TECHNOPARK^® Strategy Check

A special offer for tenant companies provided by the Technopark Zurich Foundation

Der TECHNOPARK^® Strategy Check is a board of highly qualified experts with a wide range of professional backgrounds.  They consult and evaluate in an open and critical dialogue the chances and risks of new tenants and start-ups.  It provides a safe environment to discuss strategic issues and challenges. The strategy check has formerly been known as “Beratungsausschuss.”

The Technopark Zürich can presently recruit from a permanent pool of 25 experts with a broad range of competencies.  This allows us to cover a wide range of questions and challenges of the tenant companies.  The Technopark Zurich can additionally ask other specialists of its network with particular expertise to join a strategy check session.

The Strategy-Check intents to be a sparring partner to evaluate pitches of the companies and provide the founders with a second and/or third opinion.

sponsored by UBS Switzerland

Members of the board of the Strategy Check

Guidelines and Process

Name, Location & Management | Objectives | Expertise | Members of the board | Network Technopark | Responsibilities | Process | Confidentiality | Compensation

Name | Location | Management
The “TECHNOPARK^® Strategy Check” is a service provided by the Technopark Zurich Foundation which is located in the Technopark Zurich. The Strategy Check is headed by the Teamleader Foundation Affairs of the Technopark Zurich Foundation, agreed and backed up by the CEO of the Technopark Zurich Foundation.

Objectives
The objective of the TECHNOPARK^® Strategy Check is the selection, promotion and support of selected and innovative start-ups residing in the Technopark Zurich.  In addition, it may also advise other innovative resident companies of the Technopark Zurich that are no longer start-ups, but are undergoing a substantial strategic change in their activities.  Mature companies with normal incremental strategy alignments, however, are not able to participate in a strategy check session.

Expertise
The board has experts of various areas in business, science and law.
The TECHNOPARK^® Strategy Check expertise is covering the companies that are advised.  In particular, it comprises competencies in the areas of entrepreneurship, company building, strategy, ICT, Industry 4.0 (IoT), IP and patent law, MedTech and eHealth, Life Sciences, digitalization, marketing & sales, machine learning and team building and HR.

Members of the board
Members of the TECHNOPARK^® Strategy Check are appointed by the teamleader foundation affairs.  He or she also recalls existing members. Members are summoned directly by the Technopark Zurich foundation for a particular session, so that 5-8 members are present at each session.  The CEO and the teamleader foundation affairs are members of the board “ex officio.”

Network Technopark
Technopark Zurich can supplement the board with experts that have further professional expertise or a good connection to a particular market.  These people are managed by the Technopark Zurich foundation and added to the board, accordingly.

Responsibilities of Technopark Zürich, of the board and of individual members
The Technopark Zurich Foundation selects fitting start-ups and determines in collaboration with those strategic and operative challenges.  Those are sent to the participating members of the panel about 1 week ahead of the meeting. The Technopark Zurich Foundation ensures sufficient quality of the material.

The job of the board is the evaluation and discussion around entrepreneurial topics with selected tenant companies of the Technopark Zurich.  An emphasis is given to issue supporting and supplementing tips to the start-up, based on the professional experience of the board.  The panel and the network of the Technopark Zurich serve also as a networking resource and shall facilitate the access to business partners, customers, academia and other relevant groups for the start-up.

A business plan and/or other documents concerning the background of the start-up are sent well ahead to the participating members of the board.  The panel members prepare themselves by studying the material and it is explicitly welcomed to think about constructive hints, interesting contacts, etc., for the participating company.  On request and on an explicitly issued case-by-case mandate of the Technopark Zurich Foundation, individual members are available to the presenting companies for further discussion and consulting during an agreed period of time.  Members explicitly make their network available to the presenting company.

Preparation, Process and Follow up
The preparation documents, the presentation and stipulation of challenges is done by the start-up.  The Technopark Zurich Foundation supports this process and distributes the documents to the relevant members of the panel.  Those have about 1 week to prepare for the meeting.   Beginning the session, the Team Leader Foundation affairs recapitulates the impact of previous sessions by sharing information  and news about previous candidates.

After the discussion, in some cases a the board retreats for a discussion without the candidate.  In any case will the candidate receive concrete hints and pointers to his or her entrepreneurial questions that were communicated during the preparation phase, or that arose during the discussion. Individual networking opportunities between the candidate and the present members of the board can also take place, afterwards.

About 2-3 weeks after the meeting, the team leader foundation affairs has a reflection session with the candidate that will take about 20 minutes time. Further action is organised by the Technopark Zurich foundation and it can allocate a certain time to some of the participating consultants.

Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest
Each board member in the Strategy-Check and individually appointed experts need to sign a confidentiality agreement provided by the Technopark Zurich Foundation. A potential conflict of interest is to be announced and communicated to the Technopark Zurich Foundation.  The Foundation then decides on any further steps with regard to such conflict of interest.

Compensation
Members of the board of the Technopark Strategy-Check receive a compensation that is covered by the sponsor.  There are no costs for the participating tenant companies.