Arvoprosessi part 1

Teksti/Text: Kristiina Laakso
Kuvat/Pictures: Tytti Myöhänen
Vastaava päätoimittaja/Executive Editor: Jaana Loipponen

Mikä arvoprosessi? Miksi osallistua projektin toteuttamiseen? Liiketalouden opiskelija Mona Auervuolle vastaa arvoprosessia koskeviin kysymyksiin.

Henkilöprofiili

• Mona Auervuolle, 23 vuotta 
• Kolmannen vuoden liiketalouden johtamisen ja viestinnän   opiskelija 
• Aloitin opiskelun Lahden ammattikorkeakoulussa tammikuussa 2012 
• Valmistumassa keväällä 2015
• Työskentelen opintojen ohella Kymenlaakson Osuuspankissa

Mikä ihmeen arvoprosessi?

Lahden ammattikorkeakoulusta tulee osakeyhtiö 1.1.2015 ja sen yhteydessä uudistetaan brändi, strategia ja arvot. Johtamisen ja viestinnän vastuuopettaja Olavi Palanne tarjosi projektia opiskelijoille viime keväänä ja päätin ottaa haasteen vastaan. Seuraavaksi tapasinkin ohjaavien opettajien ryhmän ja aloin valmistella projektisuunnitelmaa. 

Keväällä kävin myös Lahden ammattikorkeakoulun johtoryhmässä sekä hallituksessa esittelemässä projektisuunnitelman. Toukokuussa kävin uusien johtamisen ja viestinnän opiskelijoiden suuntautumisinfossa kertomassa projektista ja kiinnostuneet ilmoittautuivat mukaan. Projektissa oli mukana minun lisäkseni 16 muuta johtamisen ja viestinnän opiskelijaa.

Kesällä projektisuunnitelma muotoutui lopulliseen muotoonsa. Elokuussa järjestettiin Lahden ammattikorkeakoulun henkilöstön kehittämispäivät Aulangolla ja siellä minulla oli mukana 10 opiskelijan työryhmä pitämässä henkilöstölle noin tunnin kestäneen työpajan arvoista. 

Syys- ja lokakuussa kiersimme kaikki Lahden ammattikorkeakoulun kampukset ja keräsimme opiskelijoiden mielipiteitä arvoista. Strategiatyön pohjaksi tehty verkkoaivoriihi-kysely lähetettiin elokuussa henkilöstölle, opiskelijoille ja sidosryhmille.

Saimme yllämainituista vaiheista kaiken kaikkiaan yli tuhat arvoehdotusta ja niiden määritelmää, ja näiden vastausten perusteella muodostimme verkkoon kyselyn. Kyselyyn vastasi yhteensä lähes 700 opiskelijaa, henkilöstön jäsentä ja sidosryhmän jäsentä. Kävin esittelemässä koko prosessin tulokset Lahden ammattikorkeakoulun johtoryhmässä 5.12.2014.

Miksi lähteä mukaan projektiin?

Minulla heräsi heti mielenkiinto prosessia kohtaan kuullessani sitä. Huomasin arvoprosessin tarjoavan mahdollisuuden erottua muista tradenomiopiskelijoista, sillä mielestäni kaikkein merkittävintä  on se, minkälaisia taitoja koulutuksen aikana oikeasti oppii. Arvoprosessi myös tukee johtamisen ja viestinnän opintojani, sillä roolini prosessin projektipäällikkönä on suurelta osin juuri johtamista ja viestintää. Tästä projektista saan myös kirjoitettua mielenkiintoisen ja merkityksellisen opinnäytetyön. 

Value process project part 1

Mona Auervuolle is a 23-year-old student in Lahti University of Applied Sciences. She is a third-year-student and specializing in Management and Communications.

Mona is a project leader in value process of LUAS. Lahti University of Applied Sciences is becoming a corporation at the beginning of 2015 and the student team is creating new value suggestions for the executive group.

The value process team collected opinions from all students, personnel and interest groups in August, September and October 2014. They got over 1,000 answers.

Mona started the project because she was very interested in the idea and she saw a good opportunity to stand out from her co-students. Value process also supports her studies. Among the process, Mona is also writing her thesis about the process.

