100 days of innovation – students develop sustainable ideas for companies in Småland
What is it like to collaborate with people you have never met before, who come from different backgrounds and possess entirely different skills from your own? Students on the master’s programme in Innovation have experienced exactly this, having spent 100 days working on product development for three companies based in Småland.
The project, in which students collaborate with companies in an innovation process, is a recurring feature of the first semester of the programme, with sustainability as a unifying theme across all groups. This year, the companies involved were Rappgo, Designlight and Bra Vision.
The results were presented last Friday, when the students pitched their ideas to an impressed and grateful audience made up of company representatives. One of them was Johan Malmström, CEO of Bra Vision. He believes that the students’ energy has been refreshing and that their ideas and reflections have provided valuable input for the company.
This has been an eye-opener for us, and we are very pleased with the students’ work. They have come up with a proposal that we can implement straight away.
Students enrolled in the master’s programme in Innovation can choose between three different specialisations. Victoria is studying the business track, while others in her group are specialising in engineering and design.
“We are students with different backgrounds and areas of expertise. Although it has been challenging many times, the best part has been the friendships we have built along the way,” says Victoria.
She emphasises that it is important to feel comfortable with not knowing everything at the outset of an innovation process. At the same time, Victoria explains that the best ideas have often emerged when they least expected them, and that a key factor in arriving at a good solution has been truly understanding the company’s needs and the challenges it faces.
“It’s exciting to collaborate with companies in this way! In addition to everything we’ve learned, it has also given us a picture of what it will be like when we enter working life and start working for real,” Victoria adds.
Another student, Monica, worked in graphic design for ten years before starting her studies. She feels that collaborating with students of engineering and business has been particularly valuable, as they bring entirely different perspectives.
“The fact that we think differently and have a broader combined skill set, give our ideas a completely different depth than if we had been a group of only designers,” Monica explains.
Julia and Hampus Hultqvist work at the family-owned company Designlight and say that they see this type of collaboration with the university as a natural choice.
“It’s great fun and very rewarding to work with students in this way. They have really served us strong innovations on a silver platter,” says Julia, marketing manager at Designlight.
She also highlights the mix of the students’ knowledge, perspectives and experience as a clear success factor.
The master’s programme in Innovation is one of two programmes included in the collaboration with IKEA and Södra through the strategic partnership The Bridge.