Finland's Culture

[fred.superman]

Hello everyone,

I am a new member here and I'd like to ask those of you who are from Finland or those who are familiar with Finnish culture to kindly give me some insights.

I am a university student in Vancouver, Canada and currently I am working on a project about a soft-drink manufacturing company who intends to expands its operation to Finland by building a new manufacturing plant in the country.

In this regard, I need to get some information about the culture of Finland.

What are the major cultural facts that could impact the project?

What are the potential barriers and challenges?

Any recommendations for overcoming the potential problems?

I appreciate your time and expertise in advance

Cheers

Fred

[EP]

The potential barriers are of course the same as everywhere: the existing established brands in the market.

[sinikettu]

If you can understand this that is one less barrier

http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juoma

Pay close attention to the local brand.

http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartwall_Jaffa


http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartwall_%28yritys%29

Edit:
Virvoitusjuomat = Soft Drinks in the Hartwall list of products.

[Mölkky-Fan]

Great idea...

... one suggestion to suit the Finnish market: change 'soft drinks' into 'hard drinks'

[fred.superman]

Thank you all for your insights.

In particular, I am interested in knowing the possible problems caused specifically by the Finnish culture. For example, having difficulties integrating or interacting with local employees or the system.

Any thoughts on this?

Cheers

Fred

[Tiwaz]

You mean like finnish tradition of requiring foreign corporation to hand over one of their firstborns as blood sacrifice?

Weekly...

Finland isn't third world, and most problems regarding worker culture could be easily avoided by hiring finnish managers for operations in Finland. Possibly even ones who have experience in dealing with foreigners so that they are comfortable with foreign practices. Despite often made mistake, there are some civilized finns who can act in such positions. They can even write!

[Rosamunda]

Having visited Hartwall in Lahti fairly recently I don't think that cultural issues would be a problem. Nobody with a pulse works in those places. It's all highly automated: they use a mechanical "nose" to sort all recyclable bottles and then vast conveyor belts shift millions of bottles through the factory, robots do all the despatch work in logistics. There may be a boring accountant or three in the back office somewhere but they are a species of their own.

http://www.hartwall.fi/index.asp?id=8F4 ... E7DE096694

[superiorinferior]

Well, from a purely consumer standpoint, I see that the relatively recent reintroduction of Dr. Pepper (with less sugar and no diet version! ) seems to be doing pretty well... Mountain Dew's sudden appearance a couple of years back seems to have been embraced with open (Hillbill-wannabe) arms.

But the real winner in the soft drink world here has to be the insurgence of many, many different types of domestic and imported energy drinks that cost nearly twice a regular soda pop.

You might also be interested to know that prices for soft drinks in Finland is somewhat extortionist. I am not sure whether it is due to taxes or to just the plain fact that Finns don't know better, but a half litre bottle of good old Coke costs nearly 2 euros in the convenience stores and soft drink machines. At the current exchange rate that is about $2.88US per bottle.

In the States a 2 litre bottle costs 99cents US.

On the other hand, I do not see Finns fill up their shopping carts with bottles and bottles of diet Pepsi like they do in the States.

[fred.superman]

Thank you all for your great insights.

Cheers

Fred

[SGJ]

First, one general point about the culture and system. There is a huge amount of bureaucracy, especially in the business world. And in strong contrast to many countries where bureaucracy exists as a tool for collecting bribes, most finnish civil servants honestly believe that all the red tape is for the benefit of all. So you are expected to obey the law more strictly than in most other places, and cannot avoid it by bribery.

To evercome these barriers, the traditional strategy for newcomers in the industry has been the purchasing of Finnish companies instead of building new plants and business from scratch. Scottish & Newcastle bought Hartwall in 2002, and Carlsberg acquired Sinebrychoff in 1999.

Trade unions might be stronger here than on the other side of atlantic, but not as troublesome as in other european countries. If you do not intend to be a robber baron, you won't have problems with the employees. Industriousness and honesty are traditionally seen as virtues and sources of pride in Finland, but this trend is considered to be in decline by some.

You are entering in a potentially environment-impacting manufacturing industry. This makes the amount of paperwork tenfold in comparison to, say for example if you were starting a IT company. At least you need an environmental permit. You need water too, and even though clean water is abundant in Finland, you can't just begin pumping it. You need permits or contract with the local water works, depending how much you need. You'll propably produce some waste water too. Guessed right, more permits. And again, depending on the scale of your operations, a full-scale assessment of environmental impact might be required. Or you might be required to build your own wastewater treatment plant!

There is a mayhem in the brewing industry about packaging. The environmental impact tax for aluminium cans and non-refillable plastic bottles was only very recently abolished. There is still a great deal of uncertainty whether consumers used to refillables will move on to new packaging, however they are being strongly advocated by the industry. Considering this, it might be your most important strategic decision whether to join PALPA, the industry association for recyclable packaging and how to pack your products.