Projektipäällikkö/Project Manager: Kristiina Laakso
Viestintävastaava/Communications Manager: Ninni  Mäkelä
Markkinointivastaavat/Marketing Managers: Santeri Larjanne & Miika Nevalainen
Graafinen suunnittelu/Graphic design: Laura K. Salminen

Internationality - Strength in today's businessworld

In today’s business world, international experience is highly valued. Lahti University of Applied Sciences gives its students a great chance to gain international study experience. Internationalization has always added value to university studies but nowadays it’s even more important to gain intercultural competence. Companies appreciate it and are willing to help students to get it. Because internationalization is so important these days, we decided to choose it as the theme for this spring’s @Sight.

Lahti University of Applied Sciences is an international community. The University receives foreign students, who come to study here, and sends Finnish students abroad. For example, the University encourages students to get international experience by offering a chance to spend a semester studying at a partner university. Students can also complete their practical training abroad or take part in an international week either abroad or in Finland, in which case students from different countries are invited here. It should also be noted that the international week usually includes collaboration with local companies, so they also benefit from the University's international activities.

This spring issue of @Sight presents articles from students who study management and communications, and marketing, and one article from a foreign degree student. Naturally, we asked the students to write their articles in English in order to promote Lahti, its companies and the University as an international community.

The @Sight articles discuss how students can gain international experience and how they might benefit from this. There are also some interesting points for companies that might want to have more collaboration with the University. Finally, as the articles reveal, internationalization provides many benefits both for students and companies.

We hope you enjoy reading this international issue of @Sight. Happy and sunny times!

Editors Tella Krigsman and Pauliina Huovila

Editorial Assistant Arla Kirjonen

Executive Editor Jaana Loipponen

Marketing Fashion Design in Liège

At Lahti University of Applied of Applied Sciences in the Faculty of Business all students are encouraged to become international either by taking part in an international marketing week or by studying abroad as an exchange student. Studying abroad improves your language skills and helps to make friends from all over the world. It also gives you the possibility to practice your language skills in the real world instead of normal lessons. Especially English skills are really important in the business life nowadays.

We participated in the international marketing week at HELMo University College in Liege, Belgium, from 16^th to 19^th March. The week was organized by Businet, a global business education network of institutes of higher education around the world. Lahti University of Applied Sciences is also part of the Businet network.

During the Fashion Design week, we were divided into six groups of four or five people. We were then assigned a task to create a marketing plan for a recently graduated HELMo Mode student. There were two designers: Charlotte Zink (in the picture) and Robin Huberty. They chose the groups who would market them based on “Our thoughts of fashion” mood boards that we created in the groups.

Even though we spent three days in Belgium, we only had around five hours to create our marketing plans for the designers. Our program for the week also included lectures and visits to local museum and to HELMo Mode fashion school. At the end of the last day, we presented our plans to a jury which included teachers from HELMo, marketing experts and of course the two fashion designers. The jury then chose the winning marketing plan, and they also awarded the team with the most innovative ideas.

Lack of time wasn’t the only obstacle on the way to creating a victorious marketing plan. As newly graduated designers, our clients didn’t have a huge budget to spend, so we needed to come up with ideas that were effective but cheap to execute. Many teams used their own contacts and planned to use HELMo’s students for their marketing projects. Many teams also considered that social media is one of the most important marketing channels. For example, some groups planned to do a Facebook page, to open a Twitter account and to create a website.

Working with a foreign designer and in an international group of students was challenging but rewarding. The working language in the project was English even though the designers spoke French as their mother tongue, as did the majority of the students. There were of course some language barriers, but all the students and teachers were very helpful in translating English to French, and eventually everybody understood each other. 

The designers received three different ways to develop the marketing of their products. Every group had various visions in their marketing plans, and the designers can therefore benefit from these plans in the future. They can also adapt the different ideas from each plan. In general, this kind of marketing week is a good way for designers to get new ideas. The students worked a lot with their marketing plans, and all this was free for the designers. 

The marketing week in Liege was a great experience. We learned lots of new things about marketing related to fashion design and about studying in Belgium. Most of us had never been to Belgium, so we also learned  a little bit about Belgian culture.  We also got some new international friends, and studying abroad was a nice change from our business studies at home in Finland.

Text: Emma Laaksonen and Heta Lehtinen

Photos: Emma Laaksonen