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Amazing trip in Finland---Kick-off Meeting for 2014 Fudan-Tekes iLab Projects

Since 2013, the School of Management Fudan University has launched the partnership with the Tekes, Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. The purpose of the Fudan-Tekes iLab is to provide the Fudan MBA students with an enriching educational experience that will increase their understanding of current issues and further their career aspirations, while on the other hand, to assist companies from Finland with their international expansion efforts. From Jan.12th to Jan. 18th 2014, five teams of Fudan-Tekes iLab Projects and their project mentors flew to Helsinki, Finland, to make the first visit to the partner companies. The kick-off meetings were also held there. Let’s find more details in the following news.

Visual Components Team

This is the longest exam season that we have never experienced, which started from Management Information Systems, passed through the most difficult two subjects Data, Models and Decisions together with Financial Accounting, ended with Managerial Economy. However, that is not the real ending; we still need to submit the final report for Management of Strategy in the next morning of the last exam.

After all the exams have been done, only two days left before we go to Finland. During these two days, we cleared up our mind about the initial proposal and had the meeting with our faculty mentor Emma. It is really an unexpected busy season for us.

Pic 1: After the meeting with our faculty mentor Emma, one day before we go to Finland.

Ten hours flight is really a long travel, however, we utilized the time to read the industry report and got a brief idea about our customers industry in China, since our customer – Visual Components want to enter the Chinese market and let us do the research.

During the days in Finland, we spent most of our time in Visual Components, which is a traditional medium size company in Finland. The most impressive place in their company is the relax section, in which the employees could have their coffee and talk with each other casually.

During the meeting, we just kept asking question to the CEO Juha and COO Patrik about Visual Components, and sometimes they asked their product manager and sales manager for help. It seemed that we asked too much and some of the questions were never thought before. However it is really necessary for the project and they also understand that and tried their best to cooperate with us.

Pic 2: Visual Components’ office and their relax section

In the third day, we gave us our brief conclusion of the macro environment in China, which the customers are very interested in and showed our method and rough schedule to fulfill this project. Maybe we asked too much questions after our presentation, Visual Components did not have even one question and very satisfied with our schedule.

At the last day in Finland, we visited Tekes, the sponsor of this program. The officer Minh asked us about the result in Visual Components. And after hearing how the customer treated us, he also felt very surprised and said the company really liked us very much. In the end, Minh said Visual Components was very lucky to have us do the project. Maybe this is the most amazing word we have heard in Finland.

Pic 3: In the office of Tekes

It is really a very good beginning and hope we can successfully complete this project and make Fudan as a worldwide well-known University!

(By Visual Components Team)

Lumene Team

As a part of Lumene group, every team member was very excited and serious about this project. Before the trip, we had a 2-hour routine group meeting every week to discuss every detail about the proposal and presentation PPTs. Thanks to Prof. Qiu’s dedicating spirit and professional marketing knowledge, the whole process of preparation went efficiently and smoothly.

In Finland, we spent 3 entire days in Lumene and benefited a lot from the communication. On the first day, CEO and senior managers from every department of Lumene introduced their aspects of the company, including company history, development path, product portfolio, R&D, supply chain, etc. With this information, we got a better understanding of Lumene’s business, the way that they develop, produce and commercialize cosmetic products. Lumene’s Vice President Mr. Jukka spent the whole 2nd day with our group and delivered comprehensive information of their global market strategy and internal investigation about Asia market with an emphasis on China and Korea. The day after it, we presented our project proposal to Lumene’s senior management. After several rounds of heated discussion, we achieved agreement on major issues and decided to perfect details in the further communication. After that, Mr. Jukka drove us to a few cosmetics stores in different types and demonstrated their sales strategy and operations in front of Lumene’s counters. In the evening, Jukka invited us, together with Tekes official Mr. Lam Minh to a famous restaurant with distinct Finish style for dinner. During it, we spent a great night through exchanging ideas and opinions regarding a great deal of topics, from food to drink, from weather to culture. The dinner did not finish until mid-night.

From this trip, we not only learn plenty of professional knowledge of cosmetic industry, but are deeply affected by simple but grounded life attitude of Finish people. They love work, they love life, they prefer simple and straight manners, and they are very reasonable and organized. We have lots of difference, but we have things in common. We are very glad to have the opportunity to involve in this project. And we definitely will seize it to increase our ability and hone our skills in marketing and business strategy formation.

