Issue N° 103 - October 2012
Keep up to date on innovation matters worldwide with the INSME Association!
Dear INSMEnews Readers,
I would like to head the INSMEnews October issue with a quote of Albert Camus:
"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower".
Courtesy of Werner Kunz - www.flickr.com/photos/werkunz/4102298379
I wish you may all collect those precious "flowers" and transform this season in a firework of creativity and business inspirations.
On our path to the 9th INSME Annual Meeting in Turkey/Izmir, I invite you to block your agendas from the 21st to the 24th of May to assist the 2013 event on "The Governance of Innovation: building an innovative Eco-System for SMEs".
Our network had the chance to welcome further new members from two very important countries with regard to the innovation environment; namely Canada and Malaysia and our network now comprises 97 members from 39 different countries all around the globe.
Constant networking paid off and we are now heading to the "Magic 100" - mark.
Please stay tuned and enjoy Camus' "second spring" with us!
Ms. Christin Pfeiffer
INSME Secretary general
The INSME Team welcomes your comments and inputs for further improvement of this service.
Supporting organisations:
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INSME is delighted to welcome two new Members, who joined our Network in October:
The Centre for Commercialization of Research (CCR) accelerates the commercialization of publicly funded research in Canada and enables the growth of Canadian early-stage companies by providing an entrepreneur with what they need exactly when they need it – from start-ups to established firms.
The MALAYSIA SME® media group, established in 2005, is the country’s first and only, all-encompassing media organisation focusing specifically on SMEs, both within Malaysia and across all regions.
MALAYSIA SME® serves close to 140 million SMEs worldwide, with its staple of business newspaper, community directory, business events, business sitcom and online news portal.
Beyond just a publishing house, MALAYSIA SME® continues to bridge and support the growth of the SME community through various channels, such as via its regular business networking and seminar series, as well as hosting the country’s largest annual SME networking event the MALAYSIA SME® Congress.
In a nutshell, MALAYSIA SME® is all about SMEs, locally and globally.
Find out more about MALAYSIA SME® here.
At present INSME includes 97 Members in 39 countries.
To view the INSME Members' profiles please visit http://insme.org/insme-members
If you are interest to join us, please contact us.
Many SMEs implemented lean product development programs in their companies to achieve quality improvements, process improvements and cost savings. While lean product development delivered short term results, companies found that short term gains came at the expense of long term growth. Systematic analysis found that many lean product development companies were spending their R&D resources on incremental innovation projects and at the expense of more innovative new products.
The article of Dr. Hamsa Thota, President of Innovation Business Development, points out the way to improve innovation performance of lean product development companies.
Read here the full article (by courtesy of PDMA).
Key players in Finland’s export promotion and internationalisation services were holding a Team Finland internationalisation day for small and medium-sized enterprises at Helsinki’s Finlandia Hall on Monday, 10th of September. Over 1,400 representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises and other organisations were taking part in the event.
Speakers at the event were President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö, Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb, Minister of Economic Affairs Jyri Häkämies, and representatives of several Finnish companies. The Team Finland event also featured 12 workshops at which enterprises were expressing their opinions on how to support export promotion and internationalisation services. The workshops were organised by geographical area and in line with sector-specific themes.
The Team Finland concept refers to a new networked way of arranging more co-ordinated export promotion and internationalisation services for companies. Close collaboration among diverse service providers is intensified and efficiency enhanced, to make the services more customer-oriented. The Team Finland model of operation is based on the action plan for external economic relations that the Government adopted in spring, which supports employment and internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular.
A strategic steering group was appointed for Team Finland in early August, chaired by Prime Minister Katainen. "Success in the global market is of the utmost importance for Finland and Finnish enterprises. For this reason, the entire Government wants to stand behind the Team Finland initiative. This event will be a unique opportunity for us to hear the voice of the Finnish enterprise field so that we can steer organisations that promote exports and internationalisation to help the enterprise field in the best possible way," Prime Minister Katainen explained.
The Team Finland event has been arranged jointly by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Confederation of Finnish Industries, the Central Chamber of Commerce of Finland, the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, and Finpro.
