Blog: Export Gateway experience

The main reason Winled (https://www.winled.fi/)  decided to participate in the Export Gateway project was to get the opportunity to interact with an international team from versatile backgrounds and work on our case together.

Winled is a company specialized in the manufacturing of high-quality LED-lighting fixtures as well as lighting design. In addition, the company has developed LIGHTS (http://winled.com/en/lights-for-revit)  - a lighting design plugin for the most widely used architecture software (Autodesk Revit). The case we presented to the international team was: how to increase the awareness about LIGHTS among the architectural community worldwide.

First of all, I have to say that being a part of the project indeed exceeded my expectations. As it was the first time Winled participated in a project of this kind, I was not sure what to expect and whether the results would bring benefits to the company. As a result, we were impressed by the solution the international team delivered. On top of that, the professionalism, enthusiasm and passion of the event organizers, facilitators and coaches made Export Gateway a very positive experience for both the companies and the talents.

Interestingly, the project organizers chose talents in a way that suited our needs; it was like they were handpicked for our company’s case. Their skills incorporated very nicely with our needs and resulted in a great outcome. Overall, students worked for two weeks on our case, which is obviously not enough to develop a market entry strategy, but more than enough to acquire fresh ideas on international expansion from an international team. After the project ended, we continued collaboration with the talents and currently they are completing their traineeship at Winled and developing further their ideas.

Overall, I believe that this project is a great opportunity not only for us as a company to get inspirational ideas, but also for talents as they have a valuable opportunity to network and show their skills and expertise. In my opinion, the need for this kind of projects is extremely high in the Tampere region; Finnish companies need an outsider’s insight on its operations.

My advice for Finnish companies who are considering going international? Become a part of the Export Gateway project. It does not cost you anything, but it might result in bringing you something that you have not thought about. Export Gateway is indeed a bridge between companies and talents in the Tampere region and companies should at least try to use this opportunity.

-Panu Rekilä, CBDO at Winled

If you wish to learn more about Export Gateway, please click here to redirect to the project page