Cooperation with higher education institutions is a resource for Posti's transformation

Posti is turning 380 and marking its birthday while steaming ahead. In the age of digitalisation, Posti is now at a turning point in its long history. As electronic communications grow strongly and customers’ needs change rapidly, Posti’s daily work increasingly includes not only the delivery of parcels and goods various logistics services but also digital services.

Posti is undergoing strong structural and cultural change, which also requires a new way of thinking business. President and CEO of Posti, Heikki Malinen, who is also an alumnus of the Helsinki School of Economics, does want to emphasise the importance of cooperation with higher education institutions as the company moves towards a new future.

‘Posti is like the circulatory system of micrologistics and we want to be there to ease the logistical friction in customers’ daily operations. Cooperation with higher education institutions is an important resource in our transformation. During the year, we have concluded a new three-year partnership with the Aalto University. Our aim is to promote cooperation regarding, among other things, student work placements, theses and project assignments’, Malinen says.

Jonna Söderholm, Head of External Relations at the School of Business, says that it has been a pleasure for the school to cooperate with Posti for years already, within the framework of the Partnership Programme. ‘Posti has boldly set out to challenge our students through real life cases, student projects and case competition, which is extremely valuable for student learning. Posti has also supported our students by actively participating in working life skills-related courses.’

Posti needs business student graduates to develop its operations

‘I had the pleasure of attending Homecoming Day, a School of Business alumni event at the Töölö campus on 31 August. The event’s theme was Brave New Work. Posti needs new kinds of competence with the main emphasis on attitude and curiosity about the job, communication skills, a genuine desire and enthusiasm to make things happen, and also internationality. The logistics sector moves a lot of data, so the challenge for Posti is to find new business-school graduates who are basically capable of moving the sector forward’, Heikki Malinen emphasises.

‘Regular postal service in Finland began as early as 1638. Means of communication and forms of delivery change, but Posti continues to be relevant. I hope there will be fruitful encounters between Aalto University students and Posti’s people’, Malinen says.