Progress report (20 months to go)

On the 10th of October, we gathered at Vrije Universiteit. This time we had the opportunity to introduce projects and their progress to parliament member Hatte van der Woude, who recently filed a motion to continue Faculty of Impact funding.

Along with the president of the VU, Mirjam van Praag, our program director Frans Nauta walked Hatte and her political assistant, Marlon Jansen, through the Faculty of Impact’s history, initial ideas, progress, and aims for the future. Later, our fellows had the chance to meet Hatte and Marlon while introducing them to individual projects. We were honoured to see their great interest. Given Hatte’s in-depth knowledge of technology, market opportunities, and business model, we were happy to have her as one of our coaches.

In the afternoon, we focused on the progress report meaning that we delved into two projects on a deeper level and dissected potential strengths and weaknesses. While some entrepreneurial struggles are similar and, to some extent, predictable, others are unique and demand individually tailored solutions. This is where the benefits of working together emerge. Group’s collective knowledge and intelligence yielded results in discussions and brainstorming while challenging and encouraging each other.

We wrapped this session with a book talk. Frans spoke about the Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers, which illustrated why some innovations are successful, and others are not. As we are working towards the former, Frans continued with another book, Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation, by James M. Utterback. Mastering, in some cases, means polishing up, while in the entrepreneurial world is more about figuring out all pieces of the puzzle.  Both books are classics in innovation studies, so make sure you put them on your Christmas list.

This October’s progress and report meeting was also our last one in the academic environment. From next month we will have our Impact’s Weeks at off-site locations. Stay tuned and find out more.