Global Signals 2013

Signals

Global

HAAGA-HELIA'S STAKEHOLDER MAGAZINE

2013

Food gone wild!

And other memorable experiences

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Sports outside the box with Alexander Stubb Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade of Finland

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Let’s share education know-how

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SERVICE KNOW-HOW

Page 12

Photo: Sami Hyrskylahti

The FUTUAeroport project coordinated by HAAGA-HELIA has created a new service environment for future airports, their business operations and product offerings. The plan considers customer and environmental perspectives. Over 400 HAAGA-HELIA students took part in creating the new service environment at Helsinki Airport.

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FINLAND  5.3 million inhabitants  Voted world´s best country to live in (Newsweek Survey 2010)  Scores high on the OECD International

Global Signals 2013

NB

(Nota Bene)

Angry Birds, a mobile game created by a Finnish entertainment media company Rovio Mobile, hit a billion downloads last year.

Are you hooked?

Student Assessment (PISA) results ď‚&#x;

World´s 7th strongest country in competitiveness (WEF 2010)

CONTENTS

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SERVICE KNOW-HOW

HAAGA-HELIA globally HAAGA-HELIA is present on all continents.

In this issue we stop by the following locations:

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FROM THE PRESIDENT Finland

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NEWS AND NOTES 8

SALES AND SERVICE A spurt in sport innovation

USA (p 13)

Saudi Arabia (p 7)

10 Identifying the right skills for tomorrow's needs 12 New service culture at airports improves customer satisfaction

Russia (p 15)

Estonia The (p 8) Netherlands (p 22) Switzerland (p 24)

Japan (p 18) Hong Kong (p 6) Vietnam (p 15)

Chile (p 15)

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Johanna Vuori:

Constructing the future by impementing strategy 14 Selling expertise to the world 16

FINLAND

Experiencing local, organic and wild food 18

CAREER

Hockey is people business 20 A leading learning environment 22 Foreign exhange

THE NOBLE IDEA OF PROMOTING WELLBEING COMBINES TWO IMPORTANT ELEMENTS: KEEN YOUNG PEOPLE AND INNOVATIVE BUSINESSES.” Finland’s Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb at the opening of Sport Inno Camp™.

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MEETING POINT 26 Bridging the Gap between ICT and Business

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Global Signals 2013

Photos: Polar Electro Oy, Shutterstock

Luxury business as usual

From th e

Preside

nt

Sales & Service at the core of our university Sales & service are key competence areas for HAAGAHELIA and are widely present in our education and R&D strategy.

The need to develop sales and service competencies has its origins in the requirements of our partners. Sales and service are vital for a company’s competitiveness, yet hardly any university-level education in this area has been on offer. The same goes for applied R&D. General attitudes in Finland have not generally been conducive to sales and service. Last year the Confederation of Finnish Industries drew attention to significant difficulties in recruiting people into sales and service. In 2010 the Federation of Technology Industries pointed to a large shortage of sales experts, a growing professional group. In 2011 the Panagopoulos & Genzi report found that Finnish sales expertise had not improved and did not meet the demands of today nor tomorrow.

It was six years ago that we at HAAGA-HELIA started to place special emphasis on developing university-level sales and service

expertise as well as applied R&D. This led in autumn 2007 to the launch of Finland’s first universitylevel degree programme in sales, which today has 200 students. In conjunction with the programme we started to search for and build an international network of universitylevel sales educators. Today this network spans 150 universities and some 200 experts. Cooperation within the network has been active and very fruitful.

In 2011-2012 we implemented a comprehensive project to identify key future needs with regard to sales and service. One of the results have been a sales and service certificate that will be launched for companies this spring, as well as a broader offering of specialisation study options in sales and service and training for all staff members.

We have recently launched a research project to evaluate the impact of sales on a company’s competitiveness. This is a little researched topic, but we have taken up the challenge. The project will advance from brainstorming to a

Delphi process, which aims to build a system for assessing and developing a company’s sales performance.

We have also started to cooperate with influential company representatives in a project to bolster expertise and attitudes to sales and service. It highlights the fact that Finland’s prosperity is highly predicated on these skills.

HAAGA-HELIA has sales and service as its strategic focus area and we want to be an active player in promoting this expertise in Finland.

We invite you to join us and our international partners in our work.

Please get in touch: pirjo.pitkapaasi@haaga-helia.fi timo.kaski@haaga-helia.fi

Ritva Laakso-Manninen President HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences

Signals

Global

HAAGA-HELIA Global Signals ▪ Publisher HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences, Ratapihantie 13, 00520 HELSINKI, Finland, tel. +358 9 229 611, www.haaga-helia.fi ▪ Editor in Chief Ari Nevalainen, ari.nevalainen@haaga-helia.fi ▪ Editorial team Lars Eltvik, Marja-Riitta Eriksson, Sirpa Holmström, Suvi Huovinen, Katriina Kodisoja, Kaija Lindroth, Ari Nevalainen, Pirkko Salo; Anneli Frantti/Otavamedia Oy ▪ Layout Otavamedia Oy ▪ Paper G-Print 170 g/m2 and 130 g/m2 ▪ Printing Newprint Oy, Raisio, Finland ▪ Cover Image Shutterstock and Aki Loponen.

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NEWS and

NOTES

Visit by free software pioneer

Immersion in Asia and the US

Dr Richard Stallman, known as the father of the Free Software ideology, was a special guest at the opening of Softala at HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences in November 2012.

Softala is a service concept aligned with HAAGA-HELIA’s sales and service business and its new learning solutions strategy. It encourages new business and entrepreneurship especially in the SME sector.

Partners are offered thoroughly tested new ideas and operating models based on co-operation with companies and communities. Softala builds prototypes and software solutions, even offering several variations of one idea. It is a forum for the creators of the future.

At the opening, Richard Stallman spoke about the goals and philosophy of the Free Software Movement, and the status and history of the GNU operating system. In combination with its Linux kernel, it is now used by tens of millions of people worldwide.

The free software movement was launched in 1983 and started development of the GNU operating system (see www.gnu.org) in 1984. GNU is free software: everyone is permitted to copy it and redistribute it, with or without changes. It provides the operating system for hundreds of millions of devices in use today.