Mrs Leena Zittling, Board Member of INSME and Vice Chair of the Internatioanl Advisory Group of EPROCA together with Mr Sakri Viklund, Acting President of EPROCA (INSME member) were participating to this high level event.
In order to change we must believe. Over the past four decades, this is what happened to the Brazilian economy and the micro and small enterprises. Brazil has considerably changed: employment and income rates have increased; social and productive inclusion, monetary stability, greater availability of credit and investments in infrastructure are trends currently observed in the country.
Small enterprises, which account for 99,1% of the formal enterprises and 53,2% of the formal jobs with employment record card, reflect this socioeconomic force, assesses the technical director of Sebrae, Mr. Carlos Alberto dos Santos. Driven by innovative public policies, associated to a more favorable legal environment, small enterprises contribute decisively to change the national entrepreneurial profile. "Today, more enterprises are created inspired by opportunity than by the need of work, for instance", he says.
Sebrae (INSME Board Member) has accompanied these changes, overcame challenges, modernized itself and improved its knowledge and partnerships. Today, Sebrae is a benchmark in the country and abroad when it comes to micro and small enterprises. At age 40, celebrated in October 2012, Sebrae evolves, dedicated to support the sustainable development of this segment and promote entrepreneurship. There are about 1.5 million businesses attended each year. "The focus in innovation is a strategic priority to increase small business competitiveness in the coming years of Sebrae’s operations," said Dr. Dos Santos.
The results of the EU research project PASHMINA have been presented and discussed in Brussels on the 16th of October 2012 at a stakeholder conference entitled: "Towards a new paradigm of ecological economy and social innovation in Europe?".
The objective of the conference was to get new scientific insights on the interaction between economy and environment, the paradigm shifts in the energy-transport-environment nexus, land use and territorial functions, and the shifts beyond GDP measurement and the economic growth paradigm.
The project will demonstrate that possible future global changes can be addressed today using a set of new generation of models and indicators in order to predict global changes for years 2030 to 2050.
To find out more click here.
More information on Pashmina project can be found at http://www.pashmina-project.eu
POINT is a service which brings together global corporations looking for new technologies and the companies that can provide them.
POINT is a service provided through a partnership between the International Association of Science Parks (IASP) and CM International.
IASP's global network of Science, Technology and Research Parks and their resident companies represents a huge potential wealth of technologies and innovation.
POINT does not simply search for technologies that meet the needs of people, but also qualifies them, providing the access to over 125,000 companies located in Science and Technology Parks across the world and multinational companies interested in what they have to offer.
To find out more please click here.
Innovation is one of the present key words, but it’s important that every organization must give it an own meaning.
This is the topic of Jorge Barba’s article, that you can read here.
Innovation and entrepreneurship as a big game?
Does it sound weird?
Matthew E. May shows us the potential of gamification in this interesting article.
The aim is to strengthen the 'innovation capacity' of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe and their contribution to the development of new technology based products and markets. The programme will help SMEs to outsource research, increase their research efforts, extend their networks, better exploit research results and acquire technological knowhow to finally bridge the gap between research and innovation.
Organiser: European Commission
Publication Date: 10th of July 2012
Budget: € 252 310 000
Specific Programme(s): CAPACITIES
Deadline: 15th of November 2012 at 17:00:00 (Brussels local time)
Find out more at this page.
Organiser: European Commission
Publication Date: 10th of July 2012
Indicative budget : EUR 209 million from the budget of which:
- EUR 95 million from Theme 3 – Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
- EUR 114 million from Theme 5 – Energy
Deadline: 4th of December 2012 at 17.00.00 (Brussels local time)
Find out more at this page.
Chapter contributions are invited from leading international scholars and experienced researchers in the field of women’s entrepreneurship for an exciting new book – Women’s Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century: An International Multi-level Research Analysis (working title), to be published by Edward Elgar Publishing in 2014.
The book is part of the Diana International Project that is committed to advancing knowledge about the status of women’s entrepreneurship around the world.
