Photo by Pirjo Vuorenpää, Communications Manager at Kouvola Innovation Oy
On the 13th of February 2020, members of the Mothers in Business Kymenlaakso network visited Kouvola Innovation Oy, a dynamic development company owned by the City of Kouvola (Finland), to learn more about services provided by the company to SMEs at different stages of business growth. Marina Sorokina, a Project Manager of the GoSmart BSR project at Kouvola Innovation Oy, presented the project and the TIBS services to career-oriented mothers who are at the same time representatives of local SMEs and other organisations.
The TIBS services is an attractive tool for SMEs in the Baltic Sea Region seeking growth opportunities abroad due to several reasons:
- Proximity and availability of local TIBS brokers. The brokers are located close to the target SMEs, thus, there is no need for SMEs to reserve much travel time to meet the broker and meetings can be arranged at a relatively short notice.
- Simplicity of the TIBS service delivery process. The TIBS service delivery process comprises of only few steps, which are constantly being fine-tuned based on brokers and clients feedback.
- Opportunity to get advice from an experienced business advisor to develop company’s innovation and internalisation strategy. In addition to own previous experience and wide knowledge in the fields of innovations, internalisation and business competitiveness, the TIBS brokers have undergone an intensive Capacity Building Programme and are equipped with up-to-date tools for business advisors.
- Opportunity to address numerous business actors and innovation institutions abroad via a network of the TIBS brokers. Each broker has already established relations with numerous networks in his/her own country and uses them actively to find the best possible match for the TIBS clients.
- Opportunity to get a quick feedback on company’s cooperation offer from the TIBS brokers and potential partners abroad. The TIBS brokers possess knowledge of local markets, national regulation, culture, customer preferences, etc. and, thus, can offer advice or suggest strategies, which might be not that obvious for those who do not have such knowledge of the target country.
Presentation of the TIBS services raised a vivid discussion and the members of the Mothers in Business Kymenlaakso network got an idea to whom else in their networks they can spread the word on opportunities offered by the GoSmart BSR project.
The number of Finnish SMEs interested in the TIBS services is constantly growing, more and more companies looking for business partners in the GoSmart BSR partnership areas join the network.
Contact Marina Sorokina from Kouvola Innovation Oy for more information about the event.
Marina Sorokina, Specialist,
International Projects
marina.sorokina@kinno.fi
