Using Eduzines – interactive, transmedial learning materials for smartphones – to build strategic innovation skills of SMEs Erasmus Project

Project Title

Using Eduzines – interactive, transmedial learning materials for smartphones – to build strategic innovation skills of SMEs

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of innovation as a critical success factor in business performance (Baker and Sinkula, 2012; Hult et al., 2014; Jiménez-Jimenez et al., 2018). Leading global corporations such as Apple Inc., 3M, and Proctor & Gamble largely owe their outstanding business success to a sustained record of successful innovation. Yet, despite the well-documented association between innovation and business performance, many companies struggle in their attempts to become successful innovators.

As government restrictions and emergency regulations start to ease businesses are looking at ways to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly every industry was hit hard and is anticipating financial losses by the end of the year. But, it doesn’t have to be that way.

In a recent survey conducted across 12 EU Member States by PWC, 90 percent of company executives said that the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way they will do business in the future. Yet just 21 percent said they felt equipped to pursue growth. According to the research, an important way to prepare for the future is to avoid cutting investments in innovation, which may seem counter-intuitive. Yet, looking back at other economic crisis, the evidence is clear that what companies need to do is:
• Adapt to changing consumer desires
• Look for new opportunities
• Keep putting resources towards innovation

Most organizations will be focusing on recovery efforts and short-term plans for improving revenue. Yet, research and history have demonstrated that is not how companies survive a crisis in the long run. As counter-intuitive as it sounds if you want to become a successful organization again you need to focus on strategic innovation. That is, make a plan for growth and change.

Strategic innovation is simply the way an organization reinvents itself or adjusts to changes in the marketplace. The focus is on business growth and gaining an advantage over your competitors. Although it is not a new concept for most companies, recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic will require a vast amount of innovation.

While most organizations innovated rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the next phase they will need to be more strategic rather than reactive. Innovation at the beginning of the crisis was fast and focused on employee safety as well as continuing company operations. Over the next several months as restrictions ease, organizations will have an opportunity to consider innovative ways forward that are focused on core business models. The expectation will be to define ways to recover from the crisis.

SIS-SME will develop a comprehensive strategic innovation training programme for business owners and managers to support a progressive recovery from the impact of Covid-19. It will pursue its objectives by presenting all training materials in a series of SIS-SME EduZines which are designed to support mobile learning on smartphones. In doing so it will seek to address the low uptake of education and training in the SME sector. The project will focus on building Strategic Innovation Skills of SMEs to ensure that they are informed and equipped to harness the potential of emerging opportunities in today’s digital world. The project will also provide essential in-service training for VET tutors to ensure that they are, in the first instance, knowledgeable about strategic innovation in the SME sector and more importantly, build their pedagogic and digital skills to help them harness the potential of online learning to deliver a high-quality VET service in the current Covid-19 context where traditional institution based provision is no longer viable.

By the end of the project life-cycle
– 64 VET tutors will have completed the in-service training developed and be engaged in the Community of Practice established and facilitated through the SIS-SME MOOC
– 240 business owners and managers will have integrated the Compendium of Interactive Infographics and SIS-SME EduZines into their work-based learning protocols
– 100 VET professionals, business owners, managers and policy makers from the business and VET sectors will have attended the SIS-SME Final Conference in France where the full suite of resources will be presented.
– SIS-SME National Campaigns will be held in Ireland, Spain, Germany, Cyprus, Portugal, Bulgaria and Croatia and each event will be attended by a minimum of 25 key stakeholders drawn from VET and business

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 263158 Eur

Project Coordinator

Coopérative pour le Développement de la Créativité et de l’Innovation & Country: FR

Project Partners

• BULGARIAN-ROMANIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION
• Spectrum Research Centre CLG
• INNOVADE LI LTD
• Rightchallenge – Associação
• Academia Postal 3 Vigo S.L.
• Skills Elevation FHB
• Callidus ustanova za obrazovanje odraslih