Corporate collaboration

Customized Student Business Projects

Customized Student Business Projects concentrate solely on business needs, free from time and scope restraints.
Student Business Project

Established in 1995 by the Helsinki School of Economics, Customized Student Business Projects concentrate solely on business needs, free from time and scope restraints. The Customized Student Business Project concept was created to meet business needs, and has a proven track record as projects have been run successfully at the School of Business since 1993.

Customized Student Business Projects link students from different fields of Aalto University, such as business, engineering and design. For each project, 2-4 students at a final stage of their studies are selected to form a research group. Aalto University School of Business is responsible for the recruiting and selecting process. The students are offered both study credits and a fee for the project, and a professor or an experienced researcher is in charge of the group. The project topic can be related to any subject that is taught or researched in Aalto University, as long as a relevant researcher is available to supervise the project.

Each project is conducted with relevant, customized working methods. As a final result, the company gets useful information on a topical research problem. For companies, the Customized Student Business Project is a unique way to solve research problems and to work with the experts of the future. Several satisfied companies have ended up hiring talented members of the project groups.

Read more about the School of Business' customized student projects.

Course details

  • Contact: Tommi Vihervaara, [email protected]
  • Duration of the project: 2 - 4 months (timing of the project kickoff according to company needs), 6ECTS
  • Number of students per project: 2-4
  • Project fee for the company: 14 500 – 18 500€  +VAT
  • Application period for companies: anytime

The Furure Scenarios

Customized Student Business got the task of pondering in what kind of operational environment the technology company Outotec would operate in the year 2050.  The student team consisted of four students, all form different schools in Aalto University: Business, Science, Chemical Technology, and Arts, Design, and Architecture. The student team was supported by  Aalto University’s  researcher Elina Hiltunen and by mentors form Outotec.

For the project, the team interviewed multiple professionals from different industries, and the insights form them and discussions within the group acted as a base to build the future scenarios on. These possible situations were defined by using two parameters: the level of technology and the level of internationality, which were in each scenario on either high or low level. As a result, the group identified four different possible scenarios.

Each of these possible scenarios was analyzed by using the PESTE model, which helped to define the scenarios even further to include political, economic, social, technological, and ecologic aspects. Based on the results of the analysis, each scenario was accompanied with suggestions for Outotec. These suggestions included directions to which Outotec could move its operations in the existing conditions.

The results of the work were presented to Outotec. The most striking form of presentation was glass artwork “Future Lenses” made by School School of Arts, Design and Architecture student Sini Majuri. Unusual effort proved that interdisciplinary collaboration can result in even surprising outcomes.

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