Director General Lassi Noponen's speech at the "Mission Possible" Event

Business Finland's "Mission Possible: Collaboration for a Brighter Future" event brought together a total of 300 representatives from companies and research organizations, as well as stakeholders. At the event, we launched Business Finland's five missions.

Minister Rydman, business leaders and other stakeholders,

Warmly welcome to the Mission Possible: Collaboration for a Brighter Future event!

It's great to see so many of you here today. Making choices is extremely critical, and that's why I'm glad that so many of you want to hear about the choices Business Finland is making.

Dear friends,

Finland is a small country with limited resources and pockets of excellence. We can only be the best in the world if we make smart choices and focus our resources. We must choose what technology areas we support financially and in which direction we build our international networks. To succeed on the world stage, we need entrepreneurship, courage, focused technology choices.

Technology also has an interesting attribute: in high technology, there are no regional leagues or national champions. To succeed, you must also be the best in the world. 

The geopolitical situation is changing rapidly, and the markets are partially becoming regional. This challenges our processes and presents both threats as well as opportunities. On the one hand, we need open markets where our world-class innovations can pursue maximum growth. On the other hand, close partnerships with our allies can open attractive business opportunities for deep strategic cooperation.

Another dilemma: EU is the most relevant reference group for us, but we also have our own national interests to safeguard. In the competition with superpowers, the European Union really needs to improve its performance and build some competitive edge. However, here in Finland, we cannot rely solely on the EU; we must strengthen our own position to succeed in the increasingly regional and even transactional world.

Many are saddened by the fact that bilateralism and regionalism are on the rise, but the good news is that Finland is a desired partner, everywhere in the world. I have personally seen of a lot of evidence of this lately. The renaissance of Nordic cooperation is a great opportunity, as is NATO alliance. In cooperation with like-minded partners, Finland has top expertise to offer: ICE Pact, quantum, defense and technology cooperation, biomaterials, just to mention a few. Finland has much to offer in this increasingly bilateral or transactional world we are moving into.

Dear participants,

It is great to see so many representatives from companies and research organizations present here today. Increasingly, breakthroughs—whether commercial or scientific—are not attributable to a single individual or company, but rather occur within networks. Finland has produced this kind of innovation in connectivity, for example. We are a networked nation by nature, and it is essential for all of us to work together to create some great innovations the world needs.

That being said, it has to be kept in mind it is the entrepreneurs and scientist who do the heavy lifting.

Business Finland’s role is to help businesses and R&D organizations to raise their level of ambition, doing things faster, more networked, and experiment boldly. We do this by sharing the financial risk associated with ambitious R&D. The goal of our missions, that we are launching today, is to achieve these radical reforms and breakthroughs – To boldly look into the future and push the boundaries of science.

Research tells us that ideas that boldly renew businesses and industries often come from young, ambitious companies, that have a desire to grow. Those that succeed can become category leaders and thus capture significant value. These companies also pull others along to develop and create a positive ecosystem around themselves. The gene therapy company Finnvector in Kuopio is a great example of such a category leader.

On the other hand, large established high-tech companies, which are highly productive and have existing international networks, have a good chance of succeeding in commercializing new innovations. These companies are also especially likely to create positive spillover effects on the rest of society. The tech giant Nokia is naturally one example of such a company. Balancing public funding among different kinds of companies is part of the challenge for us at Business Finland.

It gets more complicated. Economic growth is primarily driven by improvements in productivity. One way to increase productivity is by improving products or operating models that are already on the market. This is often called incremental development. Because of the competitive pressures, growth-oriented companies do this all the time. Therefore, taxpayers' money is not as much needed to keep up this type of development.

At the same time, we know that the biggest productivity improvements come from radical innovation, and we know that young and small companies do more radical R&D. Ideally, we should be more interested in radical, completely new ways of doing things, but this carries great risks that must be balanced.
However, things are not black and white, but at Business Finland we must keep in mind the interplay between young and established companies as well as between radical and incremental innovation.

We Finns may be more risk-averse than our best competitors. According to international comparisons, companies do more small-scale improvements in Finland than peers.
Developing bold and new ideas involves greater risks but can lead to a greatness. This is where Business Finland can help. Armed with increasing funding mandates, we can share the risk with bold development ideas, and I encourage you to make ambitious funding applications.

I believe in economic resource theory – the resource-based view of a firm, as it was called when I studied in London.
Applying it at the country level means that Finland's competitive advantage is built on existing resources and capabilities. It is easier to build a competitive advantage when it is based on something that already exists. A small country needs to carefully analyze where its existing resources and expertise lie. Finland cannot, and should not, try to build breakthroughs from scratch.

We keep this learning in mind at Business Finland. It is sensible for us to continue investing, for example, in digitalization, where we can seek success with 6G-technology solutions. We have a viable satellite business sector that we support, but why would we aim to build spaceships when we don’t have any existing expertise for it?

Distinguished guests,

The choices presented to you today are based on a thematic strategy process in which we, together with customers, stakeholders, and international experts, have identified particularly promising sustainable growth opportunities for Finland.

Based on this work, we have selected five themes that are significant for Finland and where Business Finland can play a particularly impactful role. These selected themes are digitalization, low carbon, circular economy, health and well-being, and immersive digital life.

Globally, this kind of mission-driven work is a trend. However, the word “mission” is not important; what matters is the goal to influence long-term transformations and drive positive change. Our many programs and campaigns enable us to focus on the specific fields of innovation and business that offer the greatest opportunities for Finnish companies.

On the government level the Research and Innovation Council, led by the prime minister, is doing strategic long-term work on Finland's choices and we will soon hear thoughts from Minister of Economic Affairs Rydman. We at Business Finland are part of that analysis work. However, at Business Finland, we also do our own reading and make our own analysis. Based on that, we make significant choices at our funding meetings every Friday.

Dear listeners,

As most of you surely know, Business Finland is undergoing significant changes. The global network is being transferred to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. We are currently developing a new strategy to move forward in a renewed way. Business Finland's role as a national growth accelerator will be emphasized.

The growing research and development funding must now be allocated effectively – we are responsible for the taxpayers to do a good job. Our goals are to increase the number of companies engaged in innovation activities while challenging companies to engage in even larger research and development activities. We must also leverage more private funding to flow into R&D than before.

Business Finland is a key component of Finland’s growth engine. In turbulent times, the need for comprehensive security is also emphasized and only an economically viable Finland can be safe for all of us.  

The significant increase of Business Finland’s research and development funding mandate, new tools such as grant and tax credits for large clean industrial investments, as well as Business Finland's mighty implementation and analysis capabilities, give us the opportunity to move the needle in Finland’s economy. Our goal is to develop a fabric or fiber that yields a continuous harvest for Finland.

During these few months that I have had the privilege of serving as the Director General, I have realized that Business Finland has a genuine spirit of action. We are working for Finland, and we have been given a significant responsibility. The Finnish people are our principals, and for that reason, we need to act very responsibly and effectively. Finland needs economic growth so that we can continue to maintain Finnish well-being, safety and security in the future.

Count us in for the job!

Thank you on my behalf.

Read more about our missions