Inter­na­tional Hidden Busi­ness Cham­pi­ons Spring School in Joensuu

What are the compet­i­tive advan­tages of the Nordic compa­nies in the global markets? Why they can be consid­ered as hidden cham­pi­ons in their own market sector? These were the key ques­tions to which we were seeking answers during our inter­na­tional spring school of Hidden Busi­ness Champions.

Study Programme: lectures, work­shops and visits

During spring 2023 Karelia Univer­sity of Applied sciences arranged the Blended Inten­sive Programme, BIP, with the partner univer­si­ties of Artewelde UAS from Belgium and UAS Upper Austria.  BIP consists of an online part and an inten­sive study week during which the students from the partner univer­si­ties work together in multi­cul­tural teams in one loca­tion. The BIPs are funded by Erasmus+ mobil­ity, and they offer a great oppor­tu­nity for students to expe­ri­ence Euro­pean diver­sity in respect to busi­ness envi­ron­ment and culture. Our BIP was called “Hidden Busi­ness Cham­pi­ons”, in which the key idea was to explore the Nordic busi­ness envi­ron­ment and to create a work­able busi­ness idea for this market area.

During the inten­sive week of Hidden Busi­ness Cham­pi­ons at Karelia UAS in May 2023, the students had lectures and work­shops hosted by univer­si­ties’ expe­ri­enced profes­sors and visit­ing lectur­ers. The lectures worked as lead-ins to the topics and covered areas of Nordic Busi­ness Envi­ron­ment and future oppor­tu­ni­ties by Varpumaria Jeska­nen, Design Thinking by Greet Van Quick­el­berghe, Chal­lenges in inter­na­tional supply chains by Gerald Schön­wet­ter, Lean think­ing by Jarno Merta­nen, Circu­lar economy by Tommi Kukko­nen, and Biodi­ver­sity and envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bil­ity in the Nordic region by Vilma Lehto­vaara. After the lectures and work­shops, the group visited some of the local cham­pi­ons, the compa­nies, to see how they execute these in prac­tice and what they value in their busi­ness sectors.

As their group project the students applied design think­ing to create sustain­able busi­ness models that would work in the Nordic markets. This working method offered an oppor­tu­nity for students to first gain insights of Nordic busi­ness and learn from the case exam­ples, and then apply that in prac­tice by working in inter­cul­tural teams. On the last day of the week, the students pitched their busi­ness ideas for the whole group, and we had insight­ful discus­sions about how feasi­ble and prof­itable they could be.

At the end of the week, we discussed the key take­aways from the inten­sive week. We came to the conclu­sion that some of the valu­able corner­stones to succeed in the Nordic markets are sustain­abil­ity and product life­cy­cle design, inno­v­a­tive­ness, good co-oper­a­tion between part­ners to improve effi­ciency and customer value as well as quality. Quality actu­ally ties together all of the mentioned elements, because quality of the prod­ucts and services is indeed created by sustain­able, contin­u­ous devel­op­ment that is done together. Due to this we intro­duce next our working approach to Lean think­ing work­shop that was showing the students in prac­tice how to apply Lean in supply chains and processes to improve effi­ciency in oper­a­tions to reach better prof­itabil­ity, higher customer value and of course, improved quality.

Lean think­ing in practice

Students learned Lean think­ing basics via a really prac­ti­cal way by making paper boats in Flow­Boat game. During the game students got a clear vision about the main idea of Lean think­ing and had to apply differ­ent improve­ment ideas to test their outcome in practice.

There were three game cycles during the game. On the first cycle there was a batch size of three and a poorly planned layout system in use. On the second cycle there was one piece flow and visual manage­ment system in use that are lean tools. On the third cycle the balanc­ing between the oper­a­tion stations were done and this was also a lean tool to imple­ment in the work flow.

During the game manu­fac­tur­ing effects, finan­cial results and improve­ments were measured with appro­pri­ate metrics, collected and analysed in a visual form. There were discov­ered visible, clear improve­ments between the game cycles.

Company visits

Inten­sive week included company visits to Tulikivi, John Deere, Arbo­naut and Kelluu. We invited differ­ent compa­nies from the differ­ent busi­ness sectors to join the spring school since we aimed at intro­duc­ing differ­ent approaches and busi­ness models in the Nordic markets. All of these compa­nies were also differ­ent in their oper­a­tions (two being manu­fac­tur­ing compa­nies, two working with data analy­sis and management).

