Turku School of Economics Alumni Webinars

June 22, 2022 TSE Alumni Webinar: How COVID-19 affected companies’ performance in the Nordics – a sudden shock was also a good shock

PhD (Econ.) Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi presented the findings of him and his research team on “Strategies for Sudden Shock- Market Rewards Good Performance Also During Tough Times”. Companies aim to grow revenue, profit, and market capitalization. When global economy was growing, these ambitions were feasible. COVID-19 forced companies to re-think their strategic priorities and to take actions to keep their promises.

Companies which had made solid strategic choices before COVID-19 and were able to renew themselves performed well, but the study demonstrates other successful strategies also. The study illustrates case examples and shows that winners can be categorized in four groups depending on company’s focus and time horizon of strategic actions.

Professor Satu Teerikangas and Professor of Practice at Turku School of Economics Riku Santala discussed the effects of COVID-19 on companies in Nordic with Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi.

• How COVID-19 affected companies’ performance in the Nordics – a sudden shock was also a good shock
• The European Business Review:Strategies for Sudden Shock- Market Rewards Good Performance Also During Tough Times

April 6, 2022 TSE Alumni Webinar: The Effects of the War in Ukraine on Business and Trade

This session of our Alumni Webinar series focuses on the effects of the war in Ukraine on business and trade. MSc Wilma Nissilä shared her analysis on the economic impacts of the war, which are likely to be profound and long-lasting. In the part lead by Associate Professor Tommi Solakivi we discussed the effects of the war on supply chains in Finland, Europe and internationally.

Professor Satu Teerikangas and Professor of Practice at Turku School of Economics Riku Santala discussed the topics with leading specialists in their field:

• MSc (Econ) Wilma Nissilä: Economic Impacts of the Russia-Ukraine War
• Associate Professor Tomi Solakivi: Supply Chain Impacts of War in Ukraine

December 9, 2021 TSE Alumni Webinar: The Art of Change - Europe as a Driver of Carbon-neutral and Sustainable Futures

This session adopts a forward-looking & strategic approach, providing recommendations for industry on how to make carbon-neutral and smart future possible.

The European Union is aiming for Europe to be Climate neutral by 2050. This opens major opportunities for European industry to take the leaderships toward sustainable solutions. One example is Climate Leadership Coalition’s initiative for the ‘Climate Handprint’.

Professor Satu Teerikangas and Professor of Practice at Turku School of Economics Riku Santala discussed the topics with leading specialist in her field:

Dr Sc (Eng) Taina Tukiainen is Adjunct Professor (Docent) of Sustainable Leadership and Innovation in Management and Organization at Turku School of Economics as well as Research Director at Vaasa University. Before an academic career, Taina worked with Nokia globally in senior management roles and have more than 15 years of business experience in Finland, Europe and the USA. After defending her PhD at Aalto University in 2004, Taina was chair of Industrial management at Helsinki University of Applied sciences, and Professor at VTT, Witten-Herdecke and Aalto University. Last five years, Taina, has worked as a senior advisor and expert on sustainability and carbon neutrality in the cabinet of the European Committee of the Regions.

At the heart of her research are sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation. In terms of funding, Taina has enourmous research funding portfolio and lately she been responsible of European projects of Science meet Society, Sustainable Baltic Sea region, smart specialization strategies and ecosystems 2017-2021 and leads academic BF’s Neutral Host of smart data and telecom project 2018-2022.

The Art of Change - Europe as a Driver of Carbon-neutral and Sustainable Futures
 

October 27, 2021 TSE Alumni Webinar: Freedom and perseverance at work - What can we learn from creative entrepreneurs?

Creative entrepreneurs are inspired by creative work and the freedom they have. They want to accomplish things which they find meaningful and fulfilling. The price they want to pay for their freedom may include insecure or lower income.
What does this tell us about the importance of freedom, ability to engage in meaningful work and perseverance when experiencing challenges?
How do creative entrepreneurs embrace their creativity, for example, how do they survive when facing adversity during pandemic and how do they realize their creative projects with resources at hand? What kind of value do they create to themselves, their customers and the society?

Professor Satu Teerikangas and Professor of Practice at Turku School of Economics Riku Santala discussed the topics with leading specialists in their fields:

• Jarna Heinonen is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Turku School of Economics. Jarna’s research interests encompass entrepreneurship, particularly entrepreneurship education, corporate entrepreneurship and family businesses. Recently Jarna’s research has focused on creative entrepreneurship as Jarna is a Principal Investigator of the European-wide DISCE research project, which investigates what are inclusive and sustainable creative economies and how can they be developed.
• Ulla Hytti is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Turku School of Economics. Ulla’s research focuses on entrepreneurship particularly from the perspective of the individual. She has conducted research on entrepreneurial identity work as an emergent process in contexts. Currently Ulla is a Work-package (WP) leader in the DISCE research project. The WP focuses on understanding the blurring boundaries between paid employment and entrepreneurship and new earnings logics and business models in the creative economies.

Freedom and perseverance at work - What can we learn from creative entrepreneurs?
 

