Results from the Periscope project feed into the new ‘Purposeful MBA’ at Hanze University
Results from the Periscope project feed into the new ‘Purposeful MBA’ at Hanze University
Within the Periscope project, Hanze University has been identifying – that is, discovering – new opportunities for entrepreneurship. This discovery process has taken shape in a way that puts citizens at the helm, from generating ideas to formulating and implementing new business models. Citizens' huge creative potential often goes untapped by governments and businesses, so citizens will gladly promote their values when given the chance to do so. The method developed by Hanze UAS within the Periscope project is called BuBo, which stands for ‘Bottom-Up Business Opportunities’. BuBo assumes that two transitions are needed to arrive at sustainable ideas and sustainable entrepreneurship: an economic transition and a values transition.
BuBu has fed into the new Purposeful MBA being offered by the University, see: https://www.hanze.nl/eng/education/economy/international-business-school/programmes/master/master-of-business-administration/study-choice/overview/why-an-mba-purpose-economy.
A fuller description is provided below.
Pushing boundaries in the blue economy
Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen is a participant in the Interreg project called Periscope. The goal of this project is to explore new opportunities for entrepreneurship and to launch two large, interregional projects aiming to shine a global spotlight on the so-called blue economy. The blue economy includes marine resources, technologically advanced industries, important port areas and offshore activities in and around the North Sea. As a result of worldwide changes, these maritime and offshore economies are facing major challenges. Some sectors are undergoing significant changes, such as increased production of offshore wind energy and stagnant or decreased production of oil and gas. The North Sea region is therefore going through a period of considerable restructuring.
The Periscope project features an interesting partner mix of businesses and knowledge institutes, combining practical perspectives with more theoretical visions. All partners within this project come from countries surrounding the North Sea. Hanze UAS is collaborating with lead partner Sorlandets Europakontor in Norway and the Northern Netherlands Provinces Alliance (SNN) as its partner in the northern Netherlands. Other project participants include the Global Centre of Excellence (NODE) in Norway, Aarhus University in Denmark, and Business Region Göteborg and RISE Research Institutes in Sweden. Scotland and Germany are also taking part in the project through the European Marine Energy Centre and the Centre of Maritime Technologies, respectively. The Netherlands has the largest delegation within Periscope. In addition to Hanze UAS as a knowledge institute and SNN as a facilitator initiating the collaboration in the northern Netherlands, Maritime by Holland and Netherlands Maritime Technology in South Holland are partners within Periscope as well.
Periscope aims to establish a permanent innovation platform in the North Sea region to develop international innovation partnerships for sustainable business development in emerging blue markets.
Hanze UAS’ contribution lies mainly in identifying – that is, discovering – new opportunities for entrepreneurship. Within Hanze UAS, this discovery process has taken shape in a way that puts citizens at the helm, from generating ideas to formulating and implementing new business models. Citizens' huge creative potential often goes untapped by governments and businesses, so citizens will gladly promote their values when given the chance to do so. The method developed by Hanze UAS within the Periscope project is called BuBo, which stands for ‘Bottom-Up Business Opportunities’.
BuBo assumes that two transitions are needed to arrive at sustainable ideas and sustainable entrepreneurship: an economic transition and a values transition.
The economic transition is being triggered by shrinking raw material reserves and mounting climate change, and has lead to a situation in which sustainability – in all its complexity – must be addressed. As a result, the current linear approach to entrepreneurship will have to make way for circular entrepreneurship. This is because linear entrepreneurship entails producing something that is considered worthless after use and thrown away, meaning that many resources are lost. The production process in linear entrepreneurship often involves the use of fossil (energy) sources, which in turn are the biggest contributors to climate change.
In circular entrepreneurship, the value of raw materials, parts and products is kept as high as possible after use and as little as possible is thrown away. Bio-based raw materials and renewable energy sources are used as much as possible within circular entrepreneurship, as these have a small ecological footprint.
In addition to a transition from linear to circular entrepreneurship, a change in the way we think about values is also a central aspect of the BuBo method. The philosophy here is not just to create financial value, but to create social, ecological and financial value all at the same time. This social and ecological value will not just be ‘incidental’, as is often the case now, since in our reality it is always about money. In such a change in values, the other values are equally or even more important than our current dominant value: money.
To create a sustainable and ultimately circular society that focuses on environmental as well as social and economic dimensions, interested citizens must fully participate in the process from idea to eventual new business model, with the Sustainable Development Goals as a guide.
BuBo is therefore in line with Hanze UAS policy and our new Purposeful MBA, which is currently under development.
© Egbert Dommerholt & Derwin Schorren