Hej everyone!
It has been 3 wonderful days we have been in this beautiful country, Helsinki, Finland. We have already learned so much about about the Finnish corporate culture. Our first visits were Nordea bank, Wave Ventures, and Valio.
Nordea bank is one of the 10th largest Europe banks that is operated as a one bank model. After our visit at the European bank, Nordea gave us a better insight into the corporate structure in the Nordic regions. Coming from the United States and only being familiar with our corporate culture, it is fascinating to see different successful ways of operating a business. Some significant importances: are the benefits given to their employees; the various unemployment benefits (if an employee leaves the company they still get the same pay till 500 days after). If their employee becomes ill or suffer any sort of accident, they will cover their expenses as well. Lastly, a significant benefit is the leave of absence after giving birth to a child. This benefit is given not only for the mother but for the father as well for 3 years.
Another company we visited is Valio. This is a Finnish manufacturer of dairy products and one of the largest companies in Finland. We believe their vision and cultural value as a company were in line with the overall culture of the country. They strongly believe in being eco-friendly and to replace resources that are used. Recently, Valio has seen a positive correlation between consumers visiting the website and sales. Therefore, they are creating one of Finland’s biggest recipe services. This innovation is going to give the consumers an opportunity to gain access remotely to recipes.
When it comes to becoming an entrepreneur some of the significant cultural views we noticed that stood out to us was giving younger students opportunities to take the step in making decisions. The reason Finland provides opportunity to bring younger student into venture capital is because they believe the younger generation is able to relate more with modern technology. With technology rapidly growing, it is seen as a positive attribute to bring in younger investors and advisors
Sustainability
For Nordea, they used to focus on international business, but recently they have narrowed down to be based only in Nordic countries. Nordea now has become the largest bank in this area. Nordea does recognize climate change, therefore it is extremely cautious and takes into account which companies they lend money to. They refrain from financing companies that believe will harm their environment. Also, Nordea does not want to be associated with loaning money to companies that may seem to damage their image and be involved in any political view.
Sustainability is a big part of Viola’s company culture. When it comes to farming and taking resources from nature, they do take into consideration ways to give those resources back to nature. They believe themselves to be what they call a “Circle Economy.” They are starting to focus on providing accessible ways to customers to encourage the visitors on their website to download their mobile phone app subscribe to gain access to recipes versus physically buying a cookbook. Other ways they remain significantly sustainable are by carbon farming courses, which will start soon in April 2019; They also practice 100% soy free feeding, this saves rainforests. Lastly they will commence with 100% plant based cartons.
Leaving this country, we admire the architecture, as well as how Finland gives an enthusiastic startup ecosystem for every Finish student with a strong support by the government. We look forward to share with you our experience in Estonia next time!
Vi ses snart! Kärlek!
