Students learn business analysis through Slush

Hanken’s Wahlroos Professor in Finance, Benjamin Maury, professor in management and organization, Liisa Välikangas, and Dean and Professor in Accounting Minna Martikainen have developed the course Strategic Growth Investing, and designed new material for it.

“The course is a unique combination of perspectives from strategy, innovation, accounting and finance. We think that this cross disciplinary approach well reflects the reality our students meet after they finish their studies”, says Benjamin Maury, who is responsible for the course.

The course focuses on companies in the start-ups or scale-up phase. During the course, the students get to analyse corporate strategy and financial statements in order to forecast the future development of a start-up companies. They will also be able to apply growth investing by being able to identify investment opportunities and make investment decisions.

The international startup event Slush will be a key element in the course.

-The students will choose startup companies that participate in Slush and analyse them before, during and after the event. Through this practical task they can study the strategy, financial position and possible future value of the company, explains Maury.

The course consists of traditional lectures, but also guest lectures both in class and online by company representatives that present different perspectives on entrepreneurship and investing.

The guest lecturers include Mårten Mickos, HackerOne, who will participate virtually and talk about strategic business analysis from a CEO perspective, and Petteri Koponen, Lifeline Ventures, who represents the venture capital- and owner perspective. Philippe Vanrie, EUREKA, gives the course an international dimension and his topic is company clusters.

The interest for the course has been great, but only about 20 students are accepted based on letters of motivation. Several of the applicants have announced their interest in starting their own companies.

More information:

Benjamin Maury
Wahlroos Professor in Finance
Phone: +358 40 352 1422
E-mail: benjamin.maury@hanken.fi