An integral part of the eMBA programme is business immersion, which takes place either in the USA or Hong Kong. It is arranged in cooperation with our partner schools, the University of San Francisco and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The purpose of the immersion programme is to give eMBA participants practical experience of service excellence in an international setting. In the USA it focuses on entrepreneurship and in Hong Kong on how to do business in Asia. The one-week immersion consists of academic lectures and industry visits. ➨ susanna.tammela-eltvik@haaga-helia.fi

HAAGA-HELIA is developing a European Sales Competition in cooperation with four partner universities and enterprises in Finland, Austria, Belgium and Poland in the EU funded project "European Sales Competition".

The project concentrates on the development of a modern concept for the cooperation of universities, inter-mediate bodies and enterprises in the sales education. ➨ tuula. korhonen@haaga-helia.fi

Photo: TonyV3112/Shutterstock.com

Creating sustainable ports

Port of Rotterdam.

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European Sales Competition

Global Signals 2013

Industrial areas, such as harbours and ports, play an important role in contributing to sustainable development.

Through more efficient supply chains, transport costs and environmental impacts can be greatly reduced.

HAAGA-HELIA’s business education programmes are participating in ECOSUPPORT (2011–2014). This EU-funded Erasmus programme looks at how small and medium-sized companies could be better positioned to contribute to the sustainability of port services.

The project partners are enthusiastic students, lecturers and industry representatives from Finland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Latvia and Turkey. ➨ minna-maari.harmaala@haaga-helia.fi

Finland a guest country at IEFE 2013

“The only way to learn is to fail”

Finland was an official guest at the International Exhibition and Forum for Education in Riyadh on 18-22 February. The IEFE is the largest such exhibition held in the Middle East.

Invited by the Ministry of Education of Saudi Arabia, Finland was highlighted as this year’s case country. Its education system and achievements were presented by professors and researchers, and visitors met distinguished Finnish academics in the exhibition. On the corporate side, 20 Finnish companies demonstrated offerings from teacher training to ICT solutions.

HAAGA-HELIA participated in the IEFE as a Vocational Teacher Education training school. It has been active in the Saudi Arabian market since 2010.

Text Ville Matilainen | Photo Leena Salmio

Fulbright Scholar Award Programme HAAGA-HELIA is the first university of applied sciences in Finland to gain a Fulbright Center grant for lecturers. The application round for scholarships 2014-2015 starts at the beginning of February 2013. ➨ sirpa.holmstrom@haaga-helia.fi ➨ www.fulbright.fi/en

Jouni Ahonen honoured

by EuroCHRIE Jouni Ahonen, Director of HAAGA-HELIA’s Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism management unit was presented with the EuroCHRIE President’s Award at the 30th conference arranged by the European Council on Hotel, Restaurant & Institutional Education.

Ahonen has served for several years on the EuroCHRIE and I-CHRIE boards and hosted its 2009 conference at HAAGA-HELIA. The award is the highest individual recognition a member of EuroCHRIE can receive. It is presented in recognition of the individual’s lifetime contributions and outstanding service to hospitality education and the council.

Dr Alexander Osterwalder is a strong advocate of trial and error. He believes that planning is ancient history and businesses should recognise this. If a company cannot evolve, eventually it will find itself with no business at all.

The right path to success is to fail systematically and to learn from mistakes.

Author of the bestselling handbook Business Model Generation and creator of the Business Model Canvas, Dr Alexander Osterwalder visited Finland last November as a principal lecturer during HAAGA-HELIA’s Business Model Innovation seminar.

Osterwalder believes that a successful outcome can be traced back to designing and testing a business model.

“No matter how young you are, just get started,” Osterwalder advises. “Try things – just do it! That is the interesting thing about Silicon Valley. People there do not believe that things shouldn’t be done or can’t be done.

They just try and eventually they succeed.”

According to Osterwalder, European caution might have something to do with a fear of failure.

“It’s odd, because I think failing is part of the game.

We need to play, we need to try and we need to fail. If you manage to learn from your failures, then you’re on the road to success.”

Osterwalder talks about a change in the way business infrastructures plan their operations. This change touches and affects everything.

“Nowadays planning has nothing to do with traditional business planning, which concentrates merely on designing the execution. Now it’s planning the experimentation.

Between your idea and building your idea lies a phase that is called testing the business model. It’s crucial.”

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SERVICE

A spurt in sport innovation What happens when sports technology executives spend two days with an international group of students?

Time flies, and so does thinking outside the box.

Text Heini Santos | Photos Aki Loponen, Arto Wiikari

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ast November, five companies and 54 students from different fields at Finnish and Estonian universities met in Vierumäki, Finland. The intense two-day innovation camp, arranged by the Sport Institute of Finland, was the first of its kind in the field of sports technology.

The goal was to help the businesses come up with innovations and to offer the students an inspiring way to learn. Coaches from HAAGAHELIA’s Startup School managed the tightly scheduled process.

Alexander Stubb

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Global Signals 2013

Finland’s Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb opened the event. To launch the brainstorming sessions, he reminded participants about how important balancing mind and body is to the wellbeing of the whole society.

“Various health and wellness businesses are conquering a growing market share. Many societal problems, such as mental health, can be influenced by exercise,” he said.

Stubb emphasized that the noble idea of promoting wellbeing combines two important elements: keen young people and innovative businesses.

“In Finland there are still some who look down on both success and failure. For the government it is especially important to support start-ups, for example by easing the tax burden on business angels and by giving tax cuts to small and mediumsized companies. We need more success stories, and there are lots of fascinating ones in the pipeline.”

Stubb expressed interest in putting together a delegation to represent Finnish sports innovation on one of his trade promotion trips.

The minister makes more than a dozen such trips all over the world each year, on a wide range of themes.

Competitive advantage R&D Manager and Principal Lecturer Timo Kaski, said that the participating businesses reached their goals of discovering practical solutions. Footbalance, Kerko Sport, Polar Electro, Sportlyzer and Zero Point were the five companies at the camp.

