Start-ups at Sea?
WÄRTSILÄ LAUNCHES INNOVATION CONTEST TO
BOOST MARITIME DIGITAL REVOLUTION
by: SAMI J. ANTEROINEN
photo: WÄRTSILÄ
“Disruption” is not a term usually linked with the marine industry – actually, one might think that this is
a reference to a ship in trouble. Nevertheless, there are those industry pioneers who feel that “rocking
the boat” – so to speak – can lead to increased momentum and better business opportunities.
W
ith this in mind, the Finnish indus-
all living in the “age of disruptive innova-
or enhance safety, says Tero Hottinen,
trial powerhouse Wärtsilä launched
tions” – and this applies also to the marine
General Manager, Business Innovation at
an innovation contest – by the name of
business. Start-ups are playing a vital role
Wärtsilä Services.
Wärtsilä Marine Mastermind – aimed at
in this, so naturally Wärtsilä is interested
The best ideas will be showcased to
start-up companies and entrepreneurs.
in pursuing closer collaboration with the
the jury in February and the winner will be
Kicking off at the November start-up event
coders and their ilk.
announced in March 2016.
Slush, the purpose of the contest is to find
Pierpaolo is convinced that the
The winner of the contest will get to
new and unique digital services for the
marine industry provides an enormous
experience a 30-day agile “Lean Innova-
marine industry. The contest is open for
existing companies as well as for aspiring
entrepreneurs.
It comes as little surprise that Wärtsilä is the mastermind behind the Mastermind contest. A globally known forerunner
in the utilisation of digital technologies in
the marine and energy industries, Wärtsilä
is aiming to deploy the contest as means to
building closer relationships with interna-
“
The marine industry provides
an enormous amount of
possibilities for new product and
service innovations.
tional start-ups – and discovering interesting digital business opportunities together
amount of possibilities for new product
tion Lab” product or service development
along the way.
and service innovations.
sprint supported by Shift Actions. The
“Already today, Wärtsilä’s innova-
sprint focuses on the challenges of innova-
REDEFINING VALUE
tions increase the predictability of main-
tion, development of the concept for com-
The target here is to develop a new
tenance requirements, optimise the use of
mercialisation, its prototyping, as well as
value adding digital service or solution
vessels’ equipment and even enable the
the business plan and its implementation
in
collaboration with start-ups in order
utilisation of virtual reality in remote sup-
plan. The goal is to use the concrete idea
to support the growth of Wärtsilä’s cus-
port,” he says.
in the future together with Wärtsilä.
tomers’ business. The winner also gets a
“The key criteria that we will empha-
chance to become part of the highly inter-
TAP INTO THE POTENTIAL
sise during evaluation are the usability of
national marine business. The date for sub-
But what’s coming up next? – Well, the
the solution within the marine business,
missions to Wärtsilä expires on 31 Decem-
innovations Wärtsilä is looking for in the
innovativeness, customer focus and the
ber 2015.
contest can for instance bring efficiency
business potential and scalability of the
Pierpaolo Barbone, President of
gains, better usability, improve trans-
solution,” says Hottinen who is in charge
Wärtsilä Services, comments that we are
parency of operations to the customer
of the innovation contest. n
seatec 1/2016 41