VAINU!
One of the best things in our digital business course is the connections our teachers have. We’ve had great speakers and now we had the opportunity to visit Vainu, one of the fastest growing tech Start-ups in the Nordics. I love success stories like this and really admire people who have the guts to go global from the start. The software they have developed is smart and especially user friendly. I think it’s kind of cool that they are “just” using all the data available for everyone but in a smarter way.
Pressentation of how Vainu works. Applogise the Finnish language but here is all the information of the company in English.
As Veera Virintie, Marketing Manager at Vainu explained, integrations is the big thing now and in the future. Nobody wants to open many different applications to find out all the relevant data. It all should be nicely sorted out in one place. I guess it all comes down to saving time. With technology enabling so many things our expectations are getting higher and higher. Why waste time when you can do things a lot easier?
It’s not just the software that impressed me at Vainu. The vibe you get from the place is so up to date and fresh; open office, trendy people in their 30’s, team competitions, tables filled with Mac’s and some of the employees walking around without shoes. No old fashioned directors in their dark suits and ties, closed offices or tables with piles of paper. Even the logotype and the name are innovative and true to the spirit. I absolutely loved it!
Vainu's office
I’ve read quite a bit about companies that have managed to create a new kind of working culture. The most talked ones have to be Facebook and Super Cell and I could recognise a few similar things with Vainu. They are all lead by new generation of directors. This all really interests me. I guess I’m reaching a point in my working career when the leadership skills my current boss has matter more and more to me. I’ve had some great leaders and some horrible ones. Sometimes the working situation has been so intense and my role so independent that it hasn’t mattered so much. But then there’s been the times when I’ve felt that my boss is more of a burden than support.
So yes, I think it really matters what kind of working environment the management is able to create. Vainu is expanding at a huge pace at the moment. At the same time it gets more and more difficult to “control” the atmosphere at work. Recruiting the right kind of people must be so important for them. Just a few wrong personalities can change the atmosphere from positive to negative.
Vainu's amazing growth in two years.
I got a little off the track here but it happens when I just write down things that come to mind. I guess it’s my way of teaching new things to myself and learning more about myself at the same time.
The last thing about Vainu that I have to mention is the way Virintie together with Development Manager Sini Elomaa educated us during the visit. It wasn’t only about promoting their business. They explained everything behind inbound and outbound and how they call it smartbound. How their software makes data personalized and therefore more effective. How it is so important to be active and produce new material to the webpage and social media. What is Hubspot, CRM and SaaS-model. So I really feel the visit was useful and I learned a lot which is great.
Besides from Vainu visit we finished our Minecraft project and started a new one for SSM, Suomen Suoramarkkinointi. I think the Minecraft presentations reflected the fact that the assignment was a bit unclear. Some teams had done loads and some not that much. The assignment sort of gave the possibility to take the easy way out. We made a presentation including a video which you can check out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUijcB1-fl0&feature=youtu.be
We took a different approach to the assignment and tried to explain the problems they have at the moment from customer’s perspective. In addition to that we gave some answers how they could solve the problems. The main point was that they should challenge the people in Vantaa and be active. Not just wait for the people to find the game themselves (since it’s not going to happen as it is hidden behind so many clicks!).
"Challenge the target group to build Vantaa!"
What comes to our new assignment with SSM, it will be interesting. We have very clear instructions; each team has to pick two out of four possible tasks. Our team picked numbers 1 and 2. I must admit I was a bit afraid at first how doing a project for a company that uses old fashioned paper marketing would fit our digital business course. But now, I’m just excited. The tasks are well structured and challenging.
Since we’re about half way of our digital course the time has come to thanks my great team members. We hadn’t worked as a team before but I’ve really enjoyed it, at least so far…:). You all have a great sense of humour which makes the projects so much more fun. I also like the fact that we are all different and have a lot different opinions. So thanks Anna, Jesse, Kalle, Lotta and Tuomas! You guys are great!
