Our tri-annual magazine Austrian Information focused on Austrian Innovation in the Summer/Fall 2014 issue. Learn about the Austrian Silicon Valley, urban development in Vienna, or how the region of Upper Austria is driving innovation in Austria.
Also, we continued our ongoing series Meet the Chef and Meet the Consul.
Enjoy your read!
"Surely, nothing can be more plain or even more trite common sense than the proposition that innovation [...] is at the center of practically all the phenomena, difficulties, and problems of economic life in capitalist society." So wrote the economist Joseph Schumpeter, who is often called the "father of entrepreneurship" or the "father of creative destruction," about innovation as outlined in his book "Business Cycles: Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process" which was first published in 1939. Innovation held a key role in Schumpeter's thinking which, again in his own words, "is the outstanding fact in the economic history of capitalist society."
Every year during the month of May, the space in front of the city hall in Vienna is transformed into a festive outdoor music venue, providing the Viennese as well as countless tourists the opportunity to listen to some of the world's most famous classical music pieces and to watch theater plays and opera performances. The Wiener Festwochen (the Vienna Festival) were founded in 1951 to newly invent post-war Vienna as a cultural metropolis.
The guiding principle behind sustainable construction is the awareness that the economy, ecology and society are interlocking systems. With its 40% share of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, the building sector throughout the EU is well ahead of traffic and industry.
On October 12, 2013, cheers rang through the Solar Decathlon village in Orange County Great Park as the verdict was read aloud: "The first-place winner of this Solar Decathlon, the sixth in history in the U.S., is Team Austria."
Interview with Boyd Cohen Climate Strategist
The world population is growing, andmore and more people are moving into the city. In 2050, two thirds of the citizens of the world will live in conurbations. The adaptation of these cities for the future is one of the greatest challenges today. During the 2013 Vienna Tourism Conference, wien.at spoke with climate strategist Boyd Cohen, inventor of the Smart City index, which ranked Vienna as the smartest city worldwide. Cohen talks about abandoned suburbs, full underground trains and why being smart is also clever.
Austrian companies: Take the curtain calls!
The good news: Austria's companies are successful all over the world. The bad news: hardly anyone knows about this. A couple of years ago, I thumbed through The New York Times and a headline caught my eye.
"Hidden champions" as a term was first conceptualized and published in a German journal for business administration in 1990 by Hermann Simon, a German business professor and management consultant. The concept refers to highly sucessful companies, often market leaders in their respective fields and not known to a wider public. According to Simon, three criteria must be met in order to be considered a hidden champion; (1) the company either has to be positioned in the top three of the global market or take the top spot on its continent in terms of market share, (2) the company's revenue must not exceed $4 billion, and (3) the company must have a low level of public awareness.
In our "Meet the Consul" series, meet Consul Franz Kolb, the Austrian Honorary Consul in Salt Lake City, UT.
Albeit small in size, Austria, in the heart of Europe, is a country full of diversity and charm. Though it might not first be associated with cutting-edge innovation and technology but rather with classical music and chocolate cake, the Alpine republic has a lot to show for. In 2013, the Australian innovation agency "2thinknow" ranked Vienna as the most innovative city in Europe; on an international level the Austrian capital ranks third behind Boston and New York City.
Today more than half the world's population and two-thirds of Europeans are living in cities or urban areas; the figure for Austria is 64%. The global trend in urbanization is upwards; the process will continue in the future, and the city will become the dominant environment in social and economic terms throughout the world. Europe's cities generate the bulk of our affluence although, at the same time, they face huge economic, ecological, and social challenges.
The Austrian bridge to the IT center of the world
"Go Silicon Valley" is an international trade initiative by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (http:// www.en.bmwfw.gv.at) and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (http://www. wko.at). It offers selected Austrian SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) an opportunity to access the epicenter of IT innovation in Silicon Valley and its abundant sources of partnerships and risk capital.