“They also received many ideas that they did not expect. Feedback shows that networking and peer discussions were highly appreciated, and everyone found the experience energizing and unique. All the companies said they would be happy participate again,” he added.

Timo Kaski

SPORTLYZER is a training plan and analysis software for sports teams, with both online and mobile versions of training diaries.

“We already have a market-proof product that is liked by its users,” Tönis Saag told the students. “I am asking you to invent and test a viral mechanism that will encourage coaches to invite other coaches to use the program. Come up with a reason for them to do so.”

Tönis Saag, the co-founder and CEO of Sportlyzer, pointed out that innovation is an on-going competition between companies. But even competitors benefit from getting together from time to time to discuss common issues.

“Companies tend to stay in their own corners, which is not good for the development of sports technology. Finnish sports technology is already worldrenowned. As Estonians, we are in a good position to learn and contribute,” Saag said.

Sport Inno Camp™ used the compact coaching method for innovation projects developed by HAAGA-HELIA. Prior to the camp, the students were divided into teams on Facebook. Each team was designated to a company, and prepared for the task by doing mystery shopping, competitor analysis, and customer interviews, so no time was wasted in preparations at the camp. Day One began with companies introducing the groups to very specific challenges.

After brainstorming, the new ideas were analysed together with company representatives, who picked out the best.

These front-runners were cultivated into concepts and seasoned with solid sales speeches.

The next Sport Inno Camp™ is due to take place in Estonia in the autumn of 2013. 

Training manager Ville Uronen from POLAR ELECTRO challenged the students to think about how the user experience of Polar’s product could be improved.

“People often decide to purchase our product because of what it looks like, without finding out what it does. The great features that we develop will go to waste if users do not know how to utilize them.”

ZERO POINT compression socks were lacking a service concept to enable distributors to serve customers properly.

The perfect sock can be found only with exact measurements of the leg and foot.

“What about shopping on the web,” pondered CEO Petteri Ahonen. “Could this concept be adjusted to work online”?

Kalle Punto, the CEO of KERKO SPORT, introduced his company’s service concept and its latest equipment for sports venues.

“The problem is that people are not aware of our products. The rest is in your hands,” he joked.

Brand and marketing manager Hilkka Liponkoski from FOOTBALANCE displayed pictures of top athletes with at least one common denominator, her company’s insoles.

“Our problem is that insoles are like underwear; they are not visible. How could we make our product in action stand out better?”

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SERVICE

Identifying the right skills for tomorrow’s needs HAAGA-HELIA is working proactively to identify the future needs of labour markets.

The University of Applied Sciences is planning its future educational programme based on research it has conducted in cooperation with its interest groups.

As a result of the research, eight service and sales roles have been created, which shed light on future working life and the associated skills required.

Text Päivi Brink | Illustrations Jukka Fordell

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AAGA-HELIA conducted the research in order to pinpoint what skills will be required in the fields of service and sales in future working environments. What kinds of experts should the University of Applied Sciences’ future graduates be? HAAGAHELIA’s project manager Johanna Vuori was in charge of planning and organizing the research project.

“In May 2011 we sent out an invitation to interest groups and our own experts to take part in an internet survey. The survey contained 32 claims regarding service and sales in 2025, and the respondents were asked whether they considered the claims plausible and desirable. We received 127 answers. The respondents could see each other’s comments anonymously and have virtual conversations about the claims,” Vuori says.

Future labs and students’ writing competition In the second phase of the research project, 11 future labs were created with 132 participants, all of whom were experts in their field.

“Each future lab concentrated on a specific educational field, which resulted in excellent

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Global Signals 2013

discussions. We analyzed the results of both the survey and the labs and came to conclusions regarding the future skills required. After that we sent a further survey to the respondents with 18 more claims about the skills needed in the future working environment. The final responses were surprisingly unanimous,” Vuori explains.

In the last phase of the research project, the HAAGA-HELIA students were asked to take part in a writing competition, where they put on paper their views about work and how they see themselves in the future working life.

“The students had wild, positive ideas about technological developments, but they were rather worried about the demands of working life and their own abilities to cope with them.”

HAAGA-HELIA will develop its courses and programmes according to these future needs in order to prepare graduates for tomorrow’s challenges. The results of the research will also be made available to HAAGA-HELIA’s interest groups. The skills that today’s students will need in tomorrow’s working life have been indentified and are presented here in the following eight service and sales roles.

HH3S Service and Sales Roles: A MARKET PREDICTOR is able to…  recognize the competitiveness and life-cycle phase of a product/service, and share the knowledge with the organization in order to create new market possibilities.  evaluate and share market information in order to support strategic decision- making within the organization and its networks.  act as a change agent.  define customer profiles.

A SALES PERSON is able to…  look actively for new market potential.  lead sales discussions in order to achieve target outcomes.  adapt her/his own behaviour to the customer and situation in order to create trust.

A SERVICE DESIGNER is able to…  engage customers, teams and networks in new service innovation and service development.  prioritize ideas based on their realizability and business impact.  conceptualize and test service ideas.  visualize and present service concepts and their benefits to customers in a comprehensible way.  engage others in business development using different methods.

A CUSTOMER PARTNER is able to...  be proactive in maintaining and developing customer relationships, trust and loyalty.  foresee customer objectives and needs.  exceed customer expectations.  act as an ambassador for the customer within his/her own organization.

AN ORCHESTRATOR is able to…  integrate internal organizational processes to support customer solutions and services.  create services and enhance competitiveness with networking companies.  exert influence to execute customer solutions within his/her own organization.

A DIGI-APPLIER is able to…  e-sell and e-serve.  make active use of organizational IT systems in order to utilize customer information and exploit business opportunities.  identify new ways of using new technology to improve service production efficiency and regeneration.

A COSMOPOLITE is able to…  create and communicate a shared understanding of the current situation and the target state in multicultural customer, team and network relationships.  adapt her/his own behaviour to take the responding culture/person into consideration.

A SELF-LEADER is able to…  set targets and prioritize to create reasonable tasks.  manage her/his own emotions in a customer relationship.  demonstrate strong commitment to customer-centricity.  find job satisfaction in the customer’s success.  take charge of her/his own development and well-being at work.  be systematic in adhering to organizational processes.