Three of these compa­nies were connected to the forestry indus­try, which is very impor­tant sector in North Carelia region. From the area of North Carelia 89 % is covered by forest (Metsäkeskus 2023, 9). Since Joensuu is a leader in forest bioe­con­omy glob­ally, the region has top exper­tise in the sustain­able use of forests. We have over 500 compa­nies working in this sector and special compe­tence areas include new tech­nolo­gies, digi­tal­i­sa­tion of forestry, renew­able energy and circu­lar economy, collec­tion of forest infor­ma­tion and manage­ment of forest resources (Busi­ness Joensuu 2023). 

During the presen­ta­tion and discus­sions with Arbo­naut and Kelluu we were able to see the how these new inno­va­tions for digi­tal­is­ing the forest manage­ment and use of data in deci­sion making were actu­ally designed, built and brought to the markets.

Tulikivi factory visit gave us an insight into quality and how impor­tant it really is when making long-lasting, beau­ti­fully designed prod­ucts that fulfil customer require­ments both tech­ni­cally and visu­ally. At John Deere we were able to see how Lean was imple­mented in the processes and how the real-time moni­tor­ing against targets helped the produc­tion team to control and improve the produc­tion flow. It was incred­i­ble how quickly the produc­tion lines were able to produce forestry machines with the top quality.

Company visits were really fasci­nat­ing for the partic­i­pants and during the visits there was a lot of inter­est­ing infor­ma­tion and things to see. The students enjoyed the visits and consid­ered them really eye-opening for under­stand­ing the Nordic way.

Activ­i­ties around Joensuu and Koli

Inten­sive week included also some activ­i­ties. On Monday evening we started to explore Joensuu with a Scav­enger Hunt game. The students were divided into their groups in which they worked also during the week. We gave them some group tasks that they needed to complete around the city. This way they had a chance to see a bit of Joensuu and also get to know each other better before they started to work on campus with the busi­ness idea assignment.

On Tuesday evening we head to Koli National park for a walking tour. The weather was really gentle for us and we could see the beau­ti­ful surround­ings from the top of Ukko Koli. The silence we expe­ri­enced during the walk was amazing for many students coming from Euro­pean cities. We enjoyed the dinner in the Break Sokos Hotel Koli while contin­u­ing to enjoy the magnif­i­cent views.

During the last evening we wanted to offer a very Finnish expe­ri­ence for our guests. We started the evening with the instruc­tors from Joen Liitok­iekko, who gave us an intro­duc­tion to Disc golf. This is one of the rising sports in Finland and other Nordic coun­tries in terms of popu­lar­ity and number of facil­i­ties (disc golf courses). The students learned the idea very quickly and were able to continue from the prac­tice field to the actual disc golf course to play.

After the sports we contin­ued our evening in Joki­asema for dinner and sauna. After sauna we also played a typical Finnish summer game Mölkky to find the Mölkky cham­pi­ons of the week! And of course, we had to taste some sausages after sauna while enjoy­ing another beau­ti­ful sunset over Lake Pyhäselkä. 

The inten­sive study week was a wonder­ful expe­ri­ence. It was great to follow how new friend­ships were born! From the students’ feed­back we were able to see how they enjoyed the week and they consid­ered this inter­na­tional spring school a great way to learn to work in inter­cul­tural teams and network with other busi­ness students around Europe. Next year we are going to continue our journey in learn­ing from the cham­pi­ons, and will organ­ise the Hidden Busi­ness Cham­pion Spring school in Belgium.

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Refer­ences:

Busi­ness Joensuu (2023).  Forest bioe­con­omy. https://businessjoensuu.fi/en/investments-and-relocation-investment-opportunities-in-joensuu-forest-bioeconomy. 23.5.2023.

Metsäkeskus (2023). Pohjois-Karjalan metsäo­hjelma 2021-2025. Metsäkeskus. https://www.metsakeskus.fi/sites/default/files/document/alueellinen-metsaohjelma-pohjois-karjala-2021-2025.pdf. 23.5.2023.

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Authors:

Jarno Merta­nen, Lecturer, Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences

Varpumaria Jeska­nen, Lecturer, Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences