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CHRONICLE THE BRANDING OF A NATION ‘For a rich country, it can help update people’s perceptions, to communicate technological expertise, creativity and dynamism, alongside the images of heritage and tradition.’ Nation branding is a phrase we hear very often today, and it isn’t surprising that places are trying to compete on the global market by building their brands. It’s the natural consequence of a crowded marketplace where competing ‘products’ need to attract the attention of the ‘consumer’. I define nation branding as the process of aligning the policies, investments, innovations, behaviours and communications of a country around a clear strategy for achieving enhanced competitive identity. The process can add value to countries in many different ways. For a poor country, surviving on handouts and labouring under a negative ‘brand image’ of war, poverty, disease and corruption, nation branding can be a way of eliciting more than pity, of communicating that the country also offers attractive prospects for investment, export, tourism and cultural relations. For a rich country, it can help update people’s perceptions, to communicate technological expertise, creativity and dynamism, alongside the images of heritage and tradition. Whoever is doing it, true nation branding has little to do with slogans, logos or advertising. Most places ultimately get the reputation they deserve, and the only way to change it is by doing different things. This means creating a culture where every player in every sector, from policy-making to industry, from tourism to exports, strives to achieve constant innovation, implemented to impeccable international standards, but always in line with the national brand strategy. All these innovations have to prove the point about the way the country wishes to be perceived. When a country starts to practise innovation clearly guided by a common strategy, the media take notice: promotion becomes simpler and cheaper when there is always something new to say, when it is all part of the same compelling new story. The only way to acquire a reputation is by earning it, and brand strategy provides a good way of planning and aligning the change in national behaviour which ultimately leads to a better national reputation: one which is more fair, more true, and more useful to the country’s economic, social and political goals. © 2005 Simon Anholt Simon Anholt is one of the world’s leading specialists in creating brand strategies for countries, cities and regions. He is the British Government’s advisor on Public Diplomacy. Breast milk speeds up healing A refinement of an innovation at Sahlgrenska University Hospital has proved effective in speeding up wound healing and scarring. This innovation may even provide a solution to an unsolved problem that occurs in connection with operations on the abdomen. There is a risk after such operations of the intestines growing together with the healing surface. This restricts mobility in the abdomen and causes ileus, which is very painful. Breast milk may provide a solution to the problem. It contains lactoferrin, a protein that regulates and strengthens the immunological defence mechanisms of babies. A peptide (a string of amino acids) that helps operation wounds to heal has been identified and isolated. A group of entrepreneurs have refined this patented innovation and established a company called PharmaSurgics. A material with extreme properties A fantastic new material – MAX – can be used instead of gold in the manufacture of electrical components. MAX has low friction, low resistance, high heat resistance and high abrasive resistance, which makes it suitable as an alloy. Apart from that, it is cheap: gold costs 12,500 euro per kg, while MAX costs 36 euro per kg. Thin film made from MAX has been produced by the Impact Coatings company in Linköping in cooperation with ABB, Sandvik Kanthal, Uppsala University and Linköping University. The role of Impact Coatings was to scale up laboratory experiments and develop a mass production process. The object of the project was to industrialize a completely new nanomaterial consisting of three elements (titanium, silicon and carbon). In no time at all this work has made Sweden a leader in this field. The whole value chain is here, from basic materials science to know-how 1 4 | V I N N O V A M A G A Z I N E
INTERVIEW Smooth cooperation at ABB No country with such a small population has produced so many complex products. – It’s not that we are smarter than anybody else. Sweden’s advantage is that we have long experience of developing technical systems, says Charlotte Brogren, Vice President of Technology at ABB Robotics. – But competition in a globalized world is becoming keener all the time. That is why Sweden must concentrate on areas where we already possess advanced know-how. ABB’s product portfolio is full of robots and power transmission products. Superficially, it looks like old technology, but the customers’ constantly changing wishes create an environment of continuous change. In order to succeed, ABB is engaged in close cooperation with researchers at many universities all over the world. – It is thanks to our contacts with The Linköping and Lund universities of technology that we are successful robot manufacturers today. CORE AREAS According to Charlotte Brogren, cooperation with Swedish researchers is smooth, direct and unbureaucratic. But relations with some foreign universities are more complicated, and regulations make it more difficult to conduct joint research projects with them. Although ABB only sells 3 per cent of its products in Sweden, almost a third of all research is done in this country. – We continuously evaluate where we can get the best value for our research grants. So far, our Swedish partners hold their own. But we cannot live on our past successes. Sweden’s future growth lies in our core areas, automation and power transmission, but also in the telecom, vehicle and process industries. All these areas require broad experience of technically complicated system solutions. about processes and production equipment to finished applications. Apart from having a market worth many millions of euros for its thin film processes using MAX, the company also intends to sell complete production plants. A new superglass Innovations are not always planned. Diamorph in Stockholm started with a failed experiment. This gave rise to a new superglass that is extremely hard, impactresistant and with a refraction index on a par with diamonds. Saeid Esmaeilzadeh is a researcher at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at Stockholm University. Two years ago he was studying silicon nitride ceramics. Silicon nitride and additives were melted in his experiments at high temperature and were then set to cool at a controlled rate so that crystals were formed from the melt. But one night something unforeseen occurred. They usually work with melts at a temperature of 1,500 to 2,000° C and always keep the coolant connected to the kilns. In the middle of the night the cooling system broke down, the kiln was automatically shut down and the melt cooled much faster than usual. When Saeid examined the sample it was not crystalline but glass, with very interesting properties. It was the hardest silicate glass that has ever been produced. In addition, it has an extremely high refraction index, virtually the same as that for diamonds. It can be endowed with magnetic properties by adding high concentrations of various metals. Apart from all this, it can be produced by means of a simple process technology. The innovation has got to the commercialization stage and discussions are in progress with several cooperation partners. Award-winning high-performance processes ECPR (ElectroChemical Pattern Replication) is a completely new method for manufacturing conductor patterns on certain types of electronic chips. It has reduced 6 steps of the 10-step fabrication process to just one. The fabrication time has been cut from two hours to 2 or 3 minutes! The innovation was developed in connection with a degree project in Lund and the company Replisurus is now located in Kista. The company has won a number of awards, including VINNOVA’s VINN NU competition. V I N N O V A M A G A Z I N E | 1 5
Page 1 and 2: Swedish research for growth A VINNO
Page 3 and 4: 4 4 6 7 9 12 14 15 Small country -
Page 5 and 6: Swedish protein research proved to
Page 7 and 8: INNOVATIVE THINKING Sweden became a
Page 9 and 10: INNOVATIVE THINKING SVENSK INDUSTRI
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Page 19 and 20: GOOD IDEAS RECEIVE SUPPORT Maria Gr
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Page 23 and 24: Advanced production of nanothreads
Page 25 and 26: 3G OPENS UP NEW OPPORTUNITIES - Cut
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