You need to be open in searching for differing information. Talk to people who don’t agree with you and try to understand their viewpoints. Listening is a key trait for any CEO. And you need self-confidence to hire people who might surpass you. I always try to hire people better than myself — nothing’s more fun than seeing people grow.

I think there are probably as many answers to that question as there are people answering. But my personal opinion is that if I'm looking at, for example, sitting on a board and looking for a CEO of a business, I would in general want a person with a growth mindset, somebody who can flexibly change as times change, because things will change: Someone who understands how to create shareholder value and has hopefully already proven this in other contexts.

No, I would not really agree with that. I think Finns are actually pretty good executors when they know what to execute. What is more on my mind is how to dare to dream bigger, to take more risks, and generally how to be bolder when it comes to growing strategies, international expansion, etc. We have really good products, good services, market-leading positions in a number of places, but we're a bit shy about how good we actually are and remain happy in our little pond rather than go on the offensive.

Certainly it's never black and white. The Finnish way of leading is pretty direct, while Swedes might sometimes be a bit discussion and consensus-driven, and sometimes it's really difficult to come to conclusions, and the discussion would sometimes benefit from a stronger voice from a leader. But both systems certainly have their pros and cons. We should not go back to the old days when we had leaders who dictated everything without discussion. There's a lot of benefit to be had from the wisdom of crowds, but sometimes in the Swedish setting that might go a bit too far.