Born global

15.12.2009 kello 18:06 Teksti: András Szabó

Daniel Bantu Kuva: Sami Seppänen

Masters’ degree student Daniel Bantu on Finnish news, the subliminal influence of Wärtsilä, international business plans, and Winnie the Pooh.

Daniel's face might be familiar for all those who visit Tritonia - or at least cafe Oscar - every once in a while. He grew up in central Indian Palvancha - a town of about 100,000 built around a huge power plant. After completing an MBA, and working for a logistics company in his home country, he got back to studying - and chose Finland to do so. He is now writing his thesis about new international ventures, or so-called "born global" companies - a term that fits himself too.

 

"How did you find your thesis topic? Was it a difficult choice?"

"Not at all. International new ventures are, as the name suggests, companies that operate in different countries from the moment they are founded. They are born global. I'm writing about their strategic flexibility.

To me this is an extremely interesting topic, because for about a year now I've been planning to start such a company after I graduate. I've been pondering about it with a Finnish friend of mine. We have no concrete business plan yet, but we discussed a lot about it. We'd like to provide international trading and management consultancy, and engage in international trade too. I think there would definitely be a demand for our services."

 "What exactly would you like to trade with?"

"Given that trade requires a lot of capital, which is hard to raise - especially these days -, and perhaps even more experience, the plan is to start out only as a consultancy service first, and then gaining experience to set out to trading itself: trading, for example, with scrap metal. More precisely, we'd export scrap metal from Finland - and other North European countries - to India and China, and maybe to Eastern Europe. Global economic crisis aside, these states are constantly developing fast, and the development of their infrastructure creates a huge demand for all kinds of metal, including scrap metal.

In any case, writing the thesis about similar companies should help us develop a more precise business plan. Although the scope of a masters' thesis can only cover a small slice of what I'm interested in. I was often told by my supervisor to narrow the topic down so that it stays manageable."

"What stage of writing the thesis are you in, and when do you plan to graduate?"

"At the moment I'm still doing the initial research. I plan to graduate next year. I started to study here in 2006 - first as a visiting student, and later applied for a full degree student status -, so I'd have it completed in about 4 years."

"What brought you to Finland? And - why Vaasa?"

"Ever since I was little, I wanted to travel, to see new things, to meet new people. It was perhaps the influence of my grandfather, who was a real globetrotter. He would tell me stories about all the countries he'd been to, including Finland. And my uncle had a Wärtsilä company calendar on his desk, that might also have been some influence. Although at the time I had no idea it was Finnish company [laughs].

The Nordic countries seemed ideal for studying: they are famous for their good - and free - education, and they offered English-language programs. I got accepted both to Umeå and to Vaasa, but a friend of mine who'd lived for a long time in Sweden convinced me that Finland would be the better place!"

"Did you adjust to living in Finland easily?"

"Life here is surely different! But it was relatively easy to adjust - to the cold, to the darkness, to the quiet Finns... It took me about two months; since then I've really felt comfortable here.

On the other hand I know that this student life is not real life. After I graduate, things will change.

I'm not sure where I'll go to live then, but I'd like to see more of the world.

I met some Indians living here in Finland, but often they live here just as if they were living in India. I prefer to hang out with Finns and other international students, that's what makes student life interesting! There are so many people and places to get to know to, you'd really need two or three lives if you wanted to experience it all. But still you should try and see as much as you can!

As for myself, even though I had never been abroad before coming to Finland, I was always very interested in news of the world. Politics, too. Even when I was really young, while others were watching movies and TV shows, I was hooked on news channels all the time. In fact, I still am."

"Are you watching Finnish news too? What's your opinion of the Finnish news media?"

"I'm reading Finnish news in English. But the situation here is very different to India. Over there, you get five or six different version of the news, depending on the political ideology of the newspaper or TV channel that you read or watch. Here, Helsingin Sanomat and YLE News seem to be rather similar. Finland seems a calm, relaxed place even from the news."

"What got you interested in politics in the first place?"

"On the one hand, an uncle of mine worked in government administration, which seemed like a really attractive career when I was around 11 years old. He was in quite a powerful position! But another, perhaps even more inspirational person for me was a politician called Y.S.R. Reddy, or simply YSR. He was a courageous, uncompromising leader, who did an immense work for social security.

From the welfare state of Finland, it might be hard to imagine, but poverty in India is really something different. Not so many years ago, it would have been impossible for a poor person to get to a well-equipped, normal hospital, for example. YSR did an awful lot to improve this, and other related problems. I was devastated when he recently died.

Anyhow, I got into international politics - so much that I neglected other forms of [what people generally consider] entertainment. Until a couple of months ago, I hadn't heard about Winnie the Pooh, for example... but it's on my list. I'll read it next month!

Kommentit

Tämän artikkelin kommentointi on päättynyt.