June 16, 2021 TSE Alumni Webinar: The role of economic actors in transition towards sustainability

In this webinar were discussed the role of economic actors in transition towards sustainability and how companies can create monetary wealth while contributing to sustainable society and nature.

Our Keynote speakers in this webinar was Dr Ville Lauttamäki from Finland Future Research Center at TSE. Ville stated that economic activities are in the heart of sustainability both as a solution to the challenges and origin of many of the problem. Ville explained that the root cause of sustainability problems is a market failure, because the market process fails to appreciate inputs or effects of a production process for their true value at present point.

Considering the time perspective is essential, investments in future businesses and business models are essential when we move from measuring GDP to measuring accumulation of wealth. It is much cheaper to protect and sustain a working ecosystem than to weaken it now and try to fix it later. Our Professor of Practice Dr Riku Santala stated: "Sustainability can be aligned with wealth creation and should be a focal part of the management process on daily basis, e.g., saving energy contributes to increased profits, and implementing traceability enables ethical consumerism and growth of this consumer segment."

May 19, 2021 TSE Alumni Webinar: Sustainable circular economy

In this Webinar were discussed a contemporary facet of sustainable business, circular economy. Whose responsibility is it - companies or managers?

Our Keynote speakers in this webinar were Ph.D Researcher Mira Valkjärvi and Post Doctoral Researcher Katariina Koistinen. Mira pointed out Circular Economy strategies from a company perspective. Her presentation was the introduction to different types of strategies, why companies adapt to these and the challenges they face. Katariina's presentation's main message and what she particularly wanted to emphasize, was 'How do senior managers in front-runner companies support circular economy?'

'Catalyzing and accelerating transitions to circular economy. An opportunity for business and leaders!', defined Professor Satu Teerikangas in her speech.

April 28, 2021 Sustainable Leadership

In this TSE Alumni Webinar we defined sustainable leadership, how TSE alumni can make a difference and how sustainable leadership benefits business and society.

Michael Ristaniemi defined sustainable leadership and told us how sustainability transforms from an expertise area to a part of the dna of every Metsä Group employee. Satu Teerikangas depicted the elements of sustainable leadership from tripple bottom line to shared leadership. Riku Santala described how to combine business reasoning and ethical rationality over time and how to implement sustainable leadership in the management system.

November 25, 2020 Pandemic Shock And Its Effects on Economy (in Finnish)

COVID-19 pandemia on asettanut merkittäviä haasteita sekä talouspolitiikan päättäjille että makrotalouden tutkijoille. Näistä haasteista selviäminen vaatii enemmän kuin se tosiasia, että pandemian synnyttämien häiriöiden – sokkien -  vaikutukset ovat ankaruudeltaan ja äkillisyydeltään ennen kokemattomia. Häiriö on myös luonteeltaan erilainen kuin häiriöt, joita pidetään tyypillisinä suhdannehäiriöinä ja joiden vaikutuksia pyritään hallitsemaan suhdannepolitiikan avulla. On tyypillistä, että makrotalouden tutkijat luokittelevat suhdannehäiriöt joko kysyntä- tai tarjontahäiriöihin, esimerkiksi joko kotitalouksien kulutukseen ja investointeihin kohdistuviin häiriöihin tai yritysten tuotantoon suoraan kohdistuviin häiriöihin. Kotitalouksien tulot voivat yllätyksellisesti alentua tai yllätykselliset kustannusten nousut, ”öljysokit” tai yllätykset tuotantopanosten saatavuudessa, koettelevat yritystoiminnan kannattavuutta.

COVID-19 pandemian synnyttämiä sokkeja ei voi näin kategorisoida, vaan kyseessä on ensivaiheen tarjontahäiriön kehittyminen kysyntähäiriöksi. Tämä tekee pandemian synnyttämän kriisin – koronakriisin – taloudellisten vaikutusten, saati sitten yleisempien yhteiskunnallisten vaikutusten, hallitsemisen erityisen haasteelliseksi.
Minkälaista on optimaalinen politiikka? Mitä toimintoja rajoitetaan ja kuinka kauan? Talouspolitiikka, julkisten menojen kohdentaminen? Verotukseen liittyvien toimenpiteiden vaikutus?

Webinaarin keynotepuhujana oli taloustieteen professori Jouko Vilmunen sekä moderaattoreina professori Satu Teerikangas, työelämäprofessori Riku Santala ja KTT Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi.

November 11, 2020 City Centres as Consumption Spaces

City centres all over the world are losing market share to competing shopping channels. Starting in the mid-’80s, they were first challenged by the out-of-town shopping agglomerations and, more recently, by the rapidly expanding online shopping. As consumer choices and behaviours are fundamental drivers of the retail landscape, an understanding of how they experience the places they visit is fundamentally important if we wish to create the urgently needed renewal strategies for the city centres.

In the webinar, our Keynote Speaker, Profesor Heli Marjanen presented how city centres all over the world are competing with other shopping options like online shopping. In addition to functional attribute-specific descriptors of shopping destinations, non-retail activities, ‘place attachment’, and visual appearance appear to have significant roles as patronage influencing factors. The discussion is based on the findings of research projects conducted at the TSE.

