LEGAL STUDIES
Well, one thing is clear after this week; I will never become a lawyer. Even though I actually think legal issues are really interesting and I loooove watching movies and tv-series that include court room battles, I could not have a profession as a legal counsel or as an attorney. The language and terminology used in law books is just too much. It’s all very logical when somebody explains it but reading the actual law is exhausting and far from exciting.
Marjaana Marmo teaching us about the worldwide legal systems
As you have probably guessed by now, this week was all about the legal issues in digital business and contract law. And I have to admit, it’s good that we had this. Most of us will get to use this information in the future. It was interesting to hear when Marjaana Marmo explained to us that there are three different legal systems in the world; Civil Law, Case Law and Sharia Law. Civil Law is used in Europe and based on collected knowledge which is all explained in law books. Courts make their decisions based on that. Case Law however, uses old cases and verdicts as a starting point when assessing the situation and giving a verdict. This system is used for instance in America and in England.
Third group is Sharia Law, which has been discussed a lot during the last years. Sharia Law is based on Quran and is probably the hardest one for me to understand. Since I know very little about Quran I feel I have no clear picture of how the system works. Overall I had no idea the legal systems was divided like this but now court rooms scenes in movies make a lot more sense. So another piece of common knowledge learned!
I'd ask you from which movie this is but that would be too easy , right?
So we had two session this week and some small assignments. It was interesting to talk about the legal problems social media has created. The law is just not up to date with social media being used as a marketing channel. In fact there is no law for social media in Finland. The biggest issue is where to draw the line, what is marketing and what is just content created by individuals. Competitions and crowdsourcing are so popular these days that they often outplay traditional marketing. I was quite surprised to know that there is only one attorney in Finland that specialises in social media marketing issues. She is Elina Koivumäki and has a great blog available for everybody. Thanks Marjaana for this tip, I’m sure I will need this information later on.
Since the marketing methods are changing quickly, Koivumäki has updated her book a lot.
In my opinion quite a few companies are pushing the boundaries in their marketing. For instance “Tell a friend”- function: companies use it as a direct marketing tool to another person without their permission. The messages are not that personalized that they could be mistaken as a message from their friend. It is obvious it is direct marketing. I just don’t think there are enough resources to stop this. Another notable thing Marjaana taught us was that consumers have not complained about this. So this must mean that he new generation has accepted this kind marketing and don’t find it being too aggressive.
The most important part of the week in my opinion was the contract law. We will definitely be making contract at some point of our career and I got a lot out of this part. The 3 basic steps to making a contract are:
Who? Who does the contract engage? Make sure all the parties are eligible to sign a contract!
How? How is the contract done? Law does not require a written a contract but is it definitely the easiest and clearest way to do it.
When, what is the moment when contract is done? Contract is concluded when there are two equal offers between the parties.
I also liked the fact that Marjaana emphasized the importance of making a proper needs assessment before asking any offers. By doing that you can be sure you get offers which are easy to compare and match your company’s needs.
Needs assessment -> tender -> offer -> counter offer -> 2 equal offers -> contract
And the final learnt lesson from Marjaana: negotiations skills! We Europeans have a lot to learn in that area. I was amazed to hear that negotiation skills are big part of studies in USA. The two main tips I picked out were:
Evaluate and decide beforehand, what are the things in the contract you are willing to negotiate or give up!
Leave room for negotiation. One way of doing that is by putting things in the offer you know you are willing to let go.
Besides the law studies we worked on our SSM project. I got to admit, it is a challenge. When the whole world is talking about digitalisation, how can a company with paper advertising survive? Well, we had some great conversations this week in our team and know what we going to do. You can help us out by answering our quick survey here. It’s in Finnish but I’m sure you’ll manage. :) Next week after our presentations I’ll tell you how we did and what kind of feedback we received from the company’s CEO. See you then!