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New service culture at airports improves customer satisfaction The FUTUAeroport project coordinated by HAAGA-HELIA in 2010–2012 created a new service environment, new commercial opportunities, and product possibilities for future airports.

Text Päivi Brink | Photos Tommi Tuomi

❭❭ The aim of the project was to predict future technological, ecological and service innovations that could be used at the airport in order to plan future services. During the first phase of the project, the current service production environment, products sold, and their context were analyzed at Finland’s largest airports with comparison to international airports. HAAGA-HELIA and some major service providers at the airports got together to consider how customer satisfaction could be improved and how services could become more ecological. In the second phase new service environments were created and tested in practice.

The project was coordinated by HAAGA-HELIA’s principal lecturer for travelling, accommodation and alimentation service innovations, Vesa A. Heikkinen. More than 400 students from diverse fields such as hospitality management, experience & wellness management and business administration were involved in service development at Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport. The project was conducted in cooperation with HAAGA-HELIA, some international and local sister universities, local businesses and experts from HAAGA-HELIA’s interest groups.

The project created new solutions for lounge services, conducted research into micro-trends at airports, pondered new professions and tasks to improve services and found solutions to queuing at airports. The FUTUAeroport project’s final report has just been released in the form of a Finnish e-book and contains the views of the students and experts involved in the project. The project was part of the programme for World Design Capital Helsinki 2012.  Final report: shop.haaga-helia.com

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Global Signals 2013

Vesa A. Heikkinen

Johanna Vuori

Constructing the future by implementing strategy

I

n order to strengthen the competitiveness of Finnish higher education, the Ministry of Education and Culture is encouraging higher education institutions to build larger units through mergers or new alliances. The ministry also believes that the higher education sector should be diversified and, in 2009, it asked all higher education institutions to redraft their strategies and to define their research and educational profiles. The success of these attempts has varied considerably; some institutions seem to have listed most of their research and educational fields as their focus areas. HAAGA-HELIA is a positive exception. It has created a clear strategic plan which defines it among other Finnish higher education institutions with a sharp focus on sales and services. This goal directs both the educational and the R & D activities of the institution. According to the strategy, all HAAGA-HELIA students should acquire strong sales and service skills.

To define these skills, a multiround foresight study was conducted in 2011. The social constructionist and iterative nature of information collection was highlighted in the design of the foresight process. Instead of seeking consensus, the design emphasized that, because the future is not observable, the constructions attached to it were bound to have different meanings. For that reason, both quantitative and qualitative data was collected, and the experts were

able to share their views with each other at three different phases. The design of the foresight study also highlighted that, as there are multiple possible futures, a higher education institution may take an active role in choosing the future it would like to contribute to.

During this process, experts representing HAAGA-HELIA’s internal and external stakeholder groups were invited to join the discussion on what the future will hold for HAAGA-HELIA graduates in terms of sales and service competences. The foresight process thus contributed to the institution’s strategy implementation by enabling a multifaceted dialogue on what HAAGAHELIA means when it refers to strong sales and service skills.

The discussion continues through the use of the foresight findings.

With the help of the eight HH3S roles (see p 11), all degree programmes can evaluate whether their curriculum meets the learning outcomes. HAAGA-HELIA also offers a 30 ETCS point non-degree programme based on the eight sales and service roles and is currently developing a related competence demonstration certificate. Moreover, as the institution’s sales and service focus strategy must be lived not merely through the students, but also through the actions of faculty and staff, the eight roles have contributed to the design and implementation of an internal training programme. 

Johanna Vuori is currently a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Higher and Post-secondary Education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

She has a permanent faculty appointment with the business programs at HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences where she has worked as a project manager and degree program director.

Her research focuses on the management and leadership of teaching-intensive higher education institutions.

Her current research interests include student engagement, the teaching-research nexus and the effects of managerialism in Finnish higher education.

She received her PhD from the University of Tampere. 

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AAGA-HELIA has been working since 2009 to identify opportunities for international growth. In recent years, partly because of exceptional results in the OECD PISA surveys and other international competitions, Finland’s education and education system have been recognized worldwide, and are often seen as models for other countries.

As the largest business school in Finland, HAAGA-HELIA boasts a wide range of programmes in the fields of International Business Management, Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sports Management, Management Assistant Training, Information Technology and Vocational Teacher Education. To spearhead its education exports, HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences established Global Education Services Ltd, in 2011.

Selling expertise to the world Aided by Finland’s strong international performance, HAAGA-HELIA is leading the nation in its education exports.

Text Suvi Huovinen | Photos HAAGA-HELIA

Finnish Vocational Education Abroad Export of education is often understood as international student recruitment. However, HAAGA-HELIA’s focus is on identifying opportunities to develop and tailor educational solutions and programmes and provide educational services that meet the local needs abroad. HAAGA-HELIA has been working closely with the Ministry of Education and Culture and the national education export programme Future Learning Finland.

The international export of education is a very competitive business where Finnish educators are competing with the leading education providers from e.g. USA, Germany, Australia and UK. HAAGAHELIA is focusing on getting to know the local conditions and needs first, and then apply innovative adaptations of Finnish educational programmes and solutions.

NB

HAAGA-HELIA Global Education Services Ltd.  Established in 2011 as a subsidiary of HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences  Coordinates and supports export of education activities  Produces tailor-made education and training solutions for international markets

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Global Signals 2013

Saudi teachers in front of Helsinki Dome.

A world of opportunities

❯❯ As a business school, HAAGA-HELIA’s range of programmes and activities is wide. This is reflected in the marketing and sales activities.

Since 2009, it has explored opportunities for export of core competencies and its offerings have attracted interest from a range of countries such as; Saudi Arabia, the UAE, China, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia Russia and Chile.

Customized programmes for vocational teachers

Specialists in hospitality and tourism education

The education of vocational teachers is specialty area of HAAGA-HELIA that has proven to be very attractive on the international market. The HAAGA-HELIA School of Vocational Teacher Education has customised and successfully delivered programmes for teachers from Korea, Sweden and Saudi Arabia – the latter in cooperation with Educluster Finland Ltd. In September 2012 an agreement was signed with Duoc UC in Chile for cooperation in developing teacher training programmes.

