B2B Innovation hackathon
September 27 – October 1, 2021
FUTURE OF WORK ⟶ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ⟶ BUSINESS OPTIMISATION
BUILDING BRIDGES IN INNOVATION
For Companies
Born Global fosters growth by enabling open innovation concept for Latvian exporters. The hackathon is looking for Latvian exporting companies ready to present a challenge under one of the hackathon themes. The hackathon team helps shape the challenge and then scouts for startup teams with dedication to solve the company challenge.
To ensure effective collaboration, experienced corporate innovation mentors guide the pilot-building process. The guided hackathon process and working with startups unlock new industry-specific technologies, trends, and commercial opportunities and increase their market speed.
As a result, the enterprise can effectively implement innovative solutions, face the agile startup approach to work, and gather insight into the market-relevant technology.
For Startups
Born Global brings together Latvian exporters with the innovation ecosystem in the Baltics by creating a collaborative and purpose-driven environment. The hackathon is looking for Baltic startups ready to tackle challenges under one of the hackathon themes, grow through open innovation, and find potential clients.
Throughout the hackathon week, startup teams will have a chance to build solutions to the challenges presented by a exporting companies and test their pilot market alliances. One team consists of 3 - 10 people, and it is possible to apply both individually or as a team.
To ensure successful co-creation throughout the explore-build-test-refine pathway, the hackathon teams will undergo online workshops and 1on1 mentoring with Business & Collaboration experts.
ABOUT THE HACKATHON
Changing environment of human resource management, digital transformation, and optimization of business processes - these are the main challenges faced by Latvian exporting companies.
Co-creation B2B hackathon Born Global aims to build bridges between exporting companies and the innovation ecosystem by creating a collaborative and purpose-driven environment. Startups and exporting companies collaborate by undergoing facilitated stages of co-creation to arrive at a pilot project at the end of the hackathon.
Born Global fosters collaboration across entrepreneurial ecosystems and enables open innovation concepts that accelerate startup growth and bring innovative solutions to Latvian exporters.
FUTURE OF WORK
The lack of qualified professionals, especially in Europe, has been identified as a significant factor limiting the growth of major companies.
We are looking for solutions tackling the innovation challenge in attracting talent, recruitment, retraining, management, and building a thriving internal culture.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Digital Transformation is an inevitable process for our companies to compete globally and find new export opportunities.
We are looking for innovative technology solutions to improve company production, service provision, and management processes.
BUSINESS OPTIMISATION
The efficient use of resources determines companies' global competitiveness, directly related to optimising internal processes.
We are looking for solutions redefining the way work is performed to deliver higher-quality results.
CHALLENGES
Explore the challenges presented by Latvian exporters. Delve into the solutions to co-create during the hackathon week and meet the enterprises to build your next partnerships with.
A VAT risk assesstment IT tool
CHALLENGE BY SORAINEN
Challenge: an important factor in any business transaction is that the tax authorities may penalize a company if it knew (or should have known) that the transaction partner intends to defraud any of the EU Member States. Currently, ~80% of the tax court cases are related to this issue, wherein the worst-case scenario companies and their management may face criminal charges. Therefore, an efficient solution would attract many local businesses to our tax services (as a pure marketing tool) and help companies.
Solution: a VAT risk assessment IT tool. The tool should consider the criteria (algorithm) determined by the EU VAT Directive, the EU Court of Justice case law, and the domestic law and case law of each of the EU Member States. The solution should help companies determine if the intended transaction partner is too risky from a VAT perspective. Ideally, the product can be used not just in one country but throughout the EU, as VAT has the same principles throughout the EU.
Tool for professionals
CHALLENGE BY LABRAINS
Challenge: as we enter new markets with our natural and vegan dermo-cosmetics brand for problematic skin, we aim to cooperate with dermatologists and cosmetologists in each country, especially in the Nordic countries, to establish a link and trust within the market.
Solution: apps or solutions that could facilitate marketing efforts of natural skincare products. For example, a digital tool or an app would help a skincare expert, dermatologist, cosmetologist, or professionals in similar industries select the most suitable products, their use sequence, and duration of use.
Manage and analyse company data
CHALLENGE BY ETTE TETTE
Challenge: balancing sales and manufacturing capacity gets more and more challenging as the company grows. Therefore it is crucial to have the business data available to interpret it and make the decision-making process faster and more confident.
