School
School: Business Model Innovation and Sustainable Development
Monday, June 6th, 2011 at 19:28 | categories: School
The last course I had was a so called seminar, with three consecutive days from the morning till the late afternoon. It was a truly interesting course and the professor seemed to be into what he was teaching. The point was to understand that not all economic growth has to come from selling more items: you can sell miles instead of tires or lighting systems instead of light bulbs.
We also learned that the subject isn’t just hippie talk, but that pretty much all key resources are getting more and more expensive and it doesn’t make any sense to throw stuff simply in the bin. If you feel like normal courses are boring, this might be a good one to attend: it was interesting and short, and above all, there was no exam.
The course is worth 3 ECTS.
1 comment »School: Knowledge & Organization
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 16:40 | categories: School
I almost forgot to write these school related posts, but here we go with number 3 out of 4. Knowledge & Organization was about how to get the most out of the personnel within a company through not only the organizational structure but also through physical spaces. The example was that a lot of the key information is shared while having a coffee, not through official channels. The point of the course was to understand this and come up with ways to harness that kind of sharing of knowledge.
The course’s main task was a team paper, and several iterations had to be handed out throughout the semester. The groups had to either come up with a totally new people oriented organizational structure or change an existing one. We chose to change Lamborghini, which was a bit more difficult than we thought originally.
The course is worth 4 ECTS.
1 comment »School: Digital Marketing
Sunday, April 17th, 2011 at 17:48 | categories: School
It’s time to continue the school series again, this time about a course called Digital Marketing. The issues discussed in the classes involve stuff like how to design web sites (how to get the most out of them marketing wise, not the actual layout design&implementation process), the channels used in digital marketing, the advent of social media, web 2.0, search engine optimization and so on.
As the contents of the course are pretty much right up my alley having worked with web design for a number of years now, I found the course relatively easy. However, it provided at least some extra insight to issues. There’s an exam as well as a group work along with minor homework included in the course, but nothing too major. I’d recommend every exchange student to choose the course–if not for anything else, you get pretty easy credits.
The course is worth 4 ECTS.
People getting ready for the class
The beginning of the end
Thursday, April 14th, 2011 at 10:26 | categories: People, School
For most of the exchange students this is the last week of school. I had my final exam yesterday, some still have exams on Friday and Monday. The 3,5 months of school seem to have gone by in a breeze and it’s strange that it’s over so soon.
In the evening we had a goodbye party at the beach, one with many to follow, and it’s slowly starting to strike everyone–most of us are probably never going to see each other again. People are hoarding memories as much as they can by asking people to fill in their scrap books and by taking ridiculous amounts of photos.
The life of an exchange student is actually pretty miserable. First you’re sad because you don’t know anyone, and in the end you’re sad because you know everyone and have to leave. It’s the time in between, though, that matters. And that has been pretty awesome.
Taking an Asian picture of the ones leaving
The Yes Men
Girls playing with the sand
Writing on the scrap books
Who is this dude and why is he always making that random face?
Girls and the beach
Group photo
P.S. Since some of my friends are playing war with the Finnish army somewhere in a forest, for solidarity’s sake I’m also going to spend time in the nature. Sure, it’s mostly going to be on the beach, but hey, it’s the thought that counts, right?
3 comments »School: Competitive Tactics
Friday, April 8th, 2011 at 17:59 | categories: School
Since the school is almost done, it’s time to go through the classes I’ve had during the semester. This is also a mandatory part of the Erasmus blog. I’ll start with a course about strategies.
The Competitive Tactics course is an economists view to what happens in different markets, how different players act and what kinds of strategies companies can have in order to survive and gain maximum profits. We’ve learned what kind of strategies small companies that enter a market can implement and on the other hand how big companies can set up barriers to entry or destroy new entrants in the market.
While the subjects on the class touch on some things taught in my university of Lappeenranta, the course is something we really don’t have. The professor was American and therefore most of the examples were from the US markets. The grade consists of four quizzes and a 10-15 page paper + a presentation. This course was the most demanding during the semester in terms of work load. That doesn’t mean it was incredibly difficult, though.
The course is worth 4 ECTS.
Dutch dude rolling cigarettes during class. Those liberal bastards.