The discussion was moderated by Satu Teerikangas, Professor of Management and Organisation, Riku Santala, Professor of Practice in Management and Organisation and Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi, Ph.D. (Econ.)

October 28, 2020 Responsible Artificial Intelligence – an emerging business?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already showcased its profound transformative impact on businesses, employees and ultimately societies at large.Therefore, there is an increasing need to ensure that the transformative impact of AI is positive. To capitalize the full positive potential of AI transformation, there is a growing demand for responsibility, transparency and more advanced governance processes. University of Turku is driving cutting-edge research on AI governance and this event sheds light into the drivers and value of responsible AI.

Keynote Speakers from Turku School of Economics, Associate Professor Matti Mäntymäki and Professor of Practice Teemu Birkstedt discussed how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already showcased its profound transformative impact on businesses, employees and ultimately societies at large. The discussion was moderated by Satu Teerikangas, Professor of Management and Organisation, Riku Santala, Professor of Practice in Management and Organisation and Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi, Ph.D. (Econ.)

October 14, 2020 Ways and Paths to the New Abnormal

Keynote Speaker was Director Juha Kaskinen, Finland Futures Research Centre (FFRC) and Commentary Speaker was Jari Punkari, Chief Specialist at Ownership Steering, Prime Minister's Office. The keynote presentation focused on what regional businesses want to be done in South-Western Finland, what are the expectations of global economics and possible new opportunities for companies in coming years.

The discussion was moderated by Satu Teerikangas, Professor of Management and Organisation, Riku Santala, Professor of Practice in Management and Organisation and Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi, Ph.D. (Econ.).

June 10, 2020 Customer Engagement During Crisis

Keynote Speaker was Elina Jaakkola, Professor in Marketing. Commentary Speakers were Antti-Jussi Lumijärvi, Chief Technology Officer of Central Media Group, Hungary and Veli-Pekka Heinonen, Director, Key Account Management, Patria Group. The discussion was moderated by Satu Teerikangas, Professor of Management and Organisation, Riku Santala, Professor of Practice in Management and Organisation and Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi, Ph.D. (Econ.).

Elina’s presentation focused on customer engagement that is critically put to the test during COVID-19 pandemic:

• Building customer engagement during the shared crisis
• Dangers of getting paralyzed and self-centered in the changed circumstances
• Agility and careful engagement management as the means to build a strong ground for the future.

27.5.2020 Kriisikyvykkyys & viestintä (in Finnish)

Covid-19 on haastanut kriisikyvykkyyttämme organisaatioina sekä yksilöinä niin työ- kuin yksityisrooleissamme. Aamun webinaarissa perehdyttiin kriisikyvykkyyden kautta viestinnän ja vuorovaikutuksen merkitykseen kriisitilanteissa. Asiantuntijoina webinaarissa olivat Turun kauppakorkeakoulun johtamisen ja organisoinnin professori Satu Teerikangas ja kehittämiskonsultti, yrittäjä Sari-Anne Poikkijoki, Åma Oy. Kommenttipuheenvuoron piti pelastuspäällikkö Mika Kontio, V-S Aluepelastuslaitos. Webinaarin panelisteina olivat työelämäprofessori Riku Santala sekä KTT Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi.

May 13, 2020 Managing Finance Function during COVID-19

Keynote Speaker Jan Pfister, University lecturer in Accounting and Finance and panelists Satu Teerikangas, Professor of Management and Organisation, Riku Santala, Professor of Practice in Management and Organisation and Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi, Ph.D. (Econ.) discussed the Impact of the COVID-19 on the Finance Function. The Commentary speaker was Tero-Seppo Tuomela, CFO/Vice President, Business Planning & Control, Elomatic Oy.
The talk covered some challenges and opportunities of COVID-19 for the Finance Function and addressed the following themes:

• Cash management
• Cost reduction
• Planning and forecasting
• Business agility
• Work from home

WEBINAR SLIDES

April 29, 2020 Supply Chain Management during Crisis

Keynote Speaker Lauri Ojala, Professor of Operations & Supply Chain Management and panelists Satu Teerikangas, Professor of Management and Organisation, Riku Santala, Professor of Practice in Management and Organisation and Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi, Ph.D. (Econ.) discussed the effects of the Corona virus and COVID-19 on Supply Chain Management and Logistics. The Commentary speaker was Antti Lähde, Supply Chain Director, Kesko corporation.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Supply Chains – Q&A

Operations & Supply Chain Management research team at University of Turku has also created the site to provide a trusted, independent academic platform to complement available Government, Industry Association or practitioner material on supply chain and transport impact of COVID-19. READ MORE

15.4.2020 Kriisijohtaminen – TSE alumnit osa ratkaisua (in Finnish)

Kriisijohtamisen asiantuntijoina webinaarissa olivat Turun kauppakorkeakoulun johtamisen ja organisoinnin professorit Satu Teerikangas ja työelämäprofessori Riku Santala sekä KTT Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi.

Kriisijohtaminen – TSE alumnit osana ratkaisua -webinaarin slidet (.pdf)