Solution: a digital tool to manage and analyze data across the company, including sales and manufacturing, and to display and visualize in real-time the "health" of the company.
Documentation tool
CHALLENGE BY CANELLE
Challenge: as a bakery that both receives food products and produces them, we struggle to streamline the administration of finished product documentation, starting with the inventory specification of incoming raw materials to end-product labeling.
Solution: a tool that helps streamline food product documentation.
Manage personnel resources
CHALLENGE BY CANELLE
Challenge: for a bakery, we also aim to match the capacity of production equipment with the resources of its personnel. It's essential to maximize productivity on expensive production equipment.
Solution: a tool that helps match and manage personnel resources with equipment capacity.
Hardware solution
CHALLENGE BY FERMENTFUL
Challenge: in order to make it easier to receive products and customers do not have to coordinate the time of picking them up, an autonomous solution is needed that ensures storage of products under certain temperature conditions and individual access to the order.
Solution: a cabinet that allows you to place a customer's order in a specific compartment and ensures its storage under certain temperature conditions. When the customer arrives after his order, they have the opportunity to scan their order ID code to open the section of their order and pick it up.
Packaging
CHALLENGE BY FERMENTFUL
Challenge: in order to deliver products to the B2C customer segment using a standard parcel terminal or courier service, it is necessary to ensure a certain temperature regime (+ 2 ° to + 6 ° C) during the delivery of the product.
Solution: packaging or packaging material that allows the product to be at a specific temperature for at least 2 days (+ 2 ° to + 6 ° C)
Organising internal communication
CHALLENGE BY CLEAN R
Challenge: CleanR wants to improve internal communication with employees, but the distribution and location of employees is a challenge.
Solution: employee internal motivation tools that might seem appealing to all employees. Solution for organising internal communication with employees.
Understanding customers
CHALLENGE BY CLEAN R
Challenge: in 2021, «CleanR» made investments to create a self-service portal. 80-90% of what customers require can be done on the self-service portal. Still, 70% of customers choose to call or write an email.
Solution: a solution that motivates customers to use self-service portal.
Export networks (B2B e-commerce)
CHALLENGE BY BORN GLOBAL TEAM
Challenge: in a world where travel and personal meetings are restricted, exports are at risk of not realizing their full potential.
Solution: tools that would create agent, distributor, and partner networks for commencing and continuing exports remotely and at a scale.
Remote (online) product demos
CHALLENGE BY BORN GLOBAL TEAM
Challenge: with limited sale trips and trade fairs attendance possibilities, demos, and try-outs of physical products are limited for potential partners, thus worsening their user experience.
Solution: digital tools for enhancing of user experience of product demonstrations and showcasing.
Supplier management
CHALLENGE BY BORN GLOBAL TEAM
Challenge: supplier networks and the supply process are often still managed by simple tools that do not allow fast changes and iterations, making the supply management process inefficient as supply systems worldwide are becoming more complex.
Solution: digital tools for supplier management that address traceability, quality, and sustainability demands and are easy to implement even for small-sized companies.
Understanding production (data & IoT)
CHALLENGE BY BORN GLOBAL TEAM
Challenge: in growing and scaling production, evaluating its efficiency becomes more complex than for small-scale manufacturing, creating a growing need to understand the process flows and most potential areas of improvement.
Solution: simple and affordable tools for manufacturing data gathering, visualization, and interpretation.
Quality management
CHALLENGE BY BORN GLOBAL TEAM
Challenge: quality conformity and adherence to industry or market requirements are critical for continuously exporting to demanding markets with high standards.
Solution: easy-to-deploy digital tools for quality assurance and control.
Logistics & last-mile deliveries
CHALLENGE BY BORN GLOBAL TEAM
Challenge: logistics has appeared to be one of the weak links in intra-country trade in the pandemic world, as it is often unpredictable, rigid, and unsuitable for small-scale deliveries with specific requirements.
Solution: tools for increasing efficiency of B2B and B2C logistics of special requirements’ niche products (e.g., fragile, temperature-sensitive) in a sustainable way.
Logistics
CHALLENGE BY CLEAN R
Challenge: customer contracts change every day - the customer can change the frequency of waste transportation, the number of containers, and even their address. Often the amount of waste is not predictable.
