People during the inauguration of BuninessLab

Full house when the School of Business and Economics opened their BusinessLab

The inauguration of the School of Business and Economics' new BusinessLab drew many interested and curious visitors; students, external actors, companies, the general public and colleagues from all parts of the university.

On Thursday afternoon, house Forma on Universitetskajen in Kalmar was full. The inauguration of the BusinessLab was eagerly awaited by many and to the tunes of jazz and with food, Dean Susanne Ackum connected the cords that symbolically opened the lab to visitors.

The idea of the BusinessLab is to create a place where the School of Business and Economics can help equip and develop today's and tomorrow's leaders, organisations and society, an entrepreneurial environment that connects education, collaboration and research

 - BusinessLab is an important step forward in our efforts to provide our students with cutting-edge knowledge and relevant tools, conduct value-creating and engaging research, and not least offer a creative and innovative environment to co-create new knowledge and new solutions together with companies and organisations, says John Jeansson, initiator of BusinessLab. 

 - The mission of the School of Business and Economics is We co-create knowledge, making people grow and through BusinessLab we create places where this can happen, continues John.

BusinessLab is an opportunity for everyone; Students, companies and other actors and those who come here can work with, among other things:

  • Simulation to make decisions
  • Business model coaching
  • Mind Marketing
  • Gamification
  • Lego workshop for business development 
  • Method applications for data analysis

During his inaugural presentation, John Jeansson showed that BusinessLab rests on three legs:

Education- we want to offer our students activity-based learning for real. For example, they can use Lego building for business development or practice role-playing for future situations in working life, such as practicing dismissing someone or having another challenging conversation. Through these methods, we want to make our students even more employable than they are today.

Collaboration – here we invite companies and other stakeholders to get inspiration, experience and perspectives on how the School of Business and Economics can contribute to innovation and development.

Research -  the goal is to conduct research closer to working life, to work more laboratively together with companies. We already have a pilot project under way here.

This intersection between education, collaboration and research – this is where new exciting meetings can take shape!

At the same time, John is careful to emphasize that BusinessLab today is not a completely finished concept, but that now the journey begins together! Together with those who come to us; companies, students and other interested parties- both external and internal. Now together we will fill it with exciting opportunities and together find new ways to make  people grow.

- I have been at Linnaeus University for just over two years now and during this time I have had many good days and this is a very special day. This is a day when we break new ground. We have worked tremendously with the accreditation that took place at the School of Business and Economics last autumn and this is happening today is just right in time.  Many of the international parties that were here for the accreditation last autumn clearly expressed that BusinessLab is the future, says Dean Susanne Ackum.

 - I'm so proud! And would like to extend a big thank you to all of you who have been and are involved in this work. Thank you to the core team John Jeansson, Katarina Ellborg and Christoph Tiedtke - and to all the other employees who made this possible, Susanne continues.

The inauguration of BusinessLab was also part of Linnaeus University Live; A meeting place between the university and the surrounding community. The aim of the meetings is to make education, research, projects and activities at the university visible by putting knowledge in motion.