Mid-trip recap on learnings along the way

Prodeko Goes USA trip is now half way through and we thought it would be a good time to sit down and take a good look at what we have learned along the way. Even though this isn't the first time in the US for many of us, this trip has truely broadened our horizons. The discussions with local entrepreneurs and tech leaders have definitively given us new insights into the local work culture, American lifestyle and mindset. Here are some of our key findings and learnings:

1) The workforce is a lot more mobile than in Finland

Workers and employers don't often sign official contracts on labour over here. Instead, they agree on the job with a "Employment at will" relationship that gives both the employer and the employee the right to end the relationship whenever they want without any warning. Thus, situations where employees get fired and start packing up their belongings,  (what we Finns tend to see only in movies), is the reality over here.

This on the other hand diminishes the risk of employing someone significantly but at the same time recruiting takes a huge amount of time as people change jobs in as short periods as six months. The situation that management consulting companies struggle with in Finland is the everyday reality here in every organization.

In addition, most people live in multiple place in the US during different periods of life. You might be born in Texas, study in Minnesota and start working in North Carolina. Compare that to Europe where it still is more of an exception to study or work outside of one's home country. The effect on labour mobility is huge.

We have tried to copy the American mobility by travelling hundreds of miles in our twelve-seat Transits ;)

2) Productivity and number of innovations aren't growing as quickly as it seems

We had a very interesting discussion with Edmund Phelps in Columbia University. According to his research, the American society hasn't been able increase its productivity during the past ten years and innovativeness is actually decreasing. ICT sector is doing well, but most of the other industries are struggling with the problem of how to come up with new products and solutions with the resources they have. This was a surprising point-of-view as the European media tends to mostly write about the economic growth and recovery in the US.

3) Americans like to get things started and done

Meetings with Finns who have relocated here have given us multiple new insights. For example, many have praised the American way of getting straight into business instead of having useless meetings and calls at first. Things tend to also move quickly. If you meet a potential customer at lunch on Friday, they might already require first offers and designs next Monday. Agility is definitively required.

Not everything is better though. For example, some have expressed their frustration to "face time" culture which seems to be present in at least some organizations. Face time means that employees hesitate to leave their office even though they wouldn't have anything relevant to do, since they want their employees to think they are committed and hard working.

Looking forward to the next ten days!

We Finns probably misunderstood the face-time as Facebook-time.