In 2015, the Finnish start-up Oura Health Oy (Oura) launched the Oura Ring, a sleek, sensor-packed wearable marketed for rest and recovery. Unlike Fitbit or Apple Watch, which stressed steps and calories, Oura focused on sleep, heart rate variability, and readiness. Early adoption by biohackers and athletes, visibility in the National Basketball Association, and a Gucci collaboration gave it credibility across wellness, sports, and fashion. By 2024, .....more

In February 2022, Nokian Tyres plc was confronted with a business dilemma immediately after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. The company had invested heavily in a state-of-the-art factory near Saint Petersburg, Russia in 2005, where it was manufacturing over 80 per cent of its passenger car tires. Facing pressure from various stakeholders in the aftermath of the 2022 attack, Nokian Tyres plc was forced to re-evaluate its operations in Russia. Should the .....more

Metacore, a Finnish mobile game company, achieved global success with its puzzle game Merge Mansion but struggled to replicate this success in Japan. Shuhei Watanabe, the product marketing manager, led efforts to address this challenge. Japan’s gaming market was highly competitive, with consumers valuing trust and local familiarity. Watanabe’s team debated how much to localize the game and brand to resonate with Japanese players. They faced a key .....more

Kyro Distillery Company (Kyro), founded in 2012 in Isokyro, Finland, focused on producing rye whisky from Finnish rye. However, it took an average of three years for one batch of whisky to be produced and ready for sale, so, to cover their costs and stay afloat, the founders decided to start producing gin, which could be produced faster. As luck had it, in 2014, Kyro’s rye-based Napue Gin was named the best gin in the gin-and-tonic category in the .....more

In 2020, the chief executive officer of Tella Oy, a small Finnish hat-making firm, wanted to achieve €2 million in turnover. She had been pursuing a regional growth strategy with some success since 2016, when she had founded the business after acquiring the long-established family firm. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the firm had abandoned its internationalization plans and began fabricating personal protective clothing. When the chief executive .....more

Vertu Corporation Limited (Vertu), a manufacturer and retailer of luxury mobile phones, was founded as a subsidiary of Nokia in 2000. It was later acquired by a Swedish private equity firm in 2012, and then sold to Godin Holdings in 2015. Despite these multiple corporate ownership transitions, Vertu had remained uniquely positioned, differentiated by its phones’ bejewelled embellishments and a worldwide concierge service available at the touch of .....more

The MSK Group Oy was a third-generation family-owned business located in Yliharma, Finland. One of its subsidiaries, Junkkari Oy (Junkkari), manufactured agricultural and forestry equipment, including a range of mid-sized disk wood chippers used in small-scale farming and forestry applications; most of these were exported to markets in Europe and South Africa. Junkkari was not the only Finnish firm manufacturing wood chippers, and there was little .....more

Logset Oy (Logset) was a privately held, specialized forest-machine manufacturing firm in Koivulahti, Finland. The firm had a strong presence in Europe but not in North America. Canada, with 42 per cent of its land mass covered by forest, was an appealing market, although 15 years of effort had not resulted in any appreciable increase in sales there. Logset had a strong dealer network in Ontario and Quebec. However, efforts to recruit a dealer for .....more

This case presents the perspective of a Malaysian company, Nora Bhd, which was in the process of trying to establish a telecommunications joint venture with a Finnish firm, Sakari Oy. Negotiations have broken down between the firms, and students are asked to try to restructure a win-win deal. The case examines some of the most common issues involved in partner selection and design in international joint ventures.

The chief executive officer of Oy Moomin Characters Ltd. (Oy Moomin) had dramatically increased revenues since he joined the firm, but breaking into the major markets of the world, including the United States, was proving to be quite difficult. The firm’s long-standing relationship with its master agent, Bull’s Press of Sweden, had given the firm a dominant presence in the Nordic region and Japan but little presence elsewhere. He must consider his .....more