4.2 Desarrollo de la aplicación
4.2.2 Desarrollo de la aplicación Android
1. The TI institutes should play an important role in the transition.
TI institutes are strong national assets and their role in Norway’s transition period is crucial. In the best case they act as innovation catalysts. The TI institutes form knowledge platforms which provide tools for the Norwegian government to help define and identify industrial and innovation strategies.
1. The TI institutes need to renew their strategies and targets according to the national needs.
2. TI institute strategies need to give a greater emphasis to the need to speed up the transition.
2. Leadership is required in the transition.
Pro-active leadership is essential in times with big changes. A substantial variation in leadership quality was observed for the different institutes. It is recommended that the TI institutes invest in leadership training and/or recruitment at all management levels.
Focus on leadership must be a high priority for the executive boards of TI institutes. The role of executive boards with respect to governance and repositioning appeared unclear or invisible in assessments. The executive boards need to take stronger actions in the TI institutes’ strategy and renewal process together with the institutes’ leadership.
A more streamlined ownership model of the TI institutes is recommended to ensure the successful transition of the institutes. The present model with many owners with diverse interests has the potential to hinder the change process of the TI institutes and in the worst case cement the status quo.
3. TI institute managements must regularly review their strategies and targets fit to the national strategies and needs, and these efforts must be supported by their boards.
To overcome the current and coming challenges the TI institutes need clear and ambitious short-, mid- and long-term strategies. These strategies need to be developed in alignment with the national industrial and innovation goals. A balance between the existing and emerging R&D&I activities needs to be ensured so that the TI institutes can fulfil their responsibilities to current stakeholders and customers, but at the same time are able to pave the way for new innovations.
Interdisciplinary skills of human resources are very important for TI institutes, especially in the times of transition. In addition to good scientific and technical skills there is a need for people with competence in business development, sales, marketing and customer relations.
Establishing new customer relations, especially global ones, is demanding and specific skills and experience are needed.
The TI institutes need to take ownership for initiating and executing the necessary change process. This must include pro-actively engaging with all stakeholders, instead of waiting for encouragement and incentives.
4. Financial situation and growth strategy
The TI institutes play a vital role in the industrial transition period. However, the TI institutes do not appear financially or strategically prepared and equipped to fill this role.
The TI institutes need clear and well defined growth strategies to overcome the unwanted side effects of the transition. The growth strategies can pinpoint regional, national or global needs and activities that determine the optimum size and role of the TI institute. In this context growth can also be achieved through mergers.
Healthy operating margins (4-5%) are needed to secure a sustainable financial situation. In addition research grants from funding agencies are necessary to keep and build
competences and ensure a strong depth in the fields of activity. A balance is needed, but it is not obvious that the institutes include this in their strategies.
5. Collaboration with university
Norwegian TI institutes have traditionally, often through ownership, had very close
connections to the university sector. This is something which should be retained and further developed. Strong complementary partnerships and joint initiatives with clearly defined roles and responsibilities between institutes and universities are good for Norway and should be encouraged and intensified. Adoption and tuning of best practices is recommended. A start could be learning from the ongoing SINTEF-NTNU project ‘Better together’.
6. Internationalization
Internationalization is a must: TI institutes need to have access to knowledge (not everything is created in Norway) and access to customer value chains which are in many cases global. In return TI institutes together with universities and companies provide good platforms for foreign investments. Companies seek for the best knowledge and international visibility is crucial. However, many of the TI institutes have a weak international strategy and for many of the smaller institutes international activities are not even realistic. The TI institutes are
encouraged to identify clear targets and implementation plans for their international activities taking into account the size and regional/national characteristics of each TI institute.
Role in EU: Norway has clear targets for the revenues from H2020 and other EU instruments. The TI institutes have a crucial role in domiciliation of EU funds to Norway. STIM-EU offers a crucial mechanism for the TI institutes to overcome potential obstacles regarding EU funding. In addition to the institutes’ own EU activities, they should proactively facilitate the inclusion of other Norwegian actors into EU networks. The TI institutes role towards SMEs as networkers is valuable. TI institutes should pave the way for Norwegian industries to join EU networks.