by Jop Kerkhof, business development officer HTCE site management
At High Tech Campus Eindhoven we like to think that we have created an extraordinary ecosystem for high-tech R&D, innovation and business. This is the birthplace of Philips and ASML. We boast the smartest km2 in Europe, a place that brings together over 10,000 smart people from all over the world, working together in a unique environment of open innovation. We have our own ideas about what makes us interesting, but we want to know the real reason why companies set up shop here. What is it that appeals to them? And how can we attract more companies to our exciting km2?
Pool and proximity
To find out the answers to these questions, I did a survey amongst the campus population, with help from BOM (development agency for the province of Noord-Brabant), Brainport Eindhoven and the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency. I received over 600 responses from people on the campus. Most of them were attracted first and foremost by the big pool of international tech talent that is available in the Eindhoven region, with the proximity to other tech companies coming in a close second. The companies the respondents do business with, whether it be R&D or actual business, are never far away. We soon realized, however, that just knowing why current Campus residents are here was not enough. To figure out what makes us attractive, we also had to speak to tech other companies that would fit in well in Eindhoven.
8 weeks in Silicon Valley
The tech companies we would like to attract to Eindhoven operate from Germany, China, Japan, east coast US and, of course, … Silicon Valley. Thanks to our partners, I was able to quickly arrange about 20 interviews in the heart of Silicon Valley, because this area has the highest density of companies that are of interest to the High Tech Campus. All the same, we had to focus. Start-ups are too busy breaking ground to even think of moving to Eindhoven, so we focused on the scale-ups, companies that have outgrown that start-up phase and are now looking further. I spent 8 weeks in San Francisco, making a lot of calls and conducting interviews on a daily basis. I talked to some big name companies such as Dolby and, yes, Google too.
Big names
The outcome of my interviews was quite interesting. Firstly, the word “Eindhoven” or the name “High Tech Campus Eindhoven” didn’t immediately mean anything to a lot of tech company employees. Some admitted we sounded just like other tech areas in Europe and Asia, boasting excellent R&D and facilities. But when I mentioned the tech companies already on our campus, I got their attention. Medtronic, ASML, NXP, Intel, IBM and Philips are names every tech CEO knows and wants to be associated with. That was also the biggest reason for opening an office abroad: to be closer to potential markets, clients and partners. The availability of tech talent wasn’t a primary concern for most Silicon Valley companies. When I mentioned our ecosystem of open innovation, many CEOs just shrugged. Sharing research with possible competitors?! When I explained to them that organizations work together in specific phases, e.g. to make the funding of initial research possible, they were more receptive to the idea. Still, I noticed that most American tech companies are more protective about their R&D and only seek collaboration in strictly controlled circumstances. Perhaps that’s understandable, given the highly competitive nature of Silicon Valley’s tech ecosystem.
Lessons learned
My experiences in San Francisco have taught me one thing: Eindhoven and Silicon Valley cannot be compared. The scale is completely different. The mentalities in the two areas are almost the direct opposite of each other – highly competitive versus focused on collaboration and open innovation. All the same, there are things we can learn from each other. I was impressed by the “can do” mentality displayed by Silicon Valley companies. Whereas we are sometimes hesitant, Americans seem to have no doubts when it comes to their ideas. They just go out there and put them into practice. I sometimes wish we had more of this positive mentality, instead of looking for possible flaws in a concept. Americans would, however, do well to be more open in their research. In the early stages of tech research, organizations can achieve more by working together. The companies at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven demonstrate this every day! So, yes, our km2 is unique and we do need to show it off more to the world!
