lannoitevalmistelainsäädännön uudistamistyön myötä aihe on Suomessa ajankohtainen. Orgaanisten lannoitevalmisteiden metsäkäytön salliminen edistää paitsi ravinteiden kierrätystä, myös orgaanisten sivuvirtojen hyödyntämistä osana biokiertotaloutta