Case Studies
More and more multinational corporations are finding Finland to be an ideal location for international business operations, research and innovation.
Browse stories and read about experiences of successful R&D.
Honeywell: International R&D Centre in Kuopio
Honeywell chose to locate one of the company’s most substantial international research and development centres in Kuopio, in Central Finland. The ability to network effectively was a crucial factor in Honeywell's decision. Networking creates excellent results, when there is the university, research institutes, and world leading pulp and paper. And there is Tekes funding innovative R&D projects.
Pfizer: Health coach comes to the rescue
Pfizer Oy and Päijät-Häme hospital district in Southern Finland set up a self-care project, in which a patient receives health and wellbeing coaching from a personal health coach. Finland was selected as the next test market for the number of reasons: the size of the population and target group was ideal, back-up and commitment by the cooperation partners solid and the level of "IT-savvyness" of the people high.
Philips InnoHub: A shelter for creation
In January 2009, Philips Applied Technology opened an InnoHub in the City of Espoo.The InnoHub is a physical place for generating and evaluating ideas. The Espoo Hub focuses on health and wellbeing, and the premises include a living room area, hospital room simulator and a nurses' station.
"We chose Finland because our studies showed that it was in the top 10 innovation hot spots in the world," says Rob Kommeren, an innovation consultant with Philips Applied Technology.
Wipro Technologies: Indian IT giant finds a pearl in Lapland
Indian IT services giant Wipro Technologies greatly expanded its R&D operations in Finland in July 2006, by acquiring the specialist software engineering firm Saraware in Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland.
"I think Finland as technology destination is simply great. It has good technical talent, good universities, and a good education system altogether. This can be seen in the success of Nokia and many other hardcore hi-tech companies," explains Murali Tenneti, general manager for wireless solutions.