Being an early mover, whether into a technology, a marketplace, or even a cycle of transformation, usually translates into a competitive advantage. This is the power of small teams that can nimbly create and adapt to fast-paced change.
Small group working together.
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It’s no wonder, then, that for my home country of Denmark (population 5.8 million) being small has not been an obstacle to entrepreneurship. In fact, Denmark has links to tech startups such as Skype (its co-founder is Danish) and currently boasts eight “unicorns” — startups that quickly reached a $1 billion valuation. Indeed, as we’ve also seen from sports such as soccer and badminton in Denmark, small can lead to big wins.
As Stephen Alstrup, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen, CEO of the AI company SupWiz, and a member of the new Danish government digitization council, told me in a recent conversation, “In Denmark, we have been able to succeed by being extremely good in quality, although not in quantity.”
It’s a lesson for business leaders everywhere. Breakthrough ideas, novel innovations, and solutions to the hardest problems don’t require the scale of behemoths such as Apple, Google, or Microsoft. As researchers writing in Harvard Business Review have found, large teams are good at advancing and developing science, but it takes small teams to create disruption.
High-performing small teams, however, do require adequate access to talented people who have a growth mindset to continuously improve. Without that talent development, innovation lags and the early mover advantage can be lost. As the researchers added, “If we are not serious about supporting and nurturing small teams that disrupt conventional thinking by generating new directions, it’s possible that innovation, the engine of economic growth, will slow down.”
From Early Mover to Slipping Behind
Denmark’s achievements in technology innovation are linked directly to its early-mover status in information technology (IT). For example, the Department of Computer Science (DIKU) at the University of Copenhagen was founded more than 50 years ago, and its founder, Peter Naur, became the only Dane to receive the coveted Turing Award for his contribution in the development of ALGOL 60, a programming language, and as the co-creator of the Backus-Naur form, which is the basis of how most modern programming languages are formulated. After Naur, Denmark continued the tradition; for example, C++, the most-used programming language, was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup, also a Dane.
“Many of our accomplishments today are based on an investment made 20, 30, or even 50 years ago,” Alstrup added.
Given such a heritage, Denmark has had a leadership position in computer science and has been able to attract some of the best and brightest from across the globe in such fields as algorithmics, semantics, machine learning, and AI. Sadly, this may not be the case in the future.
As a Danish entrepreneur with operations in Denmark and the U.S., I’ve witnessed how policies on immigration and xenophobic attitudes can undermine innovation and the development of a more robust and vibrant society. As a 2020 survey conducted for Digital Hub Denmark has found, Danish business leaders continue to press for more initiatives to “accelerate talent attraction.” Otherwise, “the lack of digital skills can have catastrophic consequences for the growth, development, and innovation for Danish companies.”
Homegrown talent will not be enough, especially given that Denmark is behind places such as the UK and Norway in computer science education in primary schools. “Even if we started investing heavily in talent development starting today, I’m really afraid for Denmark and how it will keep from falling behind,” Alstrup said.
Opening More Doors
Denmark has an urgent need for skilled talent, with an estimated shortfall of 19,000 skilled IT specialists by 2030. That number, Alstrup said, assumes that existing initiatives will be implemented, and outsourcing will continue. “But perhaps most important,” he added, “less than half the workforce believes that they have sufficient IT skills. IT that was produced by few and consumed by many has escalated to something that most of us need, both professionally and personally.”
Denmark’s talent situation also mirrors an IT skill imbalance that exists in many countries. For example, skilled talent shortages have persisted for many years in the U.S., with IT being one of the hardest roles to fill.
Looking specifically at Denmark, the significant gaps in talent should be addressed by investing in upskilling the workforce and throwing open the doors to more foreign students and foreign workers. But it’s usually the opposite.
Denmark’s homogeneity and relatively low levels of immigration do not make it attractive to non-Danes. Furthermore, policies that would reduce the number of university-level classes taught in English could make it harder for foreign students to become educated in Denmark and then find jobs there.
This problem should sound eerily similar to the outcry among tech industry leaders in 2020. When the previous U.S. administration cracked down on immigration, tech leaders spoke out about their concerns of being unable to recruit highly skilled talent from around the world.
It’s more than just a matter of numbers and filling vacancies with talent from outside a country, region, or organization. The fact is that, while a homogenous team may have less conflict, a heterogeneous team often excels in decision-making and innovation. If enterprises want to encourage more disruption and breakthrough thinking, they need to ensure that their team members aren’t all mirror reflections of each other in backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
3 Steps for Addressing Talent Gaps in Denmark — and Everywhere
At the risk of being overly simplistic, there are three key considerations to building innovative small teams that can generate the kinds of ideas and solutions that result in a first mover advantage.
1. Make people feel welcome. When any culture — whether that of a country or a company — is insular, it’s difficult for others to feel “at home.” Beyond the politics and the policies of the U.S., Denmark, or any other country, business leaders need to consider their own attitudes around welcoming talent from anywhere and integrating them into their corporate culture
2. Focus on the 1, not the 100. The need to build teams may shift the focus to quantity. Good talent, however, is hired one person at a time, particularly when assembling small teams. As Alstrup observed, “Quite often someone comes to me and asks, ‘Where can I hire 100 people?’ I tell them, ‘Think about where you can hire one person who can attract 99 others.’”
3. Invest in tomorrow. Tomorrow’s talent needs to be nurtured today, from primary grades, through secondary school and beyond. This is not just the purview of education leaders, but also of business leaders who can influence policy, provide grants/funding, and offer internships and other opportunities to learn new skills and apply them.
