Strategy and Transformation

Professor Henri Schildt’s research interests span technology strategy, organizational change, and strategy process (with specific interest in reasoning under uncertainty and the use of data analytics). He is currently heading two research programs on data-driven management and the management of digitalization in Finnish manufacturing companies.

He is a tenured professor with a joint appointment at the Aalto University School of Business and the School of Science’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.

Henri Schildt completed his PhD at Helsinki University of Technology in 2007.

Koponen is an accomplished professional with a strong background in future research, platform business model innovation, and scenario-based methodologies.

Currently, Koponen is leading the development of Konsensus.me, a cutting-edge peer prediction platform he founded. The platform is designed to enable organizations to make well-informed, long-term decisions. His work also encompasses researching institutional constraints that hinder society from fully harnessing the potential of digital platforms.

Koponen earned his M.Sc. (Tech.) in Knowledge Intensive Business from Aalto University. He has a comprehensive understanding of communication and media research, futures studies, and product and service innovation. Koponen is pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Helsinki's Faculty of Communication, where his thesis focuses on the future of media business models.

His research on the psychological aspects of strategic management has been published in leading international journals and won several international awards. He has taught and presented his research at leading universities like Harvard and INSEAD. 

Professor Vuori's research and teaching focus on how companies formulate and execute strategies. He has written two books with senior business executives on these topics. "Living Strategy" describes scenario-based strategy making in an ever-changing world. "Platform Strategy" describes how incumbent firms should and can renew themselves in the digital era. The books detail both the "hard" factors, such as technology and business models, and "soft" factors, such as people and psychology, influencing strategy and renewal.  

Professor Vuori works extensively with companies, often collaborating with a leading strategy consulting company. Vuori helps the client organization formulate and evaluate several strategic options in strategy formulation projects. He uses advanced psychological techniques to help leaders unleash their strategic creativity and overcome thinking myopias and personal biases. This approach is based on his cutting-edge international research, also described in the Platform Strategy. 

In strategy execution projects, Professor Vuori specializes in helping the client firm optimize the psychological engagement of the whole organization. He analyses the psychological impact of the intended strategy execution program and modifies it to maximally leverage the emotions of the organization's members for effectiveness.

Dr. Laukkanen specializes in customer experience management, service design and service business, strategic marketing, business model innovation, and innovation management.

He has an extensive background in consulting and research projects with large international firms and is a well-liked lecturer and sought-after public speaker. He has pioneered a number of experiential teaching methods in his executive and university teaching.

Mikko Laukkanen has a Doctor of Science in Economics and Business Administration from Aalto University School of Business.

He has 20 years of experience in consultancy and executive education for management concerning strategies, change processes, and competence development.

He has worked with many large companies, such as Aviva, Cargotec, Ericsson, Fortum, NCC, Nokia, Nordea, Pfizer, SEB, Skanska, Telia, and UPM. Patrick has board work experience in SMEs. His past activities include top management group experience in the IT industry.

Patrick’s research has centred on strategic knowledge creation and sharing in multinational companies, the role of the board of directors in medium-sized companies, and leadership models and processes in improvising jazz bands and classical music ensembles. At Aalto EE, Patrick covers topics such as strategy creation and execution, the interface between leadership and strategy, managing complexity, agile organizational forms, digital leadership, and high-performing teams and collective competence.

He is actively involved in Finland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem as a startup coach and Lean Launchpad® trainer, and helps organizations understand and execute Lean Startup methodologies and customer development.

Sepúlveda has more than 20 years of experience in engineering, management consulting and investment banking at companies such as Lucent Technologies, A.T. Kearney, and J.P. Morgan.

He teaches at Aalto University Executive Education and Venture Formation and other courses at the Aalto Ventures Program. He cofounded eyescubed, a startup in automotive technology, and also cofounded Courage Ventures Advisory, which provides entrepreneurship training and development to leading private and public organizations. He is also a cofounding Partner of Courage Ventures Management, a fund investing in health & wellness, education, and environment verticals.

Sepúlveda has a PhD in International Business (Entrepreneurship) from Aalto University, an MBA in Finance and Financial Management Services from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (Netherlands) and a BSc in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from North Carolina State University (USA).

Suominen specializes in information economics in financial markets, market microstructure and corporate finance.

Suominen has previously worked as a consultant at the European Corporate Finance Practice of McKinsey & Co. and as a Chief Dealer in the Options and Futures Markets in Finland. From 1997 until 2006 he was in the full-time faculty at INSEAD, working first as an Assistant Professor and later as an Associate Professor of Finance. Although already also at the Aalto University, between 2006 and 2015 he has continued to work with INSEAD as an Adjunct Professor of Finance or as a Visiting Professor of Finance.  

Suominen is actively involved in management consulting for financial institutions and executive education. He has taught in the MBA, PhD, and executive education programs. He has also taught in several company specific programs worldwide.  

Matti Suominen did his PhD in Financial Economics in 1997 at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has also worked as a Visiting Associate Professor at Wharton.

Professor Vaara has a PhD in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics and MSc degrees from Helsinki University of Technology and Helsinki School of Economics. Eero Vaara’s research interests focus on organizational, strategic and institutional change, strategic practices and processes, multinational corporations and globalization, and methodological and philosophical issues. He is generally regarded as one of the world’s leading scholars in postmerger integration. His research has been published in the very leading journals of the field, and he has authored several books. He is now serving as an Associate Editor of Academy of Management Journal. 

Koen Heimeriks is a Professor of Strategy and M&A expert at Warwick Business School. After earning his Ph.D. at Eindhoven University of Technology, he held faculty positions at Copenhagen Business School, Rotterdam School of Management, and Tilburg University.  Over the years, he has been visiting Aalto, Carnegie Mellon University, and INSEAD. Currently, he enjoys visiting the University of St. Gallen and the University of Oxford during his sabbatical.

His research focuses on how firms learn to transform and develop sustainable corporate portfolios through acquisitions, alliances, and divestitures in corporate and private equity contexts. His work appeared in numerous top journals, including Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, Strategy Science, Strategic Management Journal.  He also serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Management, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the STR Division of the Academy of Management.

Besides his research, Heimeriks trains, consults for, and works with senior executives and board members at publicly listed and large private (equity) firms operating in volatile settings.  He is passionate about developing execute talent on corporate development and entrepreneurship, strategy, organizational change, and sustainable growth strategies. He is honored to have received numerous prestigious international research and teaching prizes.

Professor Vilkkumaa is an expert in modeling uncertainties and developing mathematical models to support decision making and resource allocation at companies and public organizations.