Starting-Up in Geneva
This academic year I promised myself I would get more familiar with the world of business and try to understand better how I, as a researcher, can find my place in it. While this might sound a bit strange to some of my readers, making this “new year’s resolution” makes good sense in the current academic climate. Over the past few years, there has been a steadily growing trend of universities promoting deeper engagement between academia and industry.
In my humble opinion, this trend is primarily a response to the exodus of researchers from universities to the corporate world. It is no secret that academia cannot provide competitive job offers to all its graduates. However, until recently it also hasn’t done a great job of preparing grad students to leave its ivory towers for the glass skyscrapers of industry. As social scientists we might study, interact with, and write about businesses, however, most of us have little experience of what it is that businesses actually do. At least this seems to be true for my particular social bubble.
I can count myself among the fortunate, since my alma mater Charles University has stepped up to the challenge and in conjuction with our amazing 4EU+ alliance started offering a wide selection of courses and programs to help us bridge this gap. These courses offer insights into entrepreneurship and foster the development of transferable skills essential for venturing into the industrial sector. In this post and those that will follow, I’ll be documenting my odyssey as I navigate through the intricate terrains of the business world from the vantage point of a social scientist.
The 4EU+ Start-up Community
Last autumn, Charles University’s cultural hub Kampus Hybernská hosted the first of a series of events christened Tomorrow’s Research and Science Innovation in Student’s Start-ups (or 4EU+ TRANSITION for short). These meetings, helmed by graduate students, are designed to cultivate a community of like minded entrepreneurial spirits bound together by a shared passion for science, innovation, and business.
While sadly I was not able to attend last year’s event (funnily enough I was at a science management workshop), when I was offered a place for this year’s meet-up in Geneva, I pounced on it! The event’s program promised two days jam-packed with seminars on business responsibility, intellectual property in academia, and business model development, as well as an excursion to the renowned Genevan incubator Fongit. And these promises did not disappoint.
It’s the Bee’s Knees!
Right from the get go it was quite apparent what the sinister motive behind the workshop was — to infect us with entrepreneurial enthusiasm! After the customary round of introductions, we started of strong with a seminar on responsible entrepreneurship. As someone whose research centers around the topic of social inequality, the words responsible entrepreneurship immediately evoke images of social businesses and co-ops. But to my surprise, these were not the kinds of businesses we discussed! Our discussions primarily focused on the concept that regardless of your business type, there’s always room to enhance responsibility towards employees, the environment, and your fellow humans in general. While this notion may not be revolutionary, it carries an understated wisdom. Much like how Silicon Valley startups are fixated on disrupting this and revolutionizing that, businesses aiming for social responsibility often overextend in their quest to be the epitome of sustainability. Though a holistic approach can work for some, making incremental improvements in certain aspects of business operations, such as adopting a more sustainable supply chain, still represents a positive and much needed step forward. While dreaming big is a must, a small incremental change is better than no change at all.
Next, we ventured into the complex terrain of intellectual property and academic work. I was quite surprised to discover the diversity in the regulatory frameworks that exist, fluctuating widely from one university to another, and even more so between countries. In Czechia, there is a universal notion of “student work,” which automatically assigns certain IP rights to the university whenever a student, graduate students included, submits an assignment or thesis. However, as I have recently learned, this regulation isn’t a universal standard.
Switzerland and Germany exhibit a more intricate system. Their research universities implement sophisticated contractual obligations that outline the dynamic between researchers, their scholarly contributions, and the institution they are affiliated with. I found a lot of value in gaining insights into these protocols from the perspective of a research institution. Having previously been ingrained in student advocacy circles, my viewpoint has often been too narrowly focused on keeping all the rights for us, students. Therefore, this exploration offered a refreshing perspective, allowing me a more nuanced understanding of the academic institutions’ own viewpoints.
Fongit? I hardly know it!
The second day of our adventure in Geneva we got up early to visit the Fongit incubator on the city’s outskirts. While I couldn’t quite place the incubator’s name at first, I caught on quickly upon hearing the names of famous businesses started there. The revelation that we were standing within the very offices where Proton, a trailblazing digital privacy company, was born, was a delightful surprise.
As we arrived at the incubator, we were ushered into a comfortable conference room and, to be honest, bombarded with polished elevator pitches delivered by a succession of startup founders. The rapid-fire presentations, each recounting the inception, challenges, and triumphs of burgeoning ventures, were somewhat overwhelming yet enlightening at the same time. We had the opportunity to probe into their business models, and impressively, each founder addressed our questions with sincerity and candor. Contrary to the polished, enigmatic, and guru-esque caricatures of start-up CEOs in popular media, these guys were refreshingly accessible, genuine, and eager to impart valuable insights to aid us on our own journeys.
Painting the Canvas
After the barrage of pleasant and enlightening meetings at Fongit, we made our way back to the city, our appetites whetted for more learning (and admittedly, for lunch). The afternoon was earmarked for exploring our individual business project proposals. Over the years, I’ve been a participant at an array of conferences, international courses, and summer schools, and consistently, the segments that I anticipate the most are the project-based workshops. From my perspective, they offer an unparalleled opportunity to engage with fellow participants and apply newly acquired knowledge in a practical setting.
My repertoire of experiences ranges from conflict resolution simulations to humanitarian project crafting, yet the four hours dedicated to conceptualizing a business proposition in a classroom in Geneva were uniquely exhilarating. Collaborating with a peer I had just met the previous day, we were immersed in the challenge of turning an on-the-spot idea into a tangible business venture. The exercise was not only an educational odyssey but also an enjoyable and memorable experience.
I joined my colleague Florian in dreaming up a better world where we can easily find which streaming platform currently owns the rights to our favorite TV shows, while also making money off of that knowledge. Kind of like having our cake and eating it too, if you’d like. What seemed to be a fool’s errand at first turned out to actually be quite a nice idea. Together we, my colleague Florian and I, came up with a data science-y business which would make money by selling user data to streaming services (in a very ethical way of course!) and in return provide its users with recommendations on what shows they would like and where to watch them.
We flew through the business canvas with wind in our hair and even got to play a little game with our colleagues in order to better understand our business. We exchanged insights, engaging in a mock market research exercise where I got to play an aviation tycoon Pierre Lefebvre (no relation to the Canadian wrestler).
Having dedicated several hours to refining our business model, the moment arrived to pitch our concept to colleagues, who for the moment, assumed the roles of prospective clients and users alike. While my grasp of the business domain is still a bit shaky, my forays into public speaking proved to be invaluable in this context. After all, pitching a business idea is not that different from presenting at a conference, or defending your thesis! The main difference, of course, being that you might actually get paid for it. All-in-all, I was very impressed how far all of us — researchers, business majors, and young entrepreneurs alike — were able to take this little exercise and dream up start-up ideas in such a short time.
Wrapping Up
As I am writing this, sitting in my cold home office far away from the sunny streets of Geneva, I am slowly digesting the previous weeks experience. Excitement creeps in. Actually, this whole “learning more about business” might be a good idea after all! The event was an amazing first experience with entrepreneurship and has left me wanting for more. I am grateful to my fellow attendees and the fantastic organizers Zahra, Božena, and Julien. You made Geneva fun, memorable, and truly eye-opening.
Tomorrow, I am starting an eight week course on entrepreneurship and I could not be more excited!