HAAGA-HELIA has a track record of over forty years as an educator of experts for the hospitality and tourism industries. Negotiations are currently taking place on cooperation with international colleges and universities to export specialized short courses and executive development courses as well as part-delivery of Bachelor and Master level degree programmes. In Vietnam experts from HAAGA-HELIA are currently engaged in a consulting project for Danang University of Economics working on the development of their new degree programmes in Tourism Management. In Malaysia, HAAGA-HELIA has partnered with Disted College and the Wawasan foundation to cooperate in Hospitality and Tourism education.

Managing director of Global Education Services Ltd Lars Eltvik with Jaime Alcalde, president of Duoc UC.

eMBA in Service Excellence The HAAGA-HELIA eMBA programme in Service Excellence is modular and flexible, so parts of it can easily be adapted for different international audiences. As an example, in June 2012, HAAGA-HELIA delivered a special programme in Service Excellence for health care professionals in Wuxi, China. In 2013 parts of the eMBA programme will be provided also to groups of students from partner universities in Russia and Malaysia. 

President of HAAGAHELIA Dr. Ritva Laakso-Manninen (right) with Vice Rector Dr. Elena Zoubkova from Moscow International Higher Business School - MIRBIS

Mr. Lars Eltvik and Mr. Pasi Halmari together with Dr Koo Wee Kor, Dato’ Seri Stephen Yeap and Professor Dato' Dr. Ho Sinn Chye from Disted College and the Wawasan Foundation.

Meet the expert ❯❯ Lars Eltvik is the Managing Director of HAAGA-HELIA Global Education Services Ltd. A graduate of the Norwegian School of Hotel Management and the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, he has extensive international experience from the hospitality and services industries as well as from consulting and higher education. Lars has lived and worked for over twenty years

in the USA, Europe, The Middle East, and South America. Before joining HAAGA-HELIA in 2009 he spent eight years in Dubai, working for the prestigious Jumeirah Hospitality Group in Dubai as a senior lecturer and director of sales and marketing at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management.

For more information, please visit global.haaga-helia.fi or contact us at ges.info@haaga-helia.fi 

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FINLAND

“F Experiencing local, organic and wild food Finland offers visitors memorable food experiences.

How about picking blueberries in the forest and then baking a pie with them? The latest trend is local produce, wild food and organic farming. Travel entrepreneurs give depth to the culinary attractions by telling patrons stories about local history and folklore.

Text Päivi Brink | Photos Shutterstock, Jussi Ovaskainen

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Global Signals 2013

ood is such an important part of travelling! Tourists take home stories about what local food means for the people, nutritional information, new tastes and recipes,” says Kristiina Havas, senior lecturer in Tourism Management at HAAGA-HELIA. Havas leads a project that aims to make food a memorable experience for visitors to Finland. The project focuses on 14 independent travel and restaurant entrepreneurs, ranging from a restaurant in a skiing resort in Lapland to a historical manor house in the south of the country.

It brings together HAAGA-HELIA teachers and students in the fields of tourism, restauranteering and business.

The students have found the project very stimulating and 11 related theses are currently being written.

Folklore and scientific studies come together Recent studies show that stories about food and the milieu where it’s served make a culinary experience more individual and memorable.

“It can be as simple as pointing out that the fish being served today was caught by an old man from the village.

Or the story can be a more complex mixture of folklore, local history and the latest scientific information about the nutrients in berries. Even activities can be added: hunting with a guide or cooking with local products.”

Exotic and serene nature is one of the main reasons why tourists come to Finland. The new Wild Food trend celebrates the fact that you can still pick food in the wild.

“It’s a continuation of organic and local food trends. They all come together

Exotic and serene nature is one of the main reasons why tourists come to Finland. in the tourism business. Our Northern climate provides us with local specialities, plants that don’t grow elsewhere. We want to remind entrepreneurs about local traditions and ingredients. They should tell their clients the stories behind the produce,” Havas explains. 

Home Grown Berry Wine

Wild Herbs on the menu ❯❯ Patapirtti is a good example of a company that uses stories to create experiences. It offers a restaurant and guesthouse services at Uusi-Yijälä, a historical farm dating back to the 16th century. Owners Tarja and Markku Uusipaasto also cultivate organic oats and grow sea-buckthorn and currants in their garden. They make berry wine on the farm, serve it in their restaurant and sell it in their wine shop. The farm stall sells produce from local producers.

“I’m interested in the history of our food and old cooking books. We use

traditional recipes and cooking methods and embrace the slow food culture. We use local products as much as we can, for instance fish from surrounding lakes.

We tell our customers about the history of the farm and the buildings, organic farming, folklore and the latest research in sea-buckthorn leaves. Many customers ask questions about the food we serve and we have long discussions with them,” Tarja Uusipasto says. 

❯❯ Finnish Bocuse d’Or chef Sami Tallberg promotes wild food. His Wild Herb Cookbook includes 59 wild plants with delicious recipes.

The plants grow on seashores, in forests or in meadows and they are flavoursome and healthy to eat.

Tallberg sells wild plants to Finland’s leading restaurants and dishes made with them are extremely popular.

Wild food has become gourmet! www.readme.fi

www.patapirtti.fi/en/

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CAREER

Hockey is

people business With over 20 years’ experience in playing ice hockey and coaching, Jukka Tiikkaja feels that he has only scratched the surface of human motivation. It is the common denominator of his two jobs, one in developing education and the other with ice hockey coaching.

Text Maarit Niemelä Photos Jukka Tiikkaja, Shutterstock

T

iikkaja, who’s current LinkedIn profile labels him as ‘Coach education enthusiast’, started playing ice hockey as a school boy. He played actively some 20 years, and coaching came in at high school. This background, combined with studies at exercise physiology, led him to the world of education and coaching.

“It’s about challenging one’s potential and being involved. Every individual is motivated by different factors. For me as a coach, this provides a new learning experience each time.”