The deadline for contributions is end of November 2012.
Find out more at this page.
Submissions are now open for the second edition of the "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Award", an international reward to honour companies working on sustainable entrepreneurial activities.
Winners will receive a 10.000 EUR reward to be invested either in the current activity or in a follow-up project.
Submissions are open until 31st of December and winners will be announced in April 2013.
Find out more at this page.
The IP Advantage database, a joint project developed by WIPO’s Communications Division and the WIPO Japan Office, brings together the Intellectual Property experiences of inventors, creators, entrepreneurs and researchers. It shows case studies on how intellectual property works in the real world and how intellectual property rights can be used to promote innovation in different countries.
It aims at promoting a better understanding of how to create and protect intellectual property and reap the benefits provided by the IP system.
The IP Advantage tool is free of charge, user-friendly and features currently over 100 case studies from 48 different countries. It is structured to increase the number of intellectual property case studies in the database and includes also French and Spanish versions.
Find out more at this page.
South East Europe (SEE) countries elaborate and implement the innovation policies with various levels of effectiveness. The aim of the FINNO project is to contribute to better productivity and achieve more comparable levels of innovativeness between the countries from the SEE Region.
The FINNO project aims at creating a communication platform of decision-makers thanks to the establishment of a sustainable mechanism for fostering innovation and contributes to the SEE Region innovation performance. This will be achieved by developing a common methodology for measuring and monitoring companies’ innovation performance and SEE countries with Technology Innovation Assessment Scoreboard (TIAS). It also aims at enhancing capacity of partner ministries and innovation agencies.
To learn more about the Project, please click here.
This book entitled "Social Media for Corporate Innovators and Entrepreneurs: Add Power to Your Innovation Efforts" examines the growing link between open innovation and social media. The reason why open innovation and social media are becoming inseparable relates to the fact that the two are linked by the need for interactions between people both inside and outside an organization. Interaction and involvement are key elements for both.
The book looks into issues such as: what is social media and how can the different types of social media help bring out better innovation faster; what are the benefits of using social media for innovation efforts; how can individuals get a better understanding of social media and start building their capabilities.
In fact, the use of social media as part of the innovation process is still in its very early stages, but this trend is gaining momentum every day and there is no turning back.
Find out more at this page.
To download the book, please click here.
The Economic Freedom of the World 2012, published in September 2012 by the Fraser Institute, has the aim to measure the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom.
The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete,and security of privately owned property.
Forty-two variables are used to develop a summary index and to measure the degree of economic freedom in five broad areas: (1) size of government; (2) legal system and property tights; (3) sound money; (4) freedom to trade internationally; and (5) regulation.
The result of the study is that countries with institutions and policies that are more consistent with economic freedom have higher investment rates, more rapid economic growth, higher income levels, and more rapid reductions in poverty rates.
Find out more at this page.
To download the Full Report, please click here.
Open Innovation Community is a website which contains the latest news, research, discussions and applications of open innovation.
Dr. Henry Chesbrough is a co-founder of the Open Innovation Community and created the theory and coined the term "Open Innovation".
As he said: "Open Innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology. Open Innovation combines internal and external ideas into architectures and systems whose requirements are defined by a business model".
To find out more, please click here.
The first edition of IOR-ARC RCSTT Newsletter has been published in October. This newsletter will be issued quarterly and distributed electronically or in print to the IOR-ARC Member Countries, related public and private sector institutions as well as regional and international organizations.
The Newsletter provides updates on IOR-ARC RCSTT’s activities as well as covering the latest scientific and technological events occurring in the IOR-ARC Region and beyond.
IOR-ARC RCSTT (INSME Member) is an intergovernmental regional organization based in Tehran with the mission to promote regional integration and co-operation among the IOR-ARC Member States through supporting applied research, networking, technology transfer and commercialization.
Please read the first version of the Newsletter.
For further information, please visit the IOR-ARC RCSTT’s official website .
