Throughout the year big mobile companies have been making people redundant. My employer, for example, offered voluntary resignation packages, and many who either felt fed up with the uncertainty, or had been planning a change for a longer time, took the package and left. In Finland the effect is most visible in the capital area, Tampere and Oulu, but also in Jyväskylä and Salo.

Sari and I started to realize that there is a huge pool of brains now walking around Finland and other countries, looking for a fresh start, a change to stagnation. We knew that this is a fantastic opportunity, but we didn't really know how to harness that vacant potential. Then, together with Petri Allekotte and Kalle Toivonen we brainstormed a few potential modus operandi. Mobile Brain Bank (MoBB) could be any, or all, of the following.



                                                                    


Exchange of (entrepreneurial) ideas

Many of these people started their own enterprise. They may still be in such an early phase, that any feedback on their business idea, or new ideas are welcome. Others are mentally prepared to start a company if they cannot find job elsewhere, but are looking for business ideas.

Also, these startups are stronger as a pool than as individuals. If one company offers mobile related business analysis, another consultation on mobile solutions, third network solution implementation, fourth software and hardware, and fifth maintenance, they are obviously a good value chain for one bigger customer.


A networking opportunity for job seekers

With both online discussions, and real life meetings, people looking for jobs are linked to those who offer jobs. MoBB is not just limited to small startups and job seekers. Also people from established companies have joined the group (e.g. Nokia&NSN, Frost&Sullivan, Tieto, Elcoteq, Ericsson, EB (Electrobit), Accenture etc).

With good progress, also the startups that are now forming will be able to hire soon.


A think tank and problem solving community

I was quite inspired when I met Jill Pannetta,  the founder of Innocentive some time ago. Innocentive is a service where companies can post anonymously research problems, to be solved also anonymously by members of the community. It originates from the pharmaceutical industry, and according to Ms. Pannetta the most active problem solvers are retired chemists and physicists who make extra money through the service.

If this works with chemistry problems, why couldn't it work with mobile knowledge. I'm most familiar with software. While in the open source software communities everything is open, there can be a need for proprietery software to be seeking for help with tricky cases. Instead of hiring a company and involving lawyers and NDAs, they could post the problem anonymously and get a piece of code back, also anonymously. I think this is worth a try.


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So what next? Although we have been meeting with Petri and Kalle, the first real founding networking meeting of MoBB will take place in Helsinki on August 13. I'm not expecting for that meeting to define the ultimate direction of MoBB. It will be an iterative process, and discussed and defined by the group as it shapes. You are warmly welcome to join the event, either as a follower and listener, or an active participator voicing your favorite direction. In either case, we'll have a nice evening.