Back to Shanghai, the journey just begins…

(By Lumene Team)

Serres Team

Jan. 12th 2014 was almost the coldest day of the year; our group arrived in Finland, the country nearby Polo to have 5 days meeting with the management team of Serres for iLab project.

During this meeting, our team with mentor had sufficient discussion with top management team of Serres on project schedule, focus of research, different function of main productions. After the detailed communication, we also understood current market situation of Serres, bottle neck of development and the final target Serres wanted to achieve through our iLab project.

To understand the difference of series of productions, the product manager gave us an onsite exercise on their main product and compare of competitor’s copied product which clearly showed their advantage and convenience of Serres’s. At the same time, staff of Serres contacted local hospital to allow us have a observation in operation room to further understand the usage in the hospital and also get response from the doctor and nurse which mad us deeply learn product character from a different angle.

During this communication, Fudan MBA highly shows our efficiency, quick learning, and professional skills. We targeting client requirement accurately and smoothly reach the final proposal with our client. This proposal is a guidance which set our future working direction and ensures our final report can well achieve client needs.

(By Serres Team)

BioGTS Team

Since Jan. 13, 2014, Fudan iLab group visitied BioGTS Company in Finland. In this several days’ trip, BioGTS had profound discussion with the Fudan MBA students on the future cooperation, and arranged the factory tours to some upstream suppliers. In the end, both parties formed agreement on the cooperation in the coming 6 months, and signed the proposal and agreement.

This visit to Finland was led by Prof. Zhang Jie of Fudan University. Four 2013 IMBA students and one 2012 Fudan MBA student had been interviewed and selected by the International Project Department of Fudan Management School, upon the students’ backgrounds, expertise and experiences. The cooperation company is BioGTS, an environmental technique company founded in 2011, who can recycle the organic waste into precious resources, such as the Bio-gas and Bio-diesel, the energy-saving constructions, and the eco-city solutions.

The trip was fully scheduled. On Jan. 13 morning in the remained Christmas and New Year atmosphere, BioGTS started the meeting with iLab group. Business Development Director Annimari Lehtomäki gave the presentation on the company introduction, as well as the business model, profit model and the core competitiveness of BioGTS. At the end of the meeting, Prof. Zhang sent Annimari the delicate gift on behalf of Fudan Management School. In the afternoon, Mika Rautiainen, CEO of BioGTS, brought the team to visit Honkatalot – their supplier of energy saving building. The team had factory tour in Honkatalot, and got deeper understanding of the energy saving constructions.

On Jan. 14th morning, iLab group led the discussion, and gave a presentation of the project proposal, including the future tasks and the planned schedule. Both parties signed the proposal and the agreement. BioGTS managers were very satisfied with the proposal, and expressed their expectation of the future cooperation. Another factory tour was arranged to a Bio-Gas production equipment supplier in the afternoon.

Although the trip to Finland was finished, the project has just begun. All the group members are willing to devote their passion and effort to make the project successful. We are working on a win-win-win result of BioGTS, Fudan iLab, and all the members joined this project.

(By BioGTS Team)

Vallila Team

From Jan.13th to Jan. 19th 2014, the project team members of Vallila Project of Fudan-Tekes iLab and their project mentor flight to Helsinki, Finland, to visit the project client—Vallila Company. We held the kick-off meeting there.

Vallila is a renowned Finnish textile brand. Its main businesses include selling fabric by meter, or selling readymade products such as curtains and valances. Though Vallila is very successful in Finland, it hasn’t entered China market yet. In this iLab project, our team’s goal is to find a suitable entry solution for Vallila.

Under the guidance of Vallila team mentor, Professor Zhao Youzhen, and five members in our team have done a lot of preparation work for this project. Before starting this journey, we had collected a lot of information of Vallila Company and the whole fabric industry from different way. After arriving in Helsinki, we spent nearly two days to visit different Vallila shop to make on-site study. Based on these work, we spent another whole day with colleagues from Vallila Company to discuss the project proposal.

All the works we have done in Helsinki are successful and helpful. We got a deep insight of Vallila Company’s business. Most importantly, we exactly understood Vallila Company’s hope on this project and reached a consensus through discussion. We finally hammered out the project proposal. This marked the formal launching of this project. We believe that we will successfully complete this project and offer Vallila Company a satisfied result.

(By Vallila Team)

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