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7th - 11th of November 2012
The Conference will focus on the different dimensions of empowering women through entrepreneurship as a central theme and globally emerged best practices towards promotion of women entrepreneurship. This prestigious event of WASME, will provide ample opportunity for global networking and an important platform for SMEs and their support institutions to benefit from the sharing of knowledge and experience.
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8th - 9th of November 2012
This incidentally would be a high impact event mainly because it coincides with 21st Biennial Congress and General Assembly of WAITRO. Growth and sustainability of growth will be the two key words of the event. The major focus areas related to the topic of the conference include: Renewable energy, Environment, Healthcare, Novel material and Radiation processing. The Conference aims at providing an opportunity for all stakeholders concerned with technological innovations as well as with sustainable growth from different parts of the world.
11th - 13th of November 2012
Organized by Informa Saudi Arabia and National Exhibitions Co. and supported by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the event will take place from 11th to 13th of November 2012 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a place where SMEs represent almost 95% of all enterprises by providing about 24.7% of total employment. The INSME Association is involved as partner of the Izdehar SME Conference 2012.
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2nd - 3rd of November 2012
World SME Partnership Summit
Co-organized by India International Trade Centre (IITC-India) and SME Export Promotion Council
Mumbai, India
6th – 8th of November 2012
Patent Information Conference 2012
Organized by EPO - European Patent Office
Hamburg, Germany
7th – 8th of November 2012
The Serbia Business & Investment Summit
Organized by Euroconvention Conferences
Belgrade, Serbia
7th - 8th of November 2012
ISBE 2012 Conference
Organized by ISBE - Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship
Dublin, Ireland
7th - 10th of November 2012
Innovactive Technology
Organized by Rimini Fiera
Rimini, Italy
8th of November 2012
SMEs and Smart Specialisation
Co-organized by JRC-IPTS, DG REGIO, DG ENTR, EURADA and UEAPME
Bruxelles, Belgium
12th 13th of November 2012
Mediterranean Economic and Financial Forum
Organized by Milan Chamber of Commerce
Milan, Italy
12th - 13th of November 2012
IASP European Division Workshop "Discovering and managing STPs Network"
Organized by Nickel Technology Park Poznan
Poznan, Poland
14th – 16th of November 2012
International Conference on Innovation and Management 2012 (ICIM2012)
Organized by the Brabant Center of Entrepreneurship
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
15th of November 2012
Growing SMEs - Connect. Exchange. Invest
Organized by BiD Network & MVO Nederland
The Hague, Netherlands
20th – 21st of November 2012
2nd Global Innovation Forum
Organized by Selectiva International Ltd
London, UK
21st - 23rd of November 2012
The 26th Annual RENT Conference "Entrepreneurship and Creation of Wealth for Economies, Organizations and People"
Organized by EIASM – European Institute of Advanced Studies on Management
Lyon, France
26th - 28th of November 2012
IASP Asian Divisions Conference "Open Innovation: A Great Opportunity to Seize"
Organized by Thailand Science Park
Bangkok, Thailand
28th - 30th of November 2012
World Innovation Convention
Organized by B2BEUROPE
Cannes, France
28th - 30th of November 2012
Ci2012 - Creative Innovation 2012 Asia-Pacific
Organized by Baldwin Consulting Group
Melbourne, Australia
28th – 30th of November 2012
18th ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN "Reaching Beyond Tomorrow"
Organized by ICWE GmbH
Berlin, Germany
3rd - 5th of December 2012
Cross-Border Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Organized by SMU and ESSEC BUSINESS SCHOOL
Singapore, Singapore
6th - 7th of December 2012
The Paneuropean Intellectual Property Summit - Brussels IP2012 "Patents Reloaded"
Organized by the European Commission
Brussels, Belgium
10th – 11th of December 2012
The Paneuropean Intellectual Property Summit - Alicante IP2012 "Regenerating Trademarks"
Organized by the Office for the Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM)
Alicante, Spain
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Izdehar SME is an event that will support the growth and development of the SME sector by providing a platform for businesses, entrepreneurs and SME stakeholders to engage with individuals and organizations that can help SME businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs drive their business forward and do business in a vibrant business environment. 