Developing education and leadership keeps Tiikkaja on the move. Alongside his work he tops up his resume with studies in innovation systems and knowledge management.

Jukka Tiikkaja  Programme director at HAAGA HELIA University of Applied Sciences  Head of coach education at the Finnish Ice Hockey Association

1977 is born

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1984 first pair of skates

1992 first experience of coatching

“For my whole career, I’ve been able to do the things I’m interested in. I need some variety to keep me motivated. I don’t see myself sitting behind one desk for the rest of my career.”

Skates and politics A few years back, work took Tiikkaja to international rinks. During his two-year post as the chief development director of Asia Ice Hockey, he became familiar with the buzzing city of Tokyo. In fact, with 16 Asian countries that he worked with under the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

In South-East Asia, one of the goals was to make ice hockey a part of everyday life. In Japan and China, Tiikkaja was involved in developing professional ice hockey leagues, their marketing and sports coverage.

“One day I might work at the grass roots level, with my skates on, and the next day I was having lunch and talking politics with the vice president of International Olympic Committee,” he tells.

But ice hockey isn’t exactly the national sport of Asia, is it?

“It’s known in the countries that have at least some sort of winter. In the Middle East ice hockey is gaining popularity because of its exotic image.”

1998 enters university

For a Finn, Japanese working culture wasn’t the easiest to adapt to, compared to the low-hierarchical Scandinavian way of working. Getting new ideas through was sometimes challenging for relatively young Tiikkaja, now aged 35.

“Luckily, I had a very good ´sempai´, that is, a mentor from the older generation. The more I listened, stayed calm and remained patient, the more I got the hang of the culture.”

“Our goal is nothing less than guaranteeing that our 37 000 ice hockey playing children and youngsters get high quality coaching, with the focus on 360 degree feedback and individual motivation. One doesn’t become a world champion without a strong belief in oneself and an enjoyment of the game.” 

Quality coaching for everyone Tiikkaja believes that working in Asia was truly important for his professional development, as well as for gaining life experience.

“I got to work with a broad array of tasks in an international environment. I learned new ways of doing things, and even of thinking.”

He is putting these experiences to use with his international students. The international bachelor’s programme specializing in ice hockey coaching has attracted students from the United States and Canada as well as various other countries.

Tiikkaja is also leaving his mark on the Finnish way of coaching ice hockey.

Together with the national Ice Hockey Association, he wants to establish standardized methods of youth coaching nationwide.

2003 starts work at the International Ice Hockey Centre of Excellence in Vierumäki

NB HAAGA-HELIA develops ice hockey coach education together with the Finnish Ice Hockey Association.

Its international bachelor’s programme specializing in ice hockey coaching has been running since 2002.

Tiikkaja witnessed an entirely different approach to organizing ice hockey in the Middle East, where the sport was managed by princes and sheikhs.

Tiikkaja with his sempai (mentor) Shoichi Tomita, vice-chairman of the IIHF and forwarder Loke Bin Kin who was rewarded MVP of Asian Winter Games, premier Division 2011.

2005 starts at the Haaga Institute Polytechnic (HAAGA-HELIA since 2007)

20092011 working in Japan

2011 HAAGA-HELIA and Finnish Ice Hockey Association join forces in developing coach education

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A leading learning environment HAAGA-HELIA’s Porvoo campus is a space where the learning methods of the future are made possible.

Text Linda Finell | Photos Marika Alhonen

W

hen the design of Porvoo Campus began in 2007, the first step wasn’t actually to draw the shape of the building. A task force, gathered from the school’s staff and specialists, first wanted to find out what was needed from the premises of a university of applied sciences. Their foremost aim was to make learning easier and more efficient.

“To discover this, we had to predict the shape of learning in the future,” recalls Lis-Marie Enroth-Niemi, Head of Porvoo Campus.

At the beginning of the design stage, the task force embarked on a benchmarking trip, to Google’s Campus in London and to Stanford in California.

From these, they concluded that the essence of future learning will be working together and sharing know-how. These two factors became the key guidelines for the new campus.

This realisation had a radical influence on teaching methods, too.

In Porvoo Campus all learning takes place during job skill projects, which combine information about a variety of subjects into one package. As a part of the new teaching plan, teachers have become mentors whose job is to support students’ learning instead of just feeding information to them.

“We wanted to create a future workplace for us all, not a school,” Enroth-Niemi says. “It was to be a place where there are different spaces for different occasions.”

A flexible environment Most of the learning rooms on campus are for group work and can freely be used by students for their project work. The building also contains informal rooms intended for creative work and learning, well-equipped computer rooms and language studios. Only a few of the rooms are traditional classrooms with a teacher’s desk.

The new work environment also extends to the staff at Porvoo Campus.

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The office for teachers and employees is a single open space where nobody has their own desk, not even the head of campus.

Everyone has a small closet and a laptop, and can choose their own work spot daily, according to their needs, either in a silent area or an area where discussion is allowed.

Encounters and openness The throbbing heart of Porvoo Campus is its spacious lobby. This acts as meeting place and boasts a great view up to the different floors and outside to the yard.

“Encounters are one of the most important aspects of the building,” Enroth-Niemi explains. “The corridors were deliberately made more narrow than usual, so that it would be natural to acknowledge and greet people that you pass.”

Additional important aspects of the campus are transparency and openness.

Learning is made visible through the glass walls of almost every room. These have brought other unexpected benefits to everyday life.

“Now that the rooms are visible from the corridor, students walking past can see that people are working, and the volume quiets down. The number of phone calls and e-mails made on campus has also decreased, because colleagues and fellow students are much easier to locate. Issues can be discussed face-to-face.”

For a university of applied sciences, Porvoo is implementing openness in a totally new way.

“We hope that people will visit the campus and spend time here. It is already happening; pensioners, construction workers and many other people from the neighbourhood come here to eat or for coffee. Our library is open to all and visitors don’t have to sign up when they enter the building.”

Porvoo Campus is unique in Finland.

Various innovations with learning spaces are being tested around the country, but so far there are no similarly comprehensive campus concepts to be found anywhere else. 

We wanted to create a future workplace for us all.

