Entrepreneurial Strategy Matrix - Team 3

Quuppa Oy

Quuppa was established in September 2012 by the team of engineers and scientists, who originally invented High Accuracy Indoor Positioning (HAIP) at Nokia Research Center. With the years of experience as the foundation, Quuppa team has commercialized their innovation and created a complete product platform – the Quuppa Intelligent Locating System™ – that is well suited for a wide range of industries and use-cases.

Quuppa team strongly believes that innovativeness and great customer service go hand-in-hand. Driven by the passion for offering a superior positioning technology, and by working closely together with their partners in different industries, they have been able to innovate and develop the technology further on.

Today Quuppa is a leading provider of Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS), with partners and customers worldwide.

Quuppa is a privately owned independent company and holds its headquarters in Espoo, Finland.

Quuppa LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Quuppa Oy and is based in Arlington, Virginia.

Company story in their words

Why was the company categorized as I-r

Strategy Matrix

How do the strategies apply for this company

Innovation

Quuppa has revolutionary tracking system that uses different technology than competitors in the field.

Their tracking system has superior accuracy, 3D-positioning, real-time data surveillance and battery life for a year

Risk

The company is still small and new, and compared to that the opportunity for the product is remarkable.

Product is also ready so future R&D would be product improvements

Most of the risks consist of successful sales and competitor innovations

Quickness

For this venture the quickness demands active sales. With good R&D the company can stay ahead of competition, but as they build profile there will be companies following

Protection

Large portion of their innovation in programming code. They cannot apply a worldwide patent without disclosing the code. Instead they sell their services and solution by licensing to partners that supply the customer interface. They need to keep very good care on their security protocols and business secrets.

Investments and Operating costs

With active management and sales with 3rd party manufacturing and subscriptions they have good opportunity to keep supervision on operating costs and cash flow

Arkiteko was established on spring 2015. In the beginning it did ecological surface coatings (protection against dirt and stains) in co-operation with another company. After a year the co-operation ended and Arkiteko became more clearly a cleaning company, concentrating in the beginning in construction site and office cleaning. Slowly the focus was on home cleaning. After that the service has been constantly extended to cover e.g. organizing services. In the future the intention is to develop the service package even more, covering training in work well-being in the cleaning business as well as participating in the development of the business.

At some point the entrepreneur did consider hiring a full-time employee, but after having some short term assistants over peak seasons and studying entrepreneurship, she realized one employee would not bring enough to cover the additional stress it would create. In order to be worth the effort, the business should be expanded significantly, not only with one employee, but expanding in cleaning business is not the future scenario for the entrepreneur.

In the future Arkiteko will concentrate more in well-being and trainings. As the entrepreneur says: meaningfulness and development are the key element she wishes to follow also in working life. Perhaps the company will grow in the future in those mentioned, more meaningful lines of business.

Company story in their words

Why was the company categorized as i-r

Strategy Matrix

How do the strategies apply for this company

Innovation

Required innovation level in office- and housecleaning is very low itself. The industry is developing from inside and requires studying as well, but still the concept of cleaning stays the same. Our example company has been able to increase its innovation level within the category though. From the beginning it has had clear vision to be the best one-person cleaning company and has put considerably amount of effort in building a brand. It also uses only environmental friendly products. Therefore the entrepreneur can place her services on higher price position and we also have grounds to place this company higher in this cell in Strategy Matrix.

Risk

In this enterprise risks are very low. We can see some risks in creating damage on property, but with high level of know-how this can be avoided. The largest potential risk is on the entrepreneur herself: if she in not capable of work, there will be no income. In such situation there is also a risk of losing contracts to competitors. Therefore we do not place the company on quite left either.

Maintain and defend the current situation

Achieving a reasonable turnover on this business requires active sales especially in the beginning. As mentioned, there is some competition on this line of business.

Accept limited paypack

Target of being the best, having brand, slogan - clear strategy - helps keeping the contracts and protecting existing business.

Accept limited growth potential

Required minimum investments as well as operating costs for creating an income are very low in this line of business. Company can improve efficiency and turnover through investing on more sophisticated tools, though. Also, as mentioned, for example usage of environmental cleaning products raise the operating costs, but create added value to the business.

Strategy Matrix

Strategy Matrix

Lapland Hotels Oy

Lapland Hotels Oy is an Design hotel -chain founded in 2008 that provides accommodation with designed rooms influenced by nature and the stories of Lapland around Finland mostly operated in Lapland area and in Ski-resorts, but also found in urban environment in Helsinki, Tampere and Oulu.

Lapland hotels provide accommodation from basic single- and double rooms to various deluxe -rooms, different suites and special rooms; such as allergy-free and handicap friendly solutions. Most of the hotels provide also facilities for galas and congress/conference-meetings and restaurant-services.

Lapland hotels exploit the surroundings of each hotels location and provide different services regarding the location yet remaining their own imprint in their services.

Company story in their words

Why was the company categorized as i-R

Strategy Matrix

Innovation

• Regardless of the beautiful designs, the basic business idea of providing accommodation is not an unique, novel innovation
• Providing services based on surroundings is an intelligent solution,

but it is not anything unseen before

• Business idea based on already existing market

Risk

• Operating hotels require substantial initial capital and high investments
• Decade(s) of commitment and trust for own business idea with an understanding of very low or no profit during the first years in operation
• High competition on the industry
• Crucial social media - success depends on customers approval
• Customers increasing demand on experiences, best quality

with lowest affordable price

• Challenge for entrepreneurs to stay profitable
• Maintaining the quality of service requires constant investments
• Highly influenced and affected by seasonal trends
• Entrepreneurs forced to react in rather “short notice”