In the last blogpost we learnt about how the teams from Finland and Chile work together in their projects. Today, you will get to know five different companies with different products. They are different located, and offer different assignments for their project teams. From market research, expanding the other continent over internationalizing the brand to organizing sales teams – everything is included in our work. The tasks are already quite hard and will challenge us even more because of the intercultural team work. The different time zones and study situations prepare us for the globally networked working life after our studies.
Who hasn’t read the last blogpost, should first check it out here: https://showcase.laurea.fi/en/2021/1-project-2-universities-5-companies/
The two teams are divided in five smaller working groups with one company for each of them. They will be introduced in the following abstracts:
One of the Finnish companies is New Nordic Schools transforms outdated education systems that combines the renowned Finnish curriculum alongside the best pedagogical practices from around the world. This is how they provide a personalized, purposeful, and locally relevant system. Target which the company has for this project work is to introduce New Nordic School with its self-evaluation method into a private education institution focusing on kindergarten and primary schools in Chile: Self Evaluation Tool is an online study that evaluates current quality, strengths and areas of development using a framework based on the New Nordic Educational System which focusses on Finnish and International best practices. Topics for that are for example leadership & management, student achievement and development, school culture, teaching & assessment and learning environments as an outcome.
For this purpose, the students must find out about the size of Chilean market and if the need is urgent enough. Besides that, they will find potential key partners and representatives for the first steps. Approaching potential schools, developing a marketing plan. Also, it is important to find out about the need of translation from English to Spanish are the goals in this project.
Secondly, a Finnish company we are working with is Loxus. They provide solutions for tunnel inspections utilizing 3D tochnology. The company wants to expand to Chile as well as New Nordic Schools. Furthermore, they gave the assignment to the students to find potential clients (construction companies and hydropower companies). It is also important for them to know if there are consulting companies in Chile that can help by entering the South American market.
In the end of the Project, the company wants a plan how to start a business as a foreign company. This plan should include instructions on how to do business with partners there and a marketing strategy should also be implemented.
In the first place, BerrySur as a Chilean company will be introduced. BerrySur produces juices, drinks and shakes. Worthy of note is the drinks are pure without added sugar. The family business expanded earlier to the United States but because of low budget and high marketing costs, the project was stopped. But for growing the business the company wants to expand to Europe. Firstly, they want to come to Finland. The project team should do the market research. Firstly, finding information about which product and in corporation with which partners the expansion would be the best success.
For the purpose of that, the team uses PEST- and SWOT-Analysis, surveys in Finland as well as in Germany (thanks to our intercultural teamwork) and competitor’s charts to show up the whole market to the foreign company. By choosing a marketing and distribution strategy, there will be a finished plan for the expansion in the end of the project.
The second company from Chile is Panimavida. They use a hot spring called Termas de Panimavida as a resort and spa. As well as they had a mineral water bottling plant many years ago. The mineral water obtained several national and international recognitions and awards. The company wants to restart selling the water in Chile as well as in Europe in aluminium cans.
Using market data about aluminium use and recycling in Europe, the team agrees on different countries that could be the starting point for Panimavida. Before entering a new market, every product must be checked for the norms for example in this case for the standards of the EU. Regarding to water, it is important in which amounts which mineral is included. Also, it is important to know if aluminium cans as the company suggests them is the best material on different markets. These are information that must be gathered by the team to present a strategy plan in the end of the project.
Then, the last company is dedicated to the manufacture of material transport supplies, mainly conveyor belts. They manufacture parts of specific machines and the whole machine. The firm is focused on a small and specific niche in which one of the critical factors is that they must respond quickly to their clients’ needs. If only a small piece is missing, they must stop all the process which is very expensive for all parties. Therefore, the price is not a critical factor as the quick response.
In that project, the owners of the company would first like to know whether it would be profitable to import the products or make them themselves. Therefore, the task is to find out which manufacturer in the world produces the products what they need. After that, we try to get information from them about prices and transport to Chile. So the company can compare manufacturers. In the end, there should be a plan for a created and organized sales team with its tasks.
As you can see, the teams work in not only in an intercultural environment, the companies also act in different branches which makes the work very interesting. Most of the groups have almost the same assignment. But because of various starting points and products, the work differs immensely. In the end, everyone can help everyone with new perspectives on the topics. Still, the projects are done in non-identical ways. In the end of the semester, we will see how the outcome of each project is and how much the work differs in the smaller teams – stay tuned!
Suurin osa Showcasen blogeista on toteutettu osana Laurean opintojaksoja. Koko koulutustarjontaamme voi tutustua nettisivuillamme. Tarjoamme kymmenien tutkintoon johtavien koulutuksien lisäksi myös paljon täydennys- ja erikoistumiskoulutuksia sekä yksittäisiä opintojaksoja avoimen AMK:n kautta!