Solution: an automated solution that helps organise route logistics
Employees
motivation
CHALLENGE BY LINEARIS TRANSLATIONS
Challenge: how and what could motivate employees to go the extra mile? How to evaluate employees' level of motivation for doing the task? How to track their performance level and efficiency? Is it possible to change the employee motivation with an external impact?
Solution: employee internal motivation tools.
IT security
CHALLENGE BY POSSIBLE SECURITY
Challenge: There are a couple of big players in the IT security sector at the national level (USA, Israel). There are psychological, patriotic and emotional barriers on the part of the buyer for IT security companies from most countries to start exporting outside their home country.
Solution: A study to validate the assumption in the problem definition and a strategy to circumvent the identified barriers or take advantage of them by "opening" these export markets to companies in other countries. (The strategy could be universal and valid for most global IT security companies).
Recruitment
CHALLENGE BY BORN GLOBAL TEAM
Challenge: job markets used to be dominated by employers, while now they are more driven by job seekers, increasing fragmentation and unclarity about multiple opportunities available.
Solution: digital tools for reaching out to the right prospective employees in a personalised and engaging way.
Team building
CHALLENGE BY BORN GLOBAL TEAM
Challenge: many professions are adapted to remote or hybrid employment models due to the shortage of qualified professionals and the experience both employees and employers have had during pandemics, making it harder to maintain team spirit and desired workplace culture.
Solution: tools that would help for team building and sustaining desired company culture in a remote working model.
Upskilling
CHALLENGE BY BORN GLOBAL TEAM
Challenge: evolving industries, new technologies, and changing market circumstances call for new and upgraded skill sets of todays and future employees.
Solution: methods and tools for on-the-job training and re-training of existing and prospective employees.
Perks & benefits
CHALLENGE BY BORN GLOBAL TEAM
Challenge: in the context of limited workforce availability, retention of employees becomes critical; thus, they shall be motivated accordingly.
Solution: easy-to-deploy perk and employee benefit programs that would be affordable for small and medium-sized employers.
TIMELINE
SEP 8
Open Discussion
The discussion aims to identify the main challenges currently facing entrepreneurs and discuss the support needed to promote the growth of the international competitiveness of Latvian exporters.
SEP 17
Host workshops
Latvian exporters participate in the working groups to define their company challenges within the themes of the hackathon. Defined challenges will be used during the hackathon and addressed through collaboration with start-up teams.
SEP 23
Applications close
The organisers gather the participants' applications and match the startups with the company challenges.
SEP 27–OCT 1
Born Global Innovation hackathon
The hackathon takes place from September 27 to October 1. Startup teams meet with companies throughout the week to tailor their solutions to exporters' needs.
PROGRAMME
SEPTEMBER 27
10.00
Hackathon Opening
10.30
Expert talk: Corporate-Startup Collaboration by Henrike Neulen, Senior Program Manager Startup Acceleration at UnternehmerTUM
12.00
Host company challenge presentations
15.00
Co-creating workshops for startups by Viesturs Sosars, Board member at TechHub Riga
16.00
Co-creation workshops for host companies by Viesturs Sosars, Board member at TechHub Riga
20.00
Team Check-out with mentors mentors
SEPTEMBER 28
09.00
Team Check-in
11.00
Expert Talk: Corporate & Startup collaboration
12.00
Calls with host companies
17.00
Workshop: Product Validation with Krists Avots, Vice President of Salto Network for Product Development
20.00
Team Check-out with team mentors
SEPTEMBER 29
09.00
Team Check-in
12.00
Workshop: Innovation basics & culture for host companies by Viesturs Sosars, Board member at TechHub Riga
14.00
Team check-in with host companies
20.00
Team Check-out with team mentors
SEPTEMBER 30
09.00
Team Check-in
11.00
Expert Talk: Storytelling and Pitching with Wallace Green, Startup Coach and Investor
13.00
Workshop: Pitch drill with Wallace Green and Viesturs Sosars
16.00
Team pitch to Host companies
20.00
Team Check-out with team mentors
OCTOBER 1
10.00
Demo Day
12.00
Jury Evaluation
14.00
Info event: Opportunities for startups
15.00
Expert Talk: Coorporate Innovation by Jeremy Kagan, Professor, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Strategy Consultant, Author
16.00
Awards Ceremony
