Regenerative growth and radical innovations at interfaces and in surprising encounters

The growth and internationalisation of companies play an essential role in the economic competitiveness of Finland and all of Europe. Growth is based on innovations with which companies provide added value to their customers. A company's innovations are founded on its intellectual capital, including its brand, intellectual property and patent rights, employees’ know-how, networks, customer relations, organisational culture, technological solutions, and processes and systems.

Intangible value creation refers to business activities where value to the customer is generated by means other than physical products. It may be a matter of experiences, emotions, impressions – or more extensive phenomena, such as easy mobility, clean air, or even supply security. It often involves comprehensive solutions that simplify a particular area of a customer’s business or life. By increasing their intangible value, businesses create the value-added products and solutions that Finland needs. In creating such solutions, LAB is the ideal partner for companies with its strong strategic expertise in design, foresight, and commercialisation. 

Intangible value creation requires bold, nonlinear thinking

Finding solutions to complex present-day problems, such as climate change, health crises, or inequality, requires more than just physical products. They should be accompanied or even replaced by a variety of intangible innovations. In fact, a company needs to boldly and open-mindedly make the most of its intellectual capital to achieve a competitive edge. 

LAB helps businesses develop products, services, brands, and business models that create value for people and the planet. LAB’s strategic expertise in design and futures thinking offers companies insights into opportunities related to intangible value creation. Customer- and user-oriented innovation processes, building innovation capabilities, and developing solutions with high added value are LAB's strengths that support SMEs in achieving sustainable, regenerative, and profitable growth. 

Intangible value becomes concrete through the commercialisation of innovations

Investments in research and development are an essential part of a company's intellectual capital. For intangible assets to translate to profitable business, a company needs research and development and the commercialisation of its outcomes, such as knowledge, expertise, solutions, products, and services. LAB helps businesses and research organisations commercialise innovations from their research and development in order to enable sustainable and profitable business growth. LAB's expertise covers revenue model and risk assessment, market entry studies, value chain assessment, and business modelling. 

LAB helps SMEs create value and develop competitiveness through close collaboration and an international partner network. We focus on growth-oriented business solutions and encourage companies to pursue success by turning research into business involving themes such as food, mechanics, electricity, chemistry, digital business, fintech, and robotics. Our expertise also supports the development of entrepreneurship and startups.