Karolina's study blog

The last topic of our PBL session was closely related to the previous one. After getting familiar with the basics of starting a company, forms of entrepreneurship, ways of financing and required documentation we got more into the life cycle of a start-up. The main purpose of every business is to gain profit and thus understanding and maintaining accounting is crucial to reach a smoothly working business. Our trigger described a case of start-up of two friends, who started struggling with their financial statements. After reading and discussing the topic we have agreed that our main problem is understanding financial analysis of a business, more specifically the business of Ken and Jimmy (two friends from our example). We are going to cover this question with the following learning objectives: 1. Understanding a balance sheet and an income statement 2. How do you know a business is profitable 3. How to use financial analysis to achieve future business goals 1. How to read a balanc...

Even though I was not present at the opening session, thanks to pictures my classmates shared on our whatsapp group I am able to get an idea of what they talked about. This week's topic might be really challenging for me because as a foreigner, who doesn't know many Fins older than 25 years, my general knowledge about Finnish businesses is very low. My classmates agreed on the following questions: What are the types of company forms to open a business and what are their pros and cons? What are the legal requirements of accounting/ documentation in different forms of businesses? What is the process of acquiring finance for a new business  (budgeting, finance, business plan, etc.) a) Types of company forms while searching for answer on this question, I found a website called Infopankki, where I found a really nice summary of steps that I person should do before starting a business (  http://www.infopankki.fi/en/living-in-finland/work-and-enterprise/starting-a-busin...

Opening Trigger 5 has definitely been the most difficult one so far. Trying to understand a complicated article about the oil industry followed by long minutes of staring at the board trying to come up with the best question that would help us understand the issue. Finally, with a significant help of our tutor we agreed that the topic of supply and demand in the oil industry can be covered by answering the following questions: 1. What is supply and demand 2. Why is oil demand still increasing? (Despite forecasts of decline) 3. How do alternatives to oil affect it's demand All of the questions should be closely related to the oil industry, one of the most crucial industries there are. a) Supply and demand Since I studied economics for two years and went through both, micro- and macro-economics course, I would say that I have a solid knowledge about the concept. Still, it doesn't hurt to refresh what I already know. I found two short videos summarizing th...

On our fourth session (time flies!) we got to experience a different approach with our new tutor Kevin. So far I really like it and I am looking forward to our next session. We are starting to work very well as a group, usually everybody has a say and we are able to develop each other's ideas. This week's trigger has been (at least for me) the trickiest one. It was very hard for us to come up with the right questions and without the help of our tutor we would end up discussing for hours. However, this week's topic is very important to us. Many of us read (or definitely should read) business news but it can be quite difficult to understand all the economical terms. Also, the world is changing a lot nowadays and it is wise to try to understand it. Based on a text about Indian economical situation and its prime minister Modi, we chose the main question for this week: The role of the government in economic reform And also the following questions:   What are the typ...

Our next session felt again better than the previous one. We are starting to understand the process and to each other. We also try to think ahead and set ourselves realistic question for our research. We read a case study about a start-up that reached the point, when a structure is needed. The main topic of this week is how to effectively evolve a start-up into a working company, which would be ready to hire new people and make them valuable part of the process.    The questions that came up from our discussion: What attributes define a successful manager? What are different company structures? How do companies motivate their employees? These questions should cover the main problem and help us understand better the way companies are established. a) Attributes that define a successful manager. There are countless articles about how to be a good and respected manager. It is hard to define some set of rules that would ensure anybody t...

Our second PBL session felt much better than the first one. We are starting to get familiar with the process and I am sure our group is on the right track.  The second topic is actually somehow related to the first one since it is a lot about change and innovations, which is something we already had to focus on. The material we got describes the story of the Fujifilm company, which succeeded in the changing markets by using the existing technologies and diversifying their products. We agreed that the main question related to the case is: How does a company adapt to changing markets The subquestions that we are supposed to solve, basically describe the process of this adaptation and they are: What methods does a company use to predict changing markets? Financial aspects behind changing markets. Diversification of changing markets. Ideally, the answers should be supported by examples of real company situations. a) Methods used to predict changing markets When talking ...

During our first PBL session we were given a case of a full time employee Hanne, who decided to study at Haaga-Helia AMK and to get a degree, hoping that it might lead to better career opportunities in her future. After being accepted to the programme and reading some news related to employability, Hanne started to question her motivation for studying. After reading this case and discussing it, our group has agreed on four topics and questions related to Hanne's situation: Motivation: How to adapt motivation theories to be more employable? Social life: How can we manage life, balancing work and studies? Innovations:  How can we adapt to a fast-paces world? Opportunities after school: How important is the theoretical knowledge compare to the practical one? The main question that should include all of the previous then is: What makes us more employable? a) Motivation How to adapt motivational theories to be more employable? Motivation is something we all need in our every...