I spent a week in Cordoba, Spain in March (18.-22.3.2024) as a visiting teacher supported by Erasmus mobility program. My host was University of Cordoba (UCO), which is a new partner for Karelia UAS and also a new member of the INVEST Alliance.
Cordoba is situated in the southern Andalusia region. It has roughly 300 000 inhabitants. Cordoba has rich history, which I could easily observe walking the streets. The city has many churches and historical buildings.
The University of Cordoba is established in 1972. The campuses are located in different parts of Cordoba, some faculties even in the very center of the city. According to the university website: “The UCO is one of the foremost research institutions in Spain; a distinction that will be further consolidated with the creation of the Rabanales 21 Science and Technology Park and the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research.”
One thing that stood out for me of UCO’s practices, was an annual innovative project competition aimed at faculty and staff of UCO. In this competition faculty members can propose small innovative project linked to education or something else. It seems to be a great way to promote development culture in an organization!
Teaching experiences
As a visiting Erasmus teacher, I lectured about Marketing for startup companies, and Advising and teaching startup companies in EmprendeUCO.
In my lecturing I focused on the methods and approaches that we use here at Karelia UAS in the Draft Program®: How to define customer need independently of the product, how customer need helps defining competition and then leads to effective marketing campaigns.
EmprendeUCO is an incubation program targeting people in Cordoba area wanting to start their own business. I visited the physical facilities of the program and had the chance to coach the nascent entrepreneurs and watch how they pitched their business ideas. In the coaching session I helped teams to solve problems they experienced as most urgent. These were connected to the issues of product-market fit and profitability. I was able to use my experiences from Joensuu working with startup companies here.
Visiting ecosystem partners
Besides of my teaching I had the opportunity to meet experts representing UCO’s technology transfer offices OTRI, regional biotechnology incubator Incubadora Cordoba Biotech, and Fundecor (Fundación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de la Provincia de Córdoba), which is foundation focused on regional development in Cordoba area.
Visiting OTRI and Biotech incubator it became clear that tailored feedback and mentoring is crucial when working with startups whose founders are experienced professionals. Mandatory structured sessions can easily have content that is not relevant for all participants. Thus, tailored approach is better.
Visiting Fundecor I got the opportunity to try out some gamified training tools such as a card-based business model game. This game seems to be an excellent way to practice how different elements of BMC (business model canvas) connect to each other using famous companies such as Netflix and Starbucks as examples.
Author:
Heikki Immonen, Principal Lecturer, Karelia UAS
Kansikuva: Jose Gallardo