Archive for 2010
Start new group
November 25 and 26, 2010, a new group will start a full year of the Business Development Programme!
Applying for the programme is simple:
- The first step is filling out the form below with which you actually apply.
- The second step is filling out another form. In this form we ask you some questions about your background and your plans for the future.
Filling out the second form should take place within 5 working days after filling out the application form. - The final step to complete the application is an intake meeting with our staff. We contact you normally within 3 working days after you submitted the second form.
Note. When you click on the submit button to apply, you will automatically go to a next page with further instructions. You will also receive an e-mail with a copy of the information you submitted and the same instructions. Sometimes the confirmation e-mail will get into the spam folder of your e-mail account. If you don’t receive an e-mail automatically, please check your spam folder!
VentureLab Twente celebrates 100th participant
On November 19 VentureLab Twente formally welcomed its 100th participant during a special celebration session in The Corridor (Enschede). ventureLab offers business development support for high-tech startups and is a growth accelerator for existing companies. Since February 2009 5 groups of knowledge intensive entrepreneurs have started the programme. The 100th participant is Marloes Tuk, co-founder and commercial director of Cable Protection Nederland BV. The company sells innovative sea cable and pipe protectors and was already nominated for two important prizes.
During a celebration event in The Corridor mr Rinke Zonneveld, Director Entrepreneurship Department, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation awarded Marloes a voucher to be used for making a promotionvideo for Cable Protection Nederland BV (CP/NL). In his speech he pointed at the important roles of startup companies, as boosters of knowledge valorization and job creation, and of regional initiatives to support knowledge intensive entrepreneurs.
VentureLab Twente is a business development support programme for high-tech high-growth companies, especially focusing on business acceleration, to stimulate sustainable job creation. VentureLab Twente helps CP/NL to select a business model to successfully market innovative sea cable protectors. CP/NL was nominated as one of twenty innovative candidates for the LiveWIRE Award 2010 and as one of seven fast growing businesses for the Young Technology Award 2010. Marloes Tuk started CP/NL in September 2009.
Certification ceremony and VLT VentureClass
Look here for a photo impression of the certification ceremony, the networking and the VLT VentureClass.
Celebration Event!
100th Participant in VentureLab twente & Presentation first copy “VentureLab Twente entrepreneurs 2010, Volume 2”
Date: Friday 19 November, 11.00-12.30
Location: Hengelosestraat 525-527, Enschede. Building “The Corridor”, zaal 58
(Please note there may be trafficdelay as a result of local road reconstructions.)
| 10.45-11.15 | DOORS OPEN AND COFFEE |
| 11.15-11.20 | OPENING AND WELCOME Prof. Aard Groen, director Nikos and VentureLab Twente |
| 11.20-11.30 | SPEECH Drs. Pieter Dillingh, director Innovatieplatform Twente |
| 11.30-12.00 | “MINICLASS” ‘GLOCAL’ ENTREPRENEURSHIP Prof. Shaker A Zahra, 3TU professor of International Entrepreneurship |
| 12.00-12.10 | SPEECH AND PRESENT FOR 100th VENTURELAB TWENTE PARTICIPANT MARLOES TUK-CP.NL Drs. Rinke Zonneveld, Director Entrepreneurship Department Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation |
| 12.15-12.25 | PRESENTATION 1st COPY OF THE BOOK “VENTURELAB TWENTE ENTREPRENEURS 2010, VOLUME 2” TO RINKE ZONNEVELD |
For all persons attending a copy of the book is available.
Please register with the form below:
Why should your business exist?
Whether you develop a new business or lead an existing one, its all about the money. Or is it? As the industrialist Henry Ford reminded us a long time ago, “A business that makes nothing but money, is a poor kind of business”. I full-heartedly agree and think this remark bears even more value today than in Ford’s era. But if it is not for making money per se, why should your business exist? A careful scrutiny of the various purposes a business may have, shows us that there at least four types of purposes relevant to any business. These lead to four questions entrepreneurs may want to ask themselves occasionally.
Purpose with the business: what should it do for you?
The first question you may want to ask yourself, or your teammates, is what you are or were trying to achieve with the business. Did you want more freedom? Is it the realization of an ideal or an idea? Were you trying to get rid of paper work and red tape? Putting this question first place does not suggest that self-interest always comes first. What it does suggest, though, is that it may be smart to keep in mind whether your business is still doing for you what it was supposed to do and whether you’re still in the right business. If not, this is a signal to make some changes, or to leave, perhaps.
Purpose for the business: what kind of business should it be?
As long as it exists, your business will evolve into some kind of business no matter what. But if you don’t like to be surprised with the kind of business you end up with in a couple of years, it may help to think about this second question upfront. What kind of business should your business be? Should it be large? Innovative? Efficient? The best in its kind? Always the first? The answer to these questions is not a pure derivative of market forces or an automatic result of organizational dynamics. No, the kind of business you end up with, is largely influenced by what you want it to be.
Purpose of the business: what should it do for others?
It is probably this third question that Henry Ford referred to in the famous quote above. It says that your business is a poor one if it fails to be more than a money-making machine. This question concerns the intended and unintended impact your business has on others. Your business has many direct and indirect stakeholders – all of which cannot be served at the same time. Who are yours and how does your business affect them? How does your business matter and for whom? The answers to these questions can give you some insights about the added value of your business.
Purpose in the business: what guides your actions?
Finally, there are values and criteria that guide your everyday choices and actions. Whether implicit or explicit, all your business decisions will be guided by a normative view on what should and what should not be done – according to you. How is this for your business? How do you decide what is right and wrong? Is everything legal also appropriate? Is everything appropriate also legal? Answering this fourth question may help to make explicit how you make your choices and whether you like it that way.
These are not easy questions and answering them may require substantial time and effort. Yet, asking them every now and then in a moment of reflection – in the train perhaps or when driving home – can help you to make sure that your business should indeed exist.
