Silicon Valley has been known as the holy grail for startups. And every creative hub covets to be the next Silicon Valley. But we tend to forget that – as residents of each of our ecosystem – we are unique in our own creative ways.
According to TechSavvyMedia – Avnit Singh, founder of Tech BBQ, commends that we shouldn’t toil to be the ‘’New Silicon Valley’’ but rather be proud of the Scandinavian values, and serve as an inspiration to others to become the New Nordics.
Silicon Valley has been the home birth of unicorns, thus, it’s no wonder that the hunt for “the next Silicon Valley” has heightened. The Nordics may well be an aspirant candidate. Many homegrown unicorns, like Tradeshift, Skype, Spotify, Klarna, Zendesk, and Supercell — hail from north of the border. While it may be tempting to flag the Nordics’ ecosystem as “The Next Silicon Valley,” we shouldn’t.
The Nordic countries have a combination of high living standards and low-income discrepancy that has captured the world’s attention. At a time when the growing gap between the rich and poor has become a political hot button in developed nations, the region known as Scandinavia has been cited by many scholars as a role model for economic opportunity and equality.
Apart from unique business opportunities and ethics – Nordics is a host of top-quality services, including free education and free healthcare, as well as generous, guaranteed pension payments for retirees, and flexible working arrangements – as the Nordics believe that great, meaningful business would not flourish without a healthy labor force.
Scandinavian countries have the reputation of being one of the best at doing business. According to Forbes – Denmark ranks no. 1 in their global league table “Best Countries for Business”. It is fairly easy to get your business all geared up and rest assured that if you fall through the cracks there is a safety net to catch you. The society is open, the citizens have a high degree of trust in their government and a history of working together to reach compromises and address societal challenges through democratic processes.
We shouldn’t strive to make the Nordic ecosystem the “New Silicon Valley.” Instead, we should celebrate our own core values, remold them into opportunities, and inspire other ecosystems to follow in our footsteps.
