Next Riihimäki! The surprising team of the urban field is built through actions

Ehompi is a story series in which the mayor Jouni Eho talks about his everyday life, work and Riihimäki.

When I started as mayor of Riihimäki in September 2022, in many ways I got to the table already set. The city strategy was approved by the council earlier in the spring of 2022, as the result of the inclusive process led by my predecessor Jere Penttilä. The council approved the city's service network in the last days of August, literally days before my official start on the first of September. During the time of Jere Penttilä's predecessor, Sami Sulko, the council had approved the general plan for the station area. Riihimäki's broad guidelines were clearly outlined, and I started my work from excellent starting points.

With the experience of two municipal director posts, I claim that the type of position the predecessor(s) have left in the organization matters a lot. Often, the handprint of the predecessor's predecessors is also visible in organizations, at least as details, sometimes as processes and habits, mostly as unfinished development projects. Urban development is a continuum with long arcs.

Strategy as a practice

Although the RakasRiksu2035 strategy was fresh from the oven, I needed more ambition and hunger to challenge the Finnish urban field with concrete actions. When I started, I had a strong feeling that Riihimäki could be built into a surprise team, a challenger, in sports terms. The experience was combined with a strong desire to also bring something of my own to Riksu.

I have always liked simplicity in strategic management. In the academic research of strategic management, there is a trend "strategy as a practice,” which emphasizes actions rather than strategy Itself or the strategy process. So it is not enough that the organization has a strategy, it must be put into practice through the concrete (Wittington 2006). Especially in the municipal field, it is often the case that bangs are loaded into the strategy process and sighs of relief when the strategy is ready. That's where the work just begins!

Idea Next from the Riihimäki development program

I wanted to combine city strategy with concrete action and build a stronger connection in people's minds to our city. I asked myself how to build a story about an underdog with a strong identity, a lot of untapped potential and perhaps one development yet to be achieved, in a highly competitive urban field?

That connection and the red thread of the story was found surprisingly close: in a VR train announcement.

Next is Riihimäki. I immediately fell in love with this, in my opinion, stupidly simple idea and tested it with colleagues, trusted people and my network.

"Next is Riihimäki - isn't that great?"

The answer was most often "of course". However, it could be that people did not dare to challenge the pathos of the enthusiastic mayor 😉

I went over in my mind what all that familiar Next Riihimäki advertisement contains:

• The identity of our city is to the greatest extent connected to the railway.
• Riihimäki is the next urban pitch success story.
• No need to come up with a new slogan, everyone recognizes this! We also get free advertising on the train every day.
• A catchy title for the mayor's development program to support the implementation of the city strategy.

Development program in a nutshell

Next, the Riihimäki development program was launched at the beginning of 2023, first for the city organization and trustees. The idea was to bring together the most significant development projects and activities that promote the realization of the goals of the city strategy. A steering group was established for the program, with representatives from each industry nominated by industry leaders. The steering group meets three times in the spring and three times in the fall, ensuring the progress of program implementation. The city government monitors the implementation of the program twice a year in evening schools. In addition, the council seminars review the progress of the program's flagship projects.

Summarized in the table below, the Next Riihimäki development program at a glance. All actions are connected to the three points of the city strategy, i.e. an irresistible city, a home for the creators of the future, and a community of sustainable growth:

 

Video series to be published now

Thank you Reidar Wasenius, perhaps the most famous voice in Finland, for throwing yourself into the Next Riihimäki video series. With the help of videos, we highlight actions from the strategy, with which the city of Riihimäki is raised from an underdog to a surprise team on the urban field. The videos concretize how the tips of our strategy, i.e. the irresistible city of Vart, the home of the creators of the future and a sustainable community for growth, are born. We could have chosen other withdrawals for the videos, but we ended up with the following:

Glass city

The Finnish Museum of Glass located on Riihimäki was the 2023th most popular museum in Finland in 19. In December 2023, we received an early Christmas present when the knowledge, skill and technology related to hand-made glass were selected for UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage, along with the sauna and the violin playing of the Kausts. For the year 2024, we reserved 50 euros for the marketing of the glass museum. In terms of the development program, the important question is: how can we get even more out of glass? Perhaps you have the idea for us? Why not boldly bring it to us!

Power station

At the turn of the year, I made an office-holder decision in which we chose a real estate developer consultant for Voimala after the bidding process decided by the city government. Next comes the acquisition of tenants and the search for an Investor. We will announce the first significant partnership with Voimala at a press conference at the end of January. So stay tuned! The year 2024 will show whether we will get a new life for Voimala. Although the market situation in real estate investing is challenging, I strongly believe in Voimala. The people of Riihimäki deserve to revive the iconic landmark as a cultural and event center.

Diversification of housing supply

Riihimäki offers a versatile range of apartments cost-effectively along the main railway line. Our services are close by and can be reached on foot, by bike or by public transport. In terms of the development program, the top housing project is naturally the Housing Fair 2027. Preparations for the Housing Fair project are in full swing, the project manager has been recruited, and our goal is to welcome fair visitors to our city in the summer of 2027.

Integration of Ukrainians

Riihimäki's annual population growth target is 0,2 percent, which according to preliminary data for 2023 was realized. Thanks for this goes to the Ukrainians, whose integration is one of the goals of the Next Riihimäki development program. By the end of the year, there were almost 300 Ukrainians who received a place of residence in Riihimäki. The integration of Ukrainian immigrants affects all Riihimäki residents. The work that received national attention is led by the city's integration services.

The capital of robotics

The development of robotics education has been a success story, the results of which are becoming more concrete day by day. Over the course of ten years, we have trained a generation in the city that has both the technological and social capabilities to take on the challenges of future working life. One of them is Matilda Ahola, whom Reidar interviews in the video. In 2024, we will take a big leap in development, when the new technology and innovation area of ​​responsibility will start its operations for real. We are currently recruiting a manager for a new area of ​​responsibility. Last week's news about the funding of ESA, i.e. the European Space Agency, supports the start of the new unit.

DEFINE – Defense Innovation Network Finland means growth from innovations in the defense sector

During 2023, we were proactive and launched a new network project, the goal of which is to create new growth for Riihimäki and Finland in the defense and security sector.

At the turn of the year, we received two-year funding from the Häme Association for the DEFINE project. Our purpose is to systematically build a network and ecosystem to increase innovation, know-how and entrepreneurship in an industry that is on the upswing due to NATO membership.

Thanks for sharing!

The city of Riihimäki has excellent ingredients for success. The decision-makers elected by the townspeople in the municipal elections are jointly committed to the implementation of both the RakasRiksu2035 strategy and the Next Riihimäki development program.

The development of the city belongs to the citizens, and I hope that you will actively participate in the discussion about the development of Riihimäki. During the spring of 2024, I will meet the townspeople both digitally and traditionally face to face.

I would also really appreciate it if you share the Next Riihimäki videos on your own channels. This is how you show that the development of Riihimäki is important to you and you help raise awareness of a big small town that surprises!