Wednesday September 12 - Oulu, Finland

Oulu is referred to as the capital of Northern Scandinavia.  This year they also have another honor and that is inclusion in the Top 7 Intelligent Communities of the Year.   

The Top Seven represent models of economic and social transformation in the 21st Century. Each community exemplifies best practices in broadband deployment and use, workforce development, innovation, digital inclusion and advocacy that offer lessons to regions, cities, towns and villages around the world.  It is only fitting to begin discussion of my trip to Oulu with this introduction, as the majority of the day focused on innovation and economic development.



Oulu City Hall Monument



Oulu University of Applied Sciences

My first discussion of the day was with Terttu Savela, Project Coordinator fMBA Program and Minna Åman-Toivio, fMBA Trainer at the Oulu University of Applied Sciences.  The fMBA program at the University is part of a 4 part project called fForum that has been in place since 2008.  The 4 part program was launched to fit the need for an increasing demand of future entrepreneurs and established a program focused on females.  The program consists of fPro, fStart, fFirm and fMBA.  There have been 200 participants in the range of programs and 30 have started their own businesses in the Oulu area.  This is one of the only programs of its kind in place and the future holds potential for sharing best practices to other universities across Europe via IForum. 

City of Oulu

I had the opportunity to enjoy lunch in the City Hall with

Anne Rännäli-Kontturi, International Affairs Manager

Sirkka-Liisa Kangasharju, Human Resources Specialist

Taini Pitkänen-Koli, Vice Chair Viability Committee

Milja Rautiainen, Product Manager Technopolis

The discussion included the topic of Oulu’s planned growth strategy, how they are dealing with a potential downturn at Nokia (strong presence in Oulu) and what they have seen in women in leadership in the local community.  Taini has been part of the political landscape in Oulu for many years and has seen many positive changes in the decision making bodies as they have grown more diverse.  Some of the themes that came out in the discussion that have attributed to more women in leadership were:  independent culture and attitudes, women are highly educated in Finland, a strong sense of responsibility and the war history. (a common theme)

Employment and Economy Development Center of Northern Ostrobothia

I met one-on-one with Leila Helaakoski who has been the director of the Employment and Economic Development Center in Northern Ostrobothia since 1997.  She shared her personal leadership journey on being the first ever female director of the city’s Agricultural Development Center and truly being a pioneer in the field.  She has never focused on the fact that she is often the only female in her field, but rather that she brings a certain skillset to a meeting or an event that is required.  She juggled a career and family in a time in Finland where the social infrastructure didn’t provide for as many services as they do now and equal possibilities for all wasn’t as much of a focus. 

As many have indicated her perspective on Finland’s success in women in leadership is in part due to the recent wars that Finland has experienced.  The women were required to run businesses while the men were away fighting the war and they continued to run them when the wars were over. 

Balmuir

Lastly I had the unique opportunity to meet with Heidi Jaara, Entrepreneur and head of the Balmuir Exclusive Collection.  She has led her own company for the past several years, after leaving a management position at Nokia, where she had worked for 10 years.  She left Nokia to pursue her dreams of being an entrepreneur and has successfully grown the company in the last few years and she indicates she continues to grow as a leader every year.  Her perspective on why Finnish women have been successful in leadership is they come from a hard working culture and also cited the work culture and ethic that was necessary during the recent wars. 

Heidi also shared some very important views on building a team and the importance of the management team to have good self esteem.  Good self esteem results in leaders continuing to grow and challenge their teams and to hire employees who will one day potentially surpass themselves in their leadership journey.  Heidi shared her leadership journey as she balanced her newest member of the family (2 month old son) in her lap without ever missing a beat.  She definitely has the energy and passion required to keep the company growing.