IBD in Jyvaskyla, Finland
by Hugo Pacanins, MBA 2005
From the beginning, our project seemed very professional. We met with Jutta (our main client contact) in Berkeley in the beginning of February where we discussed the scope of the project and the deliverables. Even though we met a couple of times, the scope was pretty much open, as they seemed to want an overview of the Remote Services Industry (Remote diagnostics, monitoring, preventive maintenance, etc.). We agreed on a couple of deliverables before our departure to Finland and then she left.
As an additional piece of info, we seemed to be working for not only one client, but for 4! This didn’t seem as a problem at the beginning but then again… that was just the beginning.
Information was very hard to come by as this is a fairly new industry. We met a couple of times with Gary Peete (Head of Reference Services at the Library) to see if he could help us find the information and after searching for a couple of weeks and after receiving a few good contacts, we found what we were looking for and started working on the deliverables. Communication with the client was hard and we basically just sent out documents and waited for some feedback. We never got any… until we got to Finland.
Our three week experience began by flying to Helsinki, were we stayed for a couple of days and got to enjoy this beautiful city (and of course, the beautiful women). We left for Jyvaskyla, a city about a three hour drive from Helsinki in Central Finland where one of our clients had their headquarters.
The first week was full of meetings, presentations, discussions and conversations about our findings and any other questions that our clients needed answered. (yes, we had four, which accounted for a week full of meetings). In this week we realized why Finnish people drink so much coffee!
The second week was mostly team work but it was cut short because our client wanted us to attend a conference in Helsinki on Wednesday. They took us to the best restaurant in Helsinki and then they took us out on Thursday and Friday so we could get a good sense of how Finnish people have fun: Drink, Drink, and Drink. I think we will never forget a couple of words: Koskenkorva and Salmiakki (local spirits)
The third week was a lot of work because we needed to make plenty of calls to the US and the time difference was substantial, which basically meant long nights and not too much sleep. We were also working on our final presentation, which was delivered in a full day of activities in the client’s summer cottage in the woods, right next to a lake.
We spent all of our weekends traveling around Scandinavia. We got to know Tallinn (Estonia) and Stockholm (Sweden), and got to share them with some of the members in the other IBD team in Finland.
Overall, the project was unbelievable and we were lucky to have such a great client. Team wise, even though it’s tough being together for 3 weeks (24x7), I believe this is an experience that none of us will forget and has given our MBA experience a whole different meaning.
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Last Updated on July 13, 2005
