Last Monday evening we organized together with the Finnish Ambassador: Kirsti Kauppi and Werner Merzeder, Head of Finpro; Finland Trade Center, Central and Southern-East Europe, an informative evening in the name of the JCI Vienna Project Group “International”. This was a perfect timing in the sense of the Europe Conference in Turku in June 2008. In total around thirty-five young entrepreneurs and people from the Chamber of Commerce showed up. The meeting took place at the beautiful residence of the Ambassador herself in the thrid district of Vienna and it was a joyful evening.
On the picture from left to right: Dietmar Gombotz (President JCI Vienna), Verena Schermann (Executive Director JCI Vienna and the Start-Up Service Center at the Chamber of Commerce), Werner Merzeder (Head of Finland Trade), Kirsti Kauppi (Ambassador of Finland in Austria), Me, Hannes Offenbacher (CEO Mehrblick Tink-Tank).
After the introductions, the Finnish Ambassador described vividly the history of Finland and the Finnish EU -and integration policy, after which we dived into the main theme of the evening: Why is Finland so successful? What makes this country in the North so successfull? There was a lot of good discussion in the air in the means of a constructive and fun dialog through Q&A. The main 2 success boosters of Finland were defined as 1) education and b) innovation;
1. EDUCATION
The excellent educational system: It is for example fairly difficult to enroll in the university to study just about anything. Therefore for excample those who would like to become school teachers in Finland are highly motivated and mostly very talented for this speciality. The university classes in Finland are not overly crowded, having enough place to sit down for everyone. Whereas in Austria the University classes are often overcrowded, because anyone can get to study anything, and therefore there is also a huge fluctuation of people, while only a fraction of these students are really motivated to study the subject,… and finally graduate. Waste of resources I would say…
On the picture: Finnish Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi explaining about the history of Finland.
One very nice thing from the school I can remember when I was a child, was that we got a lunch. Yes, we got a lunch everyday, and it was just healthy basic food, but it was mostly quite tasty, and it was everyday a different warm meal; and it was even for free! (well, of course the taxpayers money, but still). Whereas in Austria I recognize so many kids and teenagers hang around at places like McDonalds and Kebab Stations for lunch, and of course this type of junk food also lowers their concentration skills in the class rooms later on. I mean just think about how tired you get yourself when you eat a Big Mac Menu (although its good once in a while, say once per quartal).
In Finland kids start the school system when they are 7 years old, and each child does 6+3 years of basic education. This is the minimum standard and in the same high quality is provided for everyone; no hierarchies; no calss systems. Finland is a very flat hierarhcy country where people are empowered and encouraged to become independet at already early ages. And this seems to work very well… After the basic schooling teenagers are able to choose high-school (3 years) or other schools for special professions such as becoming a carpenter etc.
Whereas in Austria, children start at the age of six, do 4 years of basic education, and then must already make a decision what to do next: high school (7years) or something else. I find this system not very encouraging, because a child at the age of 10 is still a child, and I believe most are not capable or empowered to make the best decisions in regards to their own education. How should they at that age? In many cases I am sure the parents become the captains of their childrens ships and many crash them, because they dont always know what is best for their kids and yet make groundbreaking decisions about the course of the ship.
2.INNOVATION
The other importnat booster of the Finnish economy and success is the high volume investments in R&D. Finland is one of the top 3 countries in Europe to invest in R&D. The amount has been quite stagnant at around 3.5% of the GDP. In Austria it is 2.5% (2006) and has also increased in the past years, so the direction is okay. The EU average is only 1.8%. I believe it is more like a EU wide challenge to stay competitive and create strong synergies and clusters in order to compete among other high-rising economies such as China, India, CEE and Russia. In the future European cities will compete in attracting certain speciality of industries and companies and creating strong clusters around them.
You can also crasp a really nice 360° photograph of this event by Stefan Kuzmanov at his blog as well you can read the press article about the event right here (PDF/in German).
i5 - intuition, imagination, innovation, inspiration and ideas