Our wrap up of the amazing trip! :D

We cannot beileve how fast the trip has flown by. We are now sitting in the hotel café, reflecting on our company visits and what we have learned about competititve advantage in Scandinavia. A few themes that we have noticed as a whole is that many Scandinavian companies focus on corporate social responsibility, diversity, and innovation. All of these aspects give Scandinavian companies a competitive advantage on a domestic and global scale as consumers become more diverse and socially responsible.

The importance of corporate social responsibility was evident to us when Idefabriken, (Ideas by Heart) came to speak to our travel group at the Hilton hotel in Stockholm. Our speaker spoke about how companies can find a middle between doing better for humanity, while also making a profit. Our speaker shared his expierenced when he traveled to Sri Lanka to provide social benefits to those who lacked opportunites. This illistrates how Scandinavian’s are driven by social responsibility. Another example is Sqore, a successful start-up company, which aimed to provide equal access for humanity while making a profit through an effective business strategy. We beileve that if a Scandinavian company is not socially responsible, they will neither have a competitive advantage in Scanadianvia or globally.

We also found coporate social responsibility in Finland. On our last day we visited ResQ. ResQ aims to eliminate food waste in buffett style restaurants. ResQ allows restaurants to sell its serving surplus easily as take away meals. They are an example of a for-profit company, which aims to be socially responsible. Another example is Keolis transportation company in Stockholm, which uses 100% renewable energy in order to make the world a more “green” place. Since customer awarness is increasing, companies must become socially responsible in order to keep up with consumers needs.

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We beileve that this makes Scandinavia a unique place for companies and that more companies in the United States should follow the same strategy as socially responisble driven companies. Consumer needs are evolving and increasingly becoming more aware of corporate social responsibility.  Overall, all companies should strive to be socially responsible driven not only to increase revenue, but to benefit humanity as a whole.

When we visited Rovio entertainment near Helsinki, Finland, we were surprised that nothing about corporate socially responsibility or diversity was mentioned during our visit. Rovio entertainment is able to sustain competitive advantage through different aspects, such as brand awareness of Angry Birds. They are the number one online app game in 51 countries and reached 91% of brand awarness in 2015. Angry Birds were ahead of Disney’s Cars, which had a 88% of brand awarness. Rovio sustains a high level of brand awareness through business partners with large brands, such as Star Wars and Legos. Legos was a way for Rovio to find a middle between physical and visual entertainment. Therefore, expanding product development.

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They also included retention by always keeping consumers engaged. Our speaker emphasized on the aspect of always growing and evolving. The Angry Bird’s movie is an example of Rovio increasing brand awareness and retention. They hope to expand further in the future after the release of the movie in order to sustain a desired level of brand awarness.

However, we beileve Angry Bird’s should also strive to be socially responsible in order to sustain it’s competitive advantage. They are currently sustaining a competitive advantage through product expansion/innovation and brand awarness. Although, Rovio is clearly already successful, they should pursue a socially responisble strategy in order to gurantee the statisfaction of future consumer needs.

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In conclusion, we were happy to see and expierence business culture in Scandinavia. Especially to learn how differently they sustain a competitive advantage locally and globally. We hope that American businesses (all businesses internationally!) can learn from business culture in Scandinavia. Now we can apply what we learned in Scandinavia in our future career aspirations.

As the trip is ending, we wish to see the success of the companies we have visited. We are also grateful to Professor Myhr, Professor Wihlborg and Debra for allowing us to have such an amazing expierence. 🙂