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Foreign exchange

Each year HAAGA-HELIA welcomes over 350 exchange students and 100 exchange teachers. PhD Olaf Hermans is lecturing at HAAGA-HELIA for the seventh consecutive year. His field is tourism, restaurant and hotel management and he is senior lecturer at the Academy of Hotel and Facility Management at NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. According to his Finnish colleagues Olaf is a teacher in high demand.

Text Anneli Frantti | Photos Markus Pentikäinen

Olaf Hermans In Brief:  Senior lecturer at NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences - Academy of Hotel & Facility Management (NL) since 2003  PhD Research at Pennsylvania State University on the explication and measurement of customer intimacy (USA) 2009–2013  Author of the CRM-7-18 model for implementation of Guest Relationship Management  Board advisor at Hotelwebservice GmbH (Germany)  Most recent publication Hermans, O (2013) ’Customer relationship management’, in Wood, R C (ed.) Key Concepts in Hospitality Management, London: Sage.

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Seven years with HAAGA-HELIA and more to come – how is it going?

“The friendship between Breda and HAAGA-HELIA has been growing steadily over the years. The teachers started visiting and lecturing between the schools in 2006 as a part of the Erasmus project and I was the first one. The student exchange started later. Nowadays we exchange everything from teaching topics to quality management procedures and network contacts. We share a passion for the topic of customer-focused thinking. It is fun to be active in teaching, research and consulting, and see how each benefits from the others across the teaching and research institutions where I work in Europe and the US.” How was your last visit?

“I was at HAAGA-HELIA for five weeks between August and November. It was my first experience as part of a real structural collaboration. For the first time I had a key to the building, my own office and a schedule just like my Finnish colleagues. This was also the first time I had some time to discover the city.

“Last semester I contributed to the degree programmes in experience & wellness management and hospitality management. Within a real-life research project for Tallinn tourism promotion, I instructed 1st year students on qualitative research methods like visitor observation and surveying. I instructed 2nd and 3rd year students in strategic management. I also gave consultative lectures to MBA students including business executives, about customer loyalty management.

“To maintain continuity I participate from home in the Netherlands in web conferences with Finnish students when it suits their programme. In between teaching my colleagues and I keep exploring opportunities for future collaboration, such as in research funding and coorganizing conferences. I really feel part of a coordinated effort, not a standalone guest lecturing initiative.”

What is your own field of specialization?

“It is loyalty management – the psychological processes that underlie the decision to repurchase services and

return to places already visited. What drives my entire research agenda is that people who are satisfied do not necessarily come back and people who are dissatisfied may do so. The solution lies in individualized communication.

“Keeping customers is a big topic in global service companies; think of Nokia’s difficult current market position.

It is not difficult to find case companies for my own research and for interested students to work on, either as a consulting project or for research or training. These cases make classroom discussions vivid and engaging for students at all levels.

Currently my research and consulting team in customer loyalty management counts 15 dissertation students.”

Thoughts of teaching?

“If you put enthusiasm into people you get enthusiasm back. I do not believe in making assumptions about the level of knowledge of a student. A good teacher is able to make students connect to a topic and convey his complex domain, whether it’s to first-year bachelors or to doctoral students. It requires enormous passion to wrap high-end expertise into a student-accessible package. When you don’t hold back from tackling advanced issues they see you take them and their learning seriously.

I assumed that, for Finns, I had to avoid humour and talking too much. In fact, after five minutes everybody seems to be quite comfortable. I must admit that the reason why I like the Finns so much is that they put me in touch with my silent self. Finland is the place where I can fulfil myself best.” 

NB

Annually at HAAGA-HELIA: ∼ 1 100 international degree students ∼ 450 exchange students ∼ 110 exchange teachers ∼ 100 HAAGA-HELIA's teachers in exchange

CONFERENCES

Nowadays we exchange everything from teaching topics to quality management procedures and network contacts.

PhD Olaf Hermans instructs 1st year students Annina Kasvi and Ekaterina Polkovaia about hospitality management.

Campus Encounters 13 - Research and learning methods in sales and service development At Encounters 2013 we aim to stimulate encounters and the development of creative learning and research methods within sales and services. Industrial, cultural and institutional professionals are all invited to share their research and work experiences.

You are welcome to submit theoretical and practical proposals from a wide range of industries related to conference themes, bringing passion, flow and transformation to the fore.  21–22 March 2013 on Porvoo Campus  www.encounters13.org

Globalizing businesses for the next century The fifteenth annual international GBTA conference will focus on visualizing and developing contemporary approaches to harness future opportunities.  2–6 July 2013 in Helsinki  Co-sponsored by HAAGA-HELIA  www.gbta.org

Learning Practical Skills from Social Media The HAAGA-HELIA School of Vocational Teacher Education organises an international partner seminar on learning practical skills by using social media. The specific focus of interest is in the pedagogical use of social media in supporting students’ learning of practical skills in vocational education and training.  13–14 March 2013 at HAAGA-HELIA, Pasila  www.haaga-helia.fi/en/school-of-vocational-teacher- education/research-and-development/skills-by-some

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MEETING

POINT

Luxury business as usual

Currently the Senior Vice President for Development at Kempinski Hotels, HAAGA-HELIA alumnus Mike Haemmerli feels privileged to have a job that he feels passionate about. Of course, the luxurious setting adds a nice bonus.

Text Heini Santos | Photos Mike Haemmerli, Kempinski Hotels

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K

empinski Hotels is Europe’s oldest luxury hotel group, with a growing portfolio of distinguished properties around the world. Mike Haemmerli, who studied at HAAGA-HELIA from 1993 to 1995, has worked for Kempinski for over a decade, gradually advancing to his current position as the head of the corporate development team.

Haemmerli lives and breathes luxury on a daily basis, but it is not all about travelling to exotic destinations and staying in five-star hotels – although he does a lot of that, too. His usual day consists of varied tasks that reflect a wide range of responsibilities. He is in charge of spearheading Kempinski’s international growth strategy, through negotiation and execution of hotel management agreements.

Kempinski manages luxury hotels, resorts and branded serviced real estate, which are private residences and serviced apartments.

