On a sunny Friday 27.4.2018, HAMK’s master students from the Business Management and Entrepreneurship degree programme spent a day in Otaniemi, Espoo. The day was their last contact day of the semester and both first year and second year students participated.
The students gathered at Urban Mill, where they had the pleasure of listening to lectures from experts from very varied fields of business. Lars Miikki from Urban Mill was kind enough to tell the story and mission of the company, and Mikael Virkki came to give a lecture about the global operations of Business Finland. Teijo Räsänen and Tommi Gustafsson from Innotiimi International Ltd Oy talked about their company, change leadership and the many different styles of leadership with real life examples, and Perttu Karjalainen from EntoCube Oy gave a lecture about the global environmental problems the food industry causes, and gave an introduction into a possible solution: edible insect farming.
All of the subjects were very interesting and contemporary, and got a lot of discussion going on among the students. None of the lecturers was spared from sharp questions. The students got real treats, since Perttu from EntoCube brought some tastings from their own production: crickets! How yummy! At lunchtime, the students took a walk to the beautiful Fat Lizard restaurant and bar. There they enjoyed a company introduction from the head bartender, and a buffet – and also some more crickets.
At the end of the day, the students had a workshop, where they discussed the day’s topics and presented their own ideas and thoughts about change management and modern trends in food industry.
The students praised the day to be very refreshing and inspiring. Even though the master’s studies are part-time studies and most of the work is done outside of the school anyway, it was nice to be on a field trip. It was an interesting surprise that the Otaniemi area is so full of companies with an innovative start-up mindset, and the students got a lot of inspiration to take back home.
