Innovation Centre will support entrepreneurship among immigrants

The Herbert Felix Institute in Eslöv was started a few years ago to highlight the role and importance of immigrants for Sweden's development. A pilot study has now been completed which describes how an innovation and competency centre within the institute can be organised to meet the needs of "our new Swedes" for counselling and support in their entrepreneurial ventures. The project/pilot study has received SEK250,000 in the form of a grant from the European Regional Development Fund.

"Our objective is to stimulate more people with a foreign background to start and run their own company," says Ingemar Jeppson at the Herbert Felixinstitutet and who was responsible for the pilot study.

The pilot study suggests several different stages, actions and efforts which the future innovation centre will offer entrepreneurs who have a foreign background.

Establishing cooperation with local operators and tying them to the centre is an important measure. It would mean that many operators with different skills within entrepreneurship would be represented in the same place.

"Nyföretagarcentrum (the centre for the development of new companies) is an operator that has a positive attitude to cooperation with us. The IFS (the International Entrepreneur Association in Sweden), is another desirable partner with considerable experience of helping immigrants to start up their own companies," says Ingemar Jeppsson.

A proposal for the development of the centre is that a personal coach will be on hand when an entrepreneur has decided to go ahead with the development of his/her business idea.

The next stage of the pilot study describes the establishment of a coaching programme, which will provide companies with the possibility of in-depth knowledge of entrepreneurship, to be able to discuss different roads to take in the continued development of the company and to create networks in a future business operation.

"A mentor will act as a sounding board; in particular, the role will become important when language and cultural differences come into play," says Ingemar Jeppsson.

To find out what sort of interest there is in having a mentor as support, interviews have been carried out with 32 established entrepreneurs who have an immigrant background. The interest for the idea was considerable among those people asked.

One idea that has been brought up today is that the new innovation centre will be able to offer entrepreneurs basic office space in a common area but also a creative environment where advisers, coaches and mentors and other experts, for example experts within marketing, are made available.

"A place like this which is often referred to as an incubator, can easily be created in Eslöv's attractive and centrally-located Medborgahus (Civic Centre), where the Herbert Felix Institute is already housed today," says Ingemar Jeppsson.

Herbert Felixinstitutet has also participated in the establishment of a visiting professorship within the area of "Immigrants' entrepreneurship" through cooperation with operators within trade and industry and Lund University´s School of Economics and Management (Ekonomihögskolan vid Lunds universitet).

The visiting professorship is a three-year post and is held by Professor Monder Ram, who works at Montfort University, Leicester. A doctoral student will also work with the visiting professor. The research will obviously be valuable for the Institute's continued work.

The next stage will be to go from the idea stage to the realisation of the Competence Centre as described in the pilot study.

"We have applied for extra support from the European Regional Development Fund and we hope for a positive answer later on during the spring. If the answer is positive, we will create the Institute "Herbert Felix Greenhouse" over the next three year period," ends Ingemar Jeppsson.

The origins of the Herbert Felixinstitutet was the book "Konservkungen" (The Preservatives King) which was about Herbert Felix, a Swedish businessman and entrepreneur with a central European background and founder of the famous food group AB Felix.