Last week, RunwayFBU and Thommessen brought together industry leaders in Stavanger—including AkerBP CEO Karl Johnny Hersvik and Nysnø Climate Investment CEO Siri Kalvik—to discuss the positive impact of adopting new technology in the industry. The event was set in the context of the urgent need to strengthen European and Norwegian competitiveness, strongly supported by the Draghi report and highlighted in Martin B. Holte's recent book.
One of the key strategies discussed was leveraging our world-class industry as a home market for disruptive startups. By getting the industry to take advantage of startups, daring to adopt their technology, and as a result, changing how the industry works, we can sharpen the competitive edge of the industry and create a fertile ground for disruptive tech innovation.
The real opportunity lies in effectively matching the right challenges from the industry with the most innovative solutions from fast-moving startups and scaleups. This matchmaking process is crucial for fostering a dynamic and responsive industrial ecosystem.
However, a key challenge we face is overcoming a certain risk aversiveness in the industry. To overcome this, we need to cultivate a culture that embraces disruptive technology and is willing to take calculated risks. This shift in mindset from “risk management” to “long-term profit margin management” is essential for driving transformative change. The group present was clearly composed of the right mindset to enable this change.
Lastly, we discussed the importance of mobilizing more capital and scaling competence to build the next growth engines on our journey to strengthen the competitive edge of both the existing and emerging industries.
How can we mobilize capital and competence to build the next Cognites? We probably need "scalers" more than startups and more long-term industrial capital to truly develop new, great industrial companies in Norway.
At RunwayFBU, we look forward to continuing these conversations and working together to drive our industry forward.
There will be more opportunities in 2025 to attend similar events, so anyone interested can contact me (karen@runwayfbu.com) or my colleague Thea Wiig (thea@runwayfbu.com).
