Aalto University School of Business and ESADE Business School launch the Internship Innovation Project

“We are looking at ways to work closely together on teaching, research and corporate relations,” said Eero Kasanen, a former rector of the Aalto University School of Business (formerly the Helsinki School of Economics). “Through our strategic partnership, each school can benefit from the other’s strengths. ESADE is very strong in management education and Aalto is making great strides in design thinking and multidisciplinary platforms.”

The schools’ first joint project was to create the Internship Innovation Project (I2P), a course on strategic innovation that runs from 1st February to 10th May 2013. “This exciting new partnership will give ESADE students experience in two leading institutions,” said Alfons Sauquet, dean of ESADE. “It will also give both Aalto and ESADE students the chance to make new contacts that will serve them well in their careers.”

“We’re proud to be working in close cooperation with one of the world’s top business schools,” said Ingmar Björkman, dean of Aalto. “We complement each other’s expertise extremely well.”

The I2P is a fundamental part of ESADE’s MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE) programme. “Running this project in collaboration with Aalto will help us to position the MIE as the benchmark programme in Europe,” said Jordi Vinaixa, academic director of the ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute and director of the MIE.

In the I2P, teams of students work on real challenges posed by companies such as AbbVie, Veritas, TV3, Santa & Cole, Hewlett-Packard, Comsa Emte and Repsol.

Each school is home to ten teams. Five of the teams are ‘mixed’, with students from both Aalto and ESADE, who will travel to visit each other three times during the project, explained lecturer Lotta Hassi, who is involved in the course at both ends.

ESADE and Aalto are also joining forces in executive education. The schools plan to produce a joint International Design Business Management (IDBM) programme that targets Europe, Latin America and Asia. Aalto University Executive Education (Aalto EE) will bring a multidisciplinary approach and new, innovative learning methods to the IDBM programme, while ESADE’s core competencies include executive education in business models and innovations. This initiative will allow the schools to pool their executive education experience in various geographical markets. Aalto EE has been operating in Asia for 18 years, and ESADE is a strong executive education provider in Latin America.

The programme will target sectors that stand to benefit from it directly, including the traditional forestry and chemistry industries and select service sectors such as healthcare. The IDBM programme will be imparted in Barcelona and Helsinki.