“Whenever one of our projects is finished and the hotel opens its doors for business, I am filled with a very real sense of satisfaction,” he explains. “It’s the same feeling whenever I subsequently travel to that hotel, meet its employees and see smiling and satisfied customers.”

Local treats Travelling accounts for about 25 percent of Haemmerli’s time, but because of his family he tries to avoid unnecessary trips. That is where modern technology comes in.

Tools such as Google Earth make it possible to evaluate a project’s potential fit and make an informed initial decision, without having to

jump on a plane to visit a vacant plot of land.

“When travelling and after the day is done, I find it a true luxury to get away from it all and experience a local down-to-earth moment. From haggling in a souk in Marrakech or Muscat, to ordering a Pad Thai from a street vendor in Bangkok, to drinking a Mojito and listening to a live band in a local bar in Havana – cigar optional,” Haemmerli laughs.

Negotiating across borders Due to the nature of his job, Haemmerli regularly deals with high net-worth, interesting and experienced people from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. To him, this is both the best and most difficult part about what he does.

“No school or course is truly able to teach you how to do business and negotiate across borders and, in that sense, each project offers a new learning experience. It is often challenging and at times exasperating, but always personally and professionally rewarding.”

He dreams of one day setting up a business to promote and develop sustainable social tourism projects in developing countries.

“This industry has been great to me and some of my most memorable and heart-warming experiences have been in countries where people have nothing but are extremely generous and grateful for the little they have,” he says. “I would love to give something back to the industry and to people less privileged than myself, building on and leveraging my experience, knowledge and networks.” 

 A model of the Emirates Palace was used in various fairs across the Gulf to show off the plans in Abu Dhabi.  Toasting to celebrate the successful negotiation and signature of an extension to a long-term hotel management agreement.

Whenever one of our projects is finished and the hotel opens its doors for business, I am filled with a very real sense of satisfaction.

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Bridging the Gap As market competition gets tougher, and information and communication technologies becomes steadily more important, ICT professionals require new skills to meet the needs of today’s global business environment.

between ICT and Business

Text Nina Garlo | Photo Arto Wiikari

H

AAGA-HELIA offers bachelor graduates working in the field of ICT or technology the opportunity to upgrade their competencies in an international programme and to take on new challenges.

“Our new Master’s Degree Programme in Information Systems Management (ISM) provides the private and public sectors with top quality professionals who can successfully manage large ICT development projects and run and enhance continuous ICT services.

It builds on our students’ existing strong technical capabilities, offering them highly important formal

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Head of the ISM study programme Jouni Soitinaho and Maarit Heikkilä, vice president of OP Services Ltd.

training in business and leadership skills too,” says Jouni Soitinaho, head of the study programme.

Educating Highly Effective Change Leaders Last October the ISM programme received an award from IT Service Management Forum Finland (itSMF) for its pioneering role in offering master level education in the field of service management.

It provides students with practical experience and a solid theoretical understanding of business strategy and planning. The course provides

management and leadership competences to cope with the ongoing market changes and shortening development cycles that are affecting ICT professionals today.

From the perspective of Finnish industry the new degree programme helps to address the current shortage of ICT management skills and to bridge the typical communications gap between ICT and business professionals.

“The programme educates highly competent ICT professionals who fully understand business and the financial implications of their actions. They can also talk the same language as ‘business-focused’ top level management,” explains Maarit Heikkilä, vice president at OP Services Ltd, one of the companies cooperating with HAAGA-HELIA in the planning of the programme.

Heikkilä, who is also a member of the itSMF Board in Finland, sees HAAGA-HELIA’s new programme as a clear advantage to businesses in all sectors of the economy and as an excellent opportunity for students to form invaluable new networks with fellow ICT professionals.

Studies in the English-language programme can be conducted in two years as a part-time course or even faster full-time.

“Now we can continue to develop our programme using feedback from our newly enrolled students of many nationalities and company backgrounds,” Soitinaho adds. 

ALUMNI

ISM programme provides management and leadership competences to cope with the ongoing market changes and shortening development cycles.

A legacy of 20,000 alumni ❯❯ We try to stay in touch with all graduates of HAAGA-HELIA. There are more than 20,000 alumni in our database.

We hope that, as an alumnus of our institution, you will want to maintain lifelong contact with us and your fellow students. Remember to update your contact information at www.haaga-helia.fi/en/alumni when you move from one place to another or change your job. Wherever you happen to be around the world, you will automatically receive our stakeholder magazine Signals and the monthly alumni newsletter e-Signals. You will also have the opportunity to participate in various events and meetings.

The alumni provide HAAGA-HELIA with a wealth of expertise and competence. It is a network that members can use for their own R&D, and we also ask willing alumni to participate in business cooperation as partners. Other alumni teach as guest lecturers and participate in various mentoring programmes.

Get together with other alumni Would you like to organize a meeting, a get-together or a night out with other graduates living near you? An invitation in the Haaga-Helia official alumni group or Facebook group page might be a good start. Your e-mail can be forwarded to other alumni near you by the Alumni office.

Information about the meeting can also be published on the Alumni webpage and in e-Signals. HAAGA-HELIA can help you in many ways to hook up with other alumni! Contact us: alumni@haaga-helia.fi

A chance to visit Helsinki again If you are looking for an excuse to visit Helsinki again during 2013, you are more than welcome to attend the Alumni Gala on 19 April. Check out the photos from last year’s gala on our Facebook page. Find out more about the other alumni activities we organize from our monthly newsletter e-Signals. We’re looking forward to seeing you again in Helsinki!

e-Signals in English Get the alumni newsletter e-Signals in English – update your contact information by sending an e-mail to alumni@haaga-helia.fi or on the alumni page at www.haaga-helia.fi/en/services-and-cooperation/alumni.

Everyone updating their contact information will participate in a draw to win a ticket to the alumni gala.

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HAAGA-HELIA

eMBA in SERVICE EXCELLENCE

Continuous admission throughout the year!

Modular part-time executive MBA programme in English (90 ECTS).

Immersion programme to Silicon Valley and Asia is included in the two-year eMBA programme.

Apply now! emba.haaga-helia.fi