References

Current Projects

Health Care Kiosk Business Model in Rural India - Global Venture Lab Project. GVL Finland students working on building the brand, creating the story and starting a global community.

Testimonials

niko

GVL is the future of Finnish education. It teaches valuable lessons straight from business life to the students in university unlike any other study programme in JYU. GVL also brings entrepreneurs, students and university closer enabling completely new ways of interaction and networking. It also provides entrepreneurs chance to get outside view on their business which is often desperately needed. GVL can also be the first stop for companies when starting to work with university because GVL is extremely easy to approach from outside.

Niko Järvinen, TLT Student/Entrepreneur

References

Metra Oy

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Metra Oy: GVL's first live case of a growth venture integrating business, research & learning (Summer 2008-present)

Metra Oy is a nascent startup in the wind business. It's aim is to bring existing renewable energy technologies to global markets for faster product-to-market. Metra was one of the first companies inside the Global Venture Lab –linking the company to global “knowledge investments” with universities such as University of California, Berkeley, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and leading universities in Finland. Through the GVL Process, a co-entrepreneur was found (who later became Chairman), a student/faculty member joined the team (Masters' thesis accomplished through action research) and student work through numerous courses were assigned (Venture Capital Strategies, LaunchPad etc.), thus demonstrating the feasibility of the integration of business, research & learning.

Contact Jane Porter jane.porter(a)jyu.fi for more information.

Pilomac

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Shared Growth Strategy for Machinery Business Network – Case Pilomac (1.1.2008 – 31.3.2009)

The project was a part of Pilomac – Integrated Business System (PIBS) project cluster where several parties produced new knowledge from different viewpoints with the goal to create a new Finnish success story. GVL concentrated on creating a shared network strategy for machinery business network by producing new tools for network strategy management, understanding the dynamics of growth oriented business network especially the processes of creating, implementing, and monitoring the shared network growth strategy.

In the beginning of the project case Pilomac was in a fast growth path with several major challenges due to e.g. organizational changes and fast growth and even faster growth expectations. GVL’s role varied from daily business participation to strategy planning level and this “hands-on” orientation made it possible to quickly redirect the project when global financial crisis hit machinery business and growth turned into a surviving struggle. Project was an excellent example of turbulent global business where roles and tasks vary in a very short notice.

For more information contact the action researchers: Mia Häkkinen (mia.hakkinen(at)jyu.fi) or Mila Hakanen (mila.hakanen(at)jyu.fi)