GCE Ocean Technology – Helping the Industry to Grow

The eight first participants in the pilot of our ScaleUp programme state that they have learnt a lot about scaling philosophies, strategic tools and the mindset needed to develop their businesses to grow and expand.

Only 33 per cent of new jobs in Norway are created in growth companies, says Torger Reve Professor at BI Norwegian Business School (BI).

GCE Ocean Technology has together with BI, MIT and VIS developed a unique scaling programme to engage growth and internationalisation for Norwegian small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) with a potential to become a considerable export company.

Candidates for the programme are SME’s with the management resources, technology and competence to really grow and internationalise to become the future value- and job creators in Norway, adds Owe Hagesæther, CEO of GCE Ocean Technology.

The 12-week ScaleUp pilot was kicked off at BI in Oslo 5 September and was officially opened by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Torbjørn Røe Isaksen. – This is an important programme to help the Norwegian industry to expand and grow, and we support this 100 per cent said Røe Isaksen at the opening.

The Modules

The modules in this 12 week programme involves two national gatherings in Oslo and Bergen, weekly regional gatherings and one week at the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship for MIT in Boston.

Vestlandskonferansen

Sparebanken Vest, one of the sponsors of the programme, invited GCE Ocean Technology to the stage at Vestlandskonferansen 2019 to present the results from the programme, including interviews with Scott Stern and Kit Hickey from MIT Boston and Torger Reve from BI. Cluster member Octio that participated in the first programme, was also invited to the stage to share their experiences from the first executed ScaleUp.

Next Programme

The intention is to have a ScaleUp programme yearly. The next ScaleUp/100ScaleUps programme is planned to be executed in autumn 2019, and we will in due time send out invitations to start selecting the next participants.

The programme was executed in collaboration with BI Norwegian Business School, VIS (previously known as BTO) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).