By Azat Oxupbayev IBL15A

The latest event of Metropolia Entrepreneurship Society on the 15th March was organised in Leppävaara Campus of Metropolia UAS. The main discussion topic and the name of this event was “Social Entrepreneurship – Society Needs You”.

This very influential and interesting seminar had certain accomplished representatives, who explained the main ideas behind this event. Guest speakers were: Tuomas Syrjänen – CEO in Futurice, and Tomi Saalasti – Customer & partner operations at Funzi, Saalasti Oy.

The speakers discussed the main question of the meeting.
“Do you want to help society you live in or are you here just for your own profit?”
“Do you have what it takes to change the world by helping those in need and by overcoming most pressing social crises?”
“Do you even care?”

Well, these gentlemen showed that they certainly do and enabled the audience to find the answers.

The meeting started with a speech by Tuomas Syrjänen who is CEO in Futurice, a Finnish company creating digital services for its customers.

Tuomas Syrjänen

Futurice was founded in 2000 and currently employs about 200 professionals. In 2012 and 2013, this company was chosen by the Great Place to Work Institute as the best place to work in both Finland and in Europe.

Tuomas Syrjänen used the company’s slogan as the basis for his presentation, which states, “We create digital services for people to love”. Therefore, Tuomas and his team believe that the future is digital and made of software. The idea behind this statement is to facilitate the life of people with more efficiency and success. On the other hand, he said that transparency and trust in its culture is the focus of the company. Thus, the employees have access to all the information needed in making decisions. For instance, all the employees have access to company financial data.

The second presenter, Tomi Saalasti, explained how Funzi and Saalasti have made efforts in helping society. He started elaborating his presentation with Funzi Finnish Corporation that produces a mobile learning and information service with an initial focus on emerging markets. Tomi Saalasti said that this corporation is vital and interesting because its services develop new skills and collaboration between mobile users. For instance, Funzi published entrepreneurship education for refugees in Arabic. The six-week course provides versatile information on entrepreneurship from planning to setting up a business.

On the other hand, Tomi introduced another Finnish company – Saalasti, which is recognized as an expert in the manufacture of innovative heavy-duty bioenergy machinery. The main advantage of this company to society is that it acts as a precursor for green energy production in big power plants and wood rooms by replacing fossil fuels.

My personal impression of this event was very positive and it really was worth visiting. The guest speakers opened up to me a broader sense of being useful to society and its role in changing the world. Moreover, the discussion was not only based on the main topic, but also on the background experience of the speakers, which gave me another view of achieving positive results in this life.

More information on Metropolia Entrepreneurship Society and in Facebook