As ULURU|Beagle we thrive on these entrepreneurial challenges. We inspire and stimulate companies to look at their core business differently and to spot new horizons. We help companies to recognize new business opportunities, but also to realize them successfully.

In our open innovation atelier new product and service concepts are developed by ULURU on the basis of consumer insights generated by Beagle. Often these new concepts include a new business and partner model, helping our clients to increase loyalty with existing customers or to find new customers. Based on the principle of ‘co-creation’ other potentially matching parties are invited in an early stage to get involved in the process. As a match maker U|B helps those parties to find and form business alliances.

U|B works closely with various universities and educational institutes such as the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Nyenrode Business University and the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Exchanging knowledge and experience and having students collaborating on a daily basis on our projects guarantees a solid foundation in the social, economic and cultural aspects of our society.

Take for instance our collaboration with the master course Health Food Innovation Management of Maastricht University. This collaboration is focused on stimulating innovative entrepreneurship and creates insights and expertise in four different areas: biomedical science, consumer research, new technologies in ingredients and processing and regulations. It’s a brainstorm platform allowing students to – hands on – interact with and react on social and entrepreneurial challenges. In doing so bolstering their innovational skills and vision.

U|B has joined in similar collaborations with Unilever, Campina, Friesland Foods, Heineken and Heinz/Honig. In the area of sustainability, U|B has worked for Van Gansewinkel Group, Nuon, InterfaceFlor, Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management; ProRail and Schuitema/C1000.

U|B’s knowledge and experience has led to a mode of operation that ensures an efficient handling of the time and resources of our customers and possible partners. The power of open innovation is in the interactivity and in keeping all involved parties focused and engaged throughout the process. A team of U|B coaches facilitate the dialogue in such a way that all participants remain involved.

U|B Group is part of an international network of companies that develop products and services through co-creation and open innovation (in food, sustainability, loyalty and partnerships).

From the 17th till the 22nd of November 2009 entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs throughout the whole World gathered together to celebrate the Global Entrepreneurship Week. For one week, millions of young people around the world were challenged to embrace innovation, imagination, and creativity. Throughout this week students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, and many others have participated in a range of activities, from lectures on entrepreneurship, to business idea pitches, competitions and network gatherings.

Together, the University of Leiden, the Delft University, and the RSM Erasmus University Rotterdam hosted the Holland Entrepreneurship Week. Last week several events have been organized by the three universities to inspire, connect, and stimulate students to get entrepreneurial and become the next wave of future entrepreneurs. The goals of this week were to facilitate them with the necessary knowledge, skills and networks needed to act up on the opportunities to grow sustainable future enterprises.

Mick Walvisch (ULURU|Beagle) was invited to the kick off. At the headquarters of YESDelft incubator 80 students from Delft, Leiden, and Rotterdam gathered to participate the creative session. The participants were challenged finding an innovative business idea which could be introduced on the market. It was their opportunity to find a great business idea! To inspire and give these young future entrepreneurs a boost to get started, Mick was invited to give an inspirational lecture on creative thinking! Mick told the students that every innovation is built up on a good idea that solves a problem. By solving a problem you create value. Therefore the core essence of a fruitful idea is that it has to create value. Mick challenged the students with real world examples to leave behind their academic mindset and expose them to the ULURU|Beagle philosophy to entrepreneurship.

After this inspirational lecture, the participants started with their creative workshop, in which they were divided into small groups. Mick was assigned as a facilitator to help and guide the students through the process of inspiration and idea generation to the development of real time business cases.

Throughout the day Uluru|Beagle let the students experience, breathe, and experiment with the ULURU/Beagle Trinity and hopefully inspired the students to unleash their ideas to create and grow future sustainable enterprises.

text & photos: Thijs Markusse

Taking real life cases from U|B the students were inspired to think out of their academic box and put their knowledge and experience to use. The deliverable of that day was the start of a business plan for a unique and separate platform inside U|B Sphere. The role of this platform will be to firstly motivate students to engage in extracurricular activities (engaging in real life cases) and secondly stimulating entrepreneurial capabilities and problem solving skills.

Besides their own individual business ideas the students were sent home with an assignment: work out the proposition for the student platform, make it self supporting and back it up with a clear business model and earning model.

Why do we do this? The world needs young and passionate entrepreneurial thinkers. In view of this we initiated U|B Sphere (early 2009) as a centre of entrepreneurship. A place outside ULURU|Beagle where companies and entrepreneurs meet, team up and share knowledge, leading to new opportunities. To connect this centre to the student platform shows one of the strong and essential assets of U|B Sphere: a hands-on academy for promising students daring to take on current events.

Mick Walvisch from ULURU|Beagle provided one of the lectures, which in this case is not the best choice of words. Entrepreneurship is participating, initiating, taking risks. You can only address those topics via a dialogue. Having a product idea is an important yet insufficient basis to start a new business. Sometimes new products turn out less attractive than new business models. Often the appeal of a product proposition can be enhanced by innovating the business concept. During his workshop Mick showed attendees how the notions of business models and revenue models can be used to create value. Value: the essence of an idea.

To take this day a bit further, Mick invited those who completed the Summer School to the ULURU|Beagle Inspirational Theatre: Time Capsule. This extended version of the Summer School will take place September 18 2009. Students will reflect on where they stand, what their intentions are for the (near) future, forcing them to put their newly obtained knowledge and experience to good use. ULURU|Beagle will make a Scoot (short film) around this day for which attendees will be asked to put their thoughts into words in frond of a camera: their visual promise. This scoot and an impression of this day will be online September 19.