Students will be employed: Studies give a new perspective to business activities

Jaakko Isotalo had a Diploma in Business Management as his basic education when he became interested in Logistics years ago and started to study for a degree in Business Administration at Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (SAMK). He completed two years of studies in one year and studied simultaneously Criminal Law at the University of Turku.

– The interesting thing about studies was that you could determine your own pace of studies. I didn´t have time to spend several years at school. I wanted to start a family and earn money, he tells.

– I spent a year in Cambridge, England with my Norwegian wife and our little daughter, he recalls. Later the family had two more daughters.

Later Jaakko decided to move to Haugesund in Norway where his wife comes from.

– The idea was to live in Norway for a year and it´s now been 21 years, he laughs.

Jaakko Isotalo worked for Norwegian shipping companies, e.g. as a CEO being in charge of 45 freighters around the world.

– Back then I spent 150 days a year in different parts of the world, he reminisces.

Jaakko Isotalo has been an entrepreneur since 2005.

– In 2010 I got an opportunity to acquire a company from our conglomerate, a shipbuilding subcontracting company.

Although being busy, SAMK and studies attracted Jaakko Isotalo again. He was selected to Business Management and Entrepreneurship degree programme.

There was talk that Jaakko had again been studying in Finland for 2 - 5 days and then came back to the office in Norway to start testing new theories in practice.

– This was an optimum education for me and I could put the contents of many courses to test in my own companies, in the end to the horror of my colleagues. There was talk that Jaakko had again been studying in Finland for 2 - 5 days and then came back to the office in Norway to start testing new theories in practice, he says with a twinkle in his eye.

Now as the studies have been completed, he runs his own group of companies, which consists of eight companies and ca. 250 employees. The group operates in the fields of subcontracting, real estate investment and construction industry, consultancy and recruiting agency.

– The best part about being an entrepreneur is that you are your own boss. Although the life of an entrepreneur means working around the clock, I can still decide how and where I work. I can be at the office, at home, at the summer house or travelling. I can also decide which new business or investment project I will get involved in, he concludes.