Highlights from the past decades – Ratesteel commission

The customized student business projects at Aalto University School of Business celebrate their 30th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, we bring to focus projects from the past and discuss the ripple effects they have had.

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Establised in Vieremä in 1998, Ratesteel Oy is a contract manufacturer for metal products and their sub-assemblies. 

In 2013, Aalto University’s customized student business projects initiated a cooperation project with the company. The objective was to carry out a survey of the Finnish mechanical engineering market and competitors and identify growth opportunities for Ratesteel Oy. In addition, the project aimed to create initial materials for the company’s strategic planning and targeting of sales and marketing. 

Memories of the project are still fresh in the mind of Jarmo Saastamoinen, Ratesteel’s representative at the time.

‘It was an excellent project and the outcome exceeded our expectations. The project gave us a usable plan and a register for customer acquisition. Later on, the register served as the basis for a marketing plan we created. A particularly good aspect of the project was that it gave us ideas for contacts that subsequently led to new cooperation and sales. The results of the projects helped the company get started with client acquisition. My thanks go out to the members of the project team and the staff who supervised the work.’ 

Today, Jarmo Saastamoinen is the chair of the board at RD Group Oy.*

I came to realise the value of the project only later in my career

Visa Jaatinen, who took part in the project as a student, recognises the strong personal significance the project had for him.

‘I had applied for a project in another company. I wasn’t chosen and I was upset about it at first. Later, I realised that the fact that they didn’t choose me was a blessing in disguise. When I learned that I had been selected for the Ratesteel market analysis project, I felt very happy. Fairly soon, though, the feeling was followed by fear. I remember discussing how we were going to manage carrying out the whole project with the other students in the project team. When we succeeded, it gave us an incredible sense of confidence in our own abilities. 

At the time, I did not yet understand how significant the project would be for my career and development. The project was a humbling experience but also bolstered my belief in my own abilities.  The fact that the project was a success laid the foundation for my self-confidence. I knew I would be able to make it, even if things might appear difficult or even frightening at first. 

Many people follow a career path within the safety of organisational structures, avoiding ever venturing outside their comfort zone. In the project, I, as a young student, was suddenly responsible for analysing something that could actually have an effect on the company’s decision-making. At the meetings we had, we felt that the company’s management was really listening to us and that the work we did was genuinely important.

At the end of the project, the company felt that they needed more information on some further aspects.  I saw my opportunity and seized it. I proposed that I could do my master’s thesis for the company as a commission. I felt that the solution benefitted both parties. 

The questions of market analysis and operational development we addressed in the project have resurfaced in my later roles as a consultant and manager. The project taught me things that I have found useful throughout my career.’

Today, Visa Jaatinen is the Chief Digital Officer at SOK Travel and Hospitality Industry.

Juho-Petteri Huhtala, the academic advisor in the project, also considers the project a resounding success. ‘Company projects often aim to produce new information for the needs of the target company, whether it concerns an expansion to new markets, the development of a new digital service concept or, as in the case of Ratesteel, the systematic and meaningful mapping of potential customers. 

Ultimately, the key indicator of a project’s success is its value in use: does it give the partner company something that really supports the company in achieving a certain goal? What I particularly remember when it comes to this project is the functionality of the outcomes. In addition, the project was carried out in a smart way as it took into account the partner company’s current resources and operating environment. The project contributed to the partner company’s ability to identify clear growth targets and also allowed it to launch a new customer pilot while the project was still ongoing, for example.”

Juha Petteri Huhtala, Doctor of Science (Economics and Business Administration), currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Aalto University School of Business. 

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In 2018, Ratesteel Oy merged with Debomix and RD Technology Center. The merger created the current RD Group Oy.  In 2022, Ratesteel Oy was hived off and sold to Ateno Oy. Today, RD Group Oy has two subsidiaries that employ more than 80 people.