HYKI - 6Aika: Hyvinvointiyritykset kiertoon

Background

New entrepreneurship and innovations are needed to the health and well-being sector as the population ages and grows more multicultural and as business opportunities increase e.g. due to the social welfare and health care reform. Over the next ten years, in Finland around 6,000 health care and social welfare businesses face change of ownership due to aging. Only 23 per cent of these already have a known successor.

It is difficult for small enterprises to get support for the change of ownership and there is a risk that thousands of businesses and jobs will be lost. This challenge can be met by creating functional support structures for the development and change of ownership of health and well-being businesses as well as by promoting entrepreneurship arising from change of ownership as a known and sought-after career option.

Goal of the project

The goal of the project is to build and introduce two innovation platforms which generate, through change of ownership and development of businesses, new RDI cooperation, entrepreneurship, skills and jobs to the well-being sector in the metropolitan area and the Oulu region. The businesses develop their ability to meet the demands of the multiplicity of citizens. Particular attention will be paid on the entrepreneurial potential of young people and women.

The open innovation platforms consists of

• the network of UAS (Metropolia, Haaga-Helia, Laurea and Oulu) and other parties supporting the change of ownership
• the recruitment channels of aging entrepreneurs and potential successors
• the support processes for developing enterprises
• the support processes for the change of ownership

The platforms are used to develop the businesses facing change of ownership into a growth path and to generate new cooperation by creating collisions between enterprises, students from various fields, transferors and successors as well as citizens. The development work will be carried out by potential successors and multisectoral student groups together with the entrepreneurs. The aim is to meet the demands of the multiplicity of citizens by using service design and technology.

The project supports entrepreneurs and successors in the change of ownership process by organizing training that varies from making the business fit for sale to legal and taxation issues. In addition, peer support will be organized to transferors in order to help them discover their role after the transfer.

The project will result in an innovation platform that produces new entrepreneurship and expertise through the development of businesses and change of ownership. The innovation platform will remain in use of the educational institutions after the completion of the project. The project provides development for 100 businesses.