News flash: Nordic Business Forum 2025, a review

September saw my first participation in revered business conference, the Nordic Business Forum. Attracting fellow attendees from various corners of the world, 7,500 people packed into the Messukeskus conference in Helsinki, Finland for two days of learning and enlightment.

Featuring world renowned speakers, authors and business owners, we got treated to a plethora of the world's finest voices on leadership. From CEO's of the biggest brands like Xero, Vinted and Def Jam Records to Angela Arhendts of both Burberry and Apple fame, and the much coveted Simon Sinek (who appeared to be the biggest draw of all), there was something for everyone in this event.

What did we learn? Loads! Loads and loads in fact!

💎 Gianpiero Petriglieri - Leadership professor at the world famous INSEAD school of business - shared that leadership requires us to think about it as a kind of "love". We need to show up genuinely caring for our employees and be taking the time to think about how we can actively demonstrate our care for the people under our charge. Leadership requires us to think less about ourselves and instead put others front and centre in our thinking. How can we reassure people? Who can we free up and empower to do truly great things?

💎 Howard Yu - Director of Future Readiness at the world famous IMD school of business - shared that businesses today have no choice but to transform and perform in parallel. It is not longer acceptable to do one or the other, to survive and potentially thrive, leaders need to be thinking about how they deliver here and now while continually progressing forward with innovation and improvement. Yu spelled it out clearly, you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be better than your competition. It doesn't matter whether its one inch or one mile, just be better than those your are competing with. The same goes for people in organisations. Yu's message - stay unfire-able. Perform and evolve in parallel.

💎 Sukhinder Singh Cassidy - CEO of global accounting software powerhouse - shared that culture change is necessary in the modern world of business we find ourselves in today. She warned of the long shadow established culture's can cast over an organisation and which can prevent an organisation from progressing. In her view, its not change in the the culture people should fear, its not changing the culture to continue to meet the organisation's purpose that people should fear. Change enables an organisation to continue to deliver on its purpose. Its a necessity. Be clear on what your purpose and stick with it over the long term, but be prepared to evolve your culture and your values to deliver on that purpose over time.

💎 Peter Hinssen - World renowned keynote speaker, bestselling author and business school lecturer - shared that change is the new normal in the world we find ourselves today. The never normal has become the norm for business leaders the world over. His challenge? Stay ahead of the curve. The cycles of innovation are coming about quicker and quicker and as a result its no longer right to 'peak' before changing. Organisations need to be thinking about what's next even before they've hit the heights with what they are already doing. You have to be able to sacrifice to keep moving forward, saying "If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old." Change is as much about what you don't do as it is about what you do. Anticipate whats coming, build adaptability into all that you do, and be resilient in weathering the storms that hit.

💎 Risto Siilasmaa - Prominent Finnish business-man - shared that "Timing doesn't matter if you don't actually act on anything." Leaders need to transition away from historic, legacy-laden ways of thinking about determining change to the monitoring of real-time information and simulation in order to identify change. Make intelligent predictions by acting on the data that's available today, making use of modern technologies (like AI) to help predict what outcomes may be possible. Watch out for slowness creeping into everyday behaviours and be prepared to reinvent in order to progress. 

💎 April Rinne - Global advisor to some of the world's biggest businesses - shared that we're living and operating in an ever changing world. One where the speed of change has exponentially increased in recent times. One where unseen forces are constantly changing the rules and shifting the goal posts. In her words, "We're a world in flux and you have to be equipped as leaders to lead through that flux." To thrive in a state of flux business leaders to need have a "flux mindset;" to have the foresight over what needs to change, to be change-ready at all times, and to always be innovating and improving.  

💎 Diana Kander - one of the fastest rising keynote speakers in the world today - shared that leaders and organisations need to be watchful of "status quo" and the strong gravitational pull it has to always be doing what has always been done. As children we are naturally curious, asking questions like why is the sky blue? and why do the birds fly so high? yet in adulthood we too commonly lose this curiosity in favour of doing what we know. The quality of questions we ask determines how effective we are at challenging the status quo and giving ourselves and our organisations the best chance of thriving in an ever changing world. Her advice to everyone, put that childhood skill to use. Stay curious and ask brilliant questions.

The sentiments of "change" were abundent through all speaker's contributions over the two days, with other notable quotes stressing:

"As a leader, no one's paying you to come into an organisation and leave things as they are. You're being paid to change things so get stuck and in and start disrupting."  💎 Angela Ahrendts

"Build your company so it can live beyond yourself. What are you doing to ensure your company outlives you and your tenure in it?" 💎 Simon Sinek 

"Moving forward equals taking action, even if its just a single step. Avoid the mental activity that tells you, you aren't ready. Just take a step, then take another, and another, and another. Before long you'll realise you are where you want to be, doing what you want to do." 