Barcelona has leveraged one of its characteristics, creativity, to transform it into new business models. "Creativity is an attitude to do new things, a leap into the unknown. Innovation occurs when this attitude to do new things works. Barcelona has been able to make the leap from creativity to innovation," explained Professor Paco Solé Parellada in a new session of the The New Barcelona - Moments Estel·lars cycle.
In collaboration with Must Media Group, CASA SEAT and Tech Barcelona, the protagonist of the first talk of the year has been the city's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Under the title Els fonaments de l'ecosistema tech and moderated by journalist and UPF-BSM professor, Toni Aira, Solé Parellada and the CEO of Tech Barcelona, Miquel Martí, were in charge of reviewing how the startups in the city have evolved to reach their current leadership position in Southern Europe.
It all begins with the opportunities that entrepreneurs detect to improve certain production processes or change them completely, an issue that, according to Solé Parellada, is benefited by the strength of research and industry in Catalonia. These are the elements that have shaped the Barcelona ecosystem, Martí argued, taking into account that it is also characterized by a lack of natural resources. "Barcelona is full of places that visualize opportunities," Solé Parellada stressed.
Once the ecosystem is created, "without it, opportunities do not happen," Martí insisted, priorities change. This has been seen with the changes that emerging companies have registered since the first attempts, with programs such as Innova from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), promoted by Solé Parellada to promote technology transfer and entrepreneurial and innovation culture.
"We have reached a certain maturity in the fact of trying to reinvent traditional business models, which is what many of the success stories we have now were based on, and we have turned towards starting to think that technology-based companies have to be part of the city's future proposal," Martí explained. According to the director of Tech Barcelona, for the shift towards a new business model "where science is in the middle of the value proposition," it is essential to "find good researchers and combine them with good entrepreneurs," since not everyone is suitable for both. "In this combination, we have a lot of potential."
"Innovation must have an impact on society. Until now, the focus was absolutely financial, and innovations were aimed at the benefit of someone specific, be it the shareholder or the owner. Now it has been understood that the final recipient is the citizen," he added. But not only has the focus changed, but also the magnitude of the phenomenon. On this issue, Solé Parellada added an anecdote, recalling how 20 years ago, he approached large companies to incorporate startups and learn from them: "They looked at us with a face... And now they do it."
To continue strengthening this ecosystem, Solé Parellada warned that a solvent legal framework is needed to foster productivity and competitiveness. "Now it is not adequate," he lamented. "Barcelona is capable of attracting world-class companies that have a specific interest in the city's digital talent," Martí continued, like the recent hubs announced by Cisco and Intel, but "stability is very important, that the rules are clear, that the legal and fiscal frameworks are not only good but favorable, all this makes people want to settle."
Miquel Martí: "Barcelona is capable of attracting world-class companies that have a specific interest in the city's digital talent"For Martí, it is also important that citizens become aware of Barcelona's position as a technological hub for multinationals and local companies, and decide where it should go. "Barcelona has to have a shared vision of what it wants the city to be.I don't want for my children a resort city for Americans or Nordic countries, I want a powerful city where my children can go around the world, to learn and develop, but then they can create powerful projects here," he maintained. "And this vision has to be public-private," he stressed. According to Martí, in this shared vision it is key that the public sector knows that "sometimes it must lead and sometimes it must follow."
Solé also highlighted the figure of Professor Andreu Mas-Colell and the work he carried out from the Government of the Generalitat. "Our friend Andreu was a desllorigador. A person capable of seeing solutions in an impossible environment; we owe him a lot," he recalled in reference to the new framework he created for researchers and research centers.
Add The New Barcelona Post as your preferred Google source for free
Stay informed with the latest news.
