The need for crowd power in Danish industries
Post written by Flemming Binderup Gammelgaard
Executive Consultant at VIA University College and President of Danish Crowdsourcing.
The crowd phenomenon is a growing trend and a new paradigm shift disrupting and challenging current industries. Danish businesses must take an active stance on this development and are now invited to an event gathering makers and shapers of the new crowd movement.
In short, crowd power can be summed up through the terms crowdsourcing, crowdfunding and collaborative consumption. The most important competitive tool is no longer based on internal resources and well-known stakeholders, but on the company’s ability to engage and involved the world around them.
Crowd improves the competitiveness
More often than not, the person best suited to solve a specific challenge is working somewhere else, no matter the size of the organization. Therefore crowdsourcing has proved to become an efficient method for idea generation and problem solving optimization. The better you are as an organization to gather and incorporate knowledge from a wide array of partners, the more your competitive power increases, which companies such as Lego, Airbnb, Kickstarter and Tattoodo are great examples of.
New modes of financing sorely needed
According to the Danish Chamber of Commerce there is a desperate need for new ways to raise capital for Danish SME’s and start-ups. Here crowdfunding is a promising financial model, not only to be desired but very much needed. Being an area with increased political interest, earlier this month the Ministry of Business and Growth published a paper with clear guidelines and an approval stamp on different types of crowdfunding. SKAT also recently published a guide to the rules of crowdfunded financing. These initiatives have cleared the road for further development in how to optimize crowdfunding in Denmark.
More knowledge is needed to succeed
Business models and methods based on crowd power need more than the right idea and the proper framework to succeed. Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing are difficult disciplines that require an extreme focus on the issue at hand. Projects are often shut down, before they have even been launched due to poor preparation and an unfocused starting point.
At VIA University College we realize that the future belongs to the crowd. We have established a crowdsourcing platform, where students, teachers and researchers assist public and private organizations in finding solutions to their present challenges. VIA University College is also a co-founder of Danish Crowdsourcing, a community focused on bringing the crowd-thinking to educational and public organizations and businesses alike.
How to crowd power your company
VIA University College is a partner to the conference ”How To Crowd Power Your Company” on Wednesday June 3 during Internet Week Denmark.
100 small and medium enterprises will receive great advice on how to start up and succeed with crowdfunding and crowdsourcing from different start-ups, skilled advisors, the Danish Business Authority and successful practitioners.
Sign up
You can still find available seats for the free conference, so sign up here if you too want to use The Power of the Crowd to finance your idea or develop your next product or service.
Hope to see you there!
Flemming Binderup Gammelgaard
Executive Consultant at VIA University College and President of Danish Crowdsourcing.