Abetti was featured in a two page article in the August 14th issue of Talouselämä, the largest weekly business magazine in the Nordic countries, often compared with Business Week or The Economist. His message was “The shyness of the Finns hinders their entrepreneurship.”
Abetti’s advice to new entrepreneurs: “In a start-up business, you must grow fast or die! Get rid of surplus management and bureaucracy!” He adds: “Anyone can create a new company—the challenge is to grow fast! Two-thirds of new businesses disappear in the first four years. If you can grow to critical mass—20 employees or $2 million in annual sales--then your chances of survival increase from thirty-three percent to above fifty percent.”
Since 1994, Abetti has taught “Creation of Innovative Small and Medium Enterprises” at the Helsinki School of Economics in Finland. He also teaches a PhD seminar on “Technological Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship” at the Swedish School of Economics in Helsinki. Abetti has been a consultant to the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry and assisted them in setting up three New Business Incubators in Helsinki. Many of his students from eight Finnish universities have started their own businesses. One successful company is “Powerkiss,” the first wireless system for charging mobile phones, laptops, cameras, etc. without cables and chargers. Maija Itkonen, the CEO of PowerKiss, took Abetti’s course two years ago. Since then, she has raised $1.5 million in grants and $1 million in venture capital, and is now marketing coffee tables and conference tables equipped with contactless charging technology with 80% efficiency.
Professor Abetti currently teaches management of technology and technical entrepreneurship courses in the U.S., Finland and Tunisia. Author of two books and more than 150 technical and management papers in five languages, he was the recipient of the 1993 Kauffman Foundation Award as University Entrepreneurship Professor of the Year.
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