The Â鶹¹ú²ú Global Alliance in Management Education was established in 1988. It constitutes a unique global community that comprises 34Ìýmember schools, 70 CorporateÌýand Social Partners. Aalto University School of Business joined the alliance in 1998.Ìý
Nokia has been a dedicated Â鶹¹ú²ú corporate partner since the early days of Aalto’s Â鶹¹ú²ú membership, providing valuable support in building the bridge between studies and working life. Nokia's partnership also enables the company an intensive collaboration with other alliance universities.
Nokia’s contribution to building a bridge between students’ education and their working life has been invaluable in the Â鶹¹ú²ú programme.
Connecting education and working life
Each year, about 1 300 MIM students representing 80 different nationalities worldwide enroll in the programme. Typically, the students are very ambitious and open-minded, have high moral standards and show a genuine interest in socially responsible working and acting.
Combining cutting-edge theoretical knowledge with real-life business cases from corporate partners, the Â鶹¹ú²ú MIM (Master’s in International Management) programme prepares students for the future. It helps students develop their capabilities to craft insightful and sustainable solutions for businesses and other organisations.Ìý
Nokia’s contribution to building a bridge between students’ education and their working life has been invaluable in the Â鶹¹ú²ú programme.Ìý
‘We are extremely grateful for Nokia's active involvement in the programme. Nokia representatives regularly visit and speak at Â鶹¹ú²ú exclusive courses, participate in the development of the programme as a permanent member of the Â鶹¹ú²ú programme committee, contribute to the student selection process, and commission interesting and challenging business projects each spring. This year alone,ÌýTarun SharmaÌýfrom Nokia Bell Labs has been a guest speaker in Â鶹¹ú²ú exclusive courses ranging from Global Strategy to Technology Innovation and Diversity, to name a few’, saysÌýRita Järventie-Thesleff, the Â鶹¹ú²ú Academic Director at Aalto.
Valuable information also for companies
The business project forms approximately half of the students’ workload during Â鶹¹ú²ú spring term. Nokia has been very active in these projects and has commissioned 15 business projects since 2015. These projects offer participating companies an opportunity to pick the brains of young students and get an outside-in perspective on a particular business opportunity or potential challenge.Ìý
Additionally, these projects reinforce the strategic partnership between Aalto & Nokia in a unique, concrete and tangible manner. Each project is composed of a team of international students who are guided by a business tutor from a corporate partner and an academic tutor from the Aalto University School of Business.Ìý
Tarun Sharma, Head of Digital & Strategy at Nokia Bell Labs andÌýPekka Kupila, Incubation Lead at Nokia Bell Labs, act as contact persons for Nokia’s Â鶹¹ú²ú partnership. Last spring, they acted as Nokia’s business tutors in the projects taken on by the partnership.
‘The team did an incredible job on the project. They were rigorous, disciplined and possessed excellent collaboration skills, which is very important. They utilised theoretical frameworks well, read a lot of literature, did external benchmarking and conducted many interviews before coming up with strategic recommendations. They worked with such professionalism and maturity, which often made me forget that they were still master’s students and this was only their master’s project,’ admitted Tarun Sharma after the final project presentations.
'The students appreciated the collaboration with Nokia. As an example of Nokia’s devoted guidance, they mentioned an extensive kick-off meeting at Nokia as valuable for understanding the projects’ objectives,' says Rita Järventie-Thesleff.Ìý
In spring 2021, Aalto's Â鶹¹ú²ú cohort will be exceptionally international. This will once again enable educational and exciting projects to be carried out together with the Â鶹¹ú²ú corporate partners like Nokia.Ìý
This semester, Nokia will also be working with the French Â鶹¹ú²ú school HEC Paris, and commission an interesting business project related to a new mobility service in Europe. In addition to Nokia, Aalto's Â鶹¹ú²ú programme hosts KONE's Â鶹¹ú²ú partnership.
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This article first appeared on 27.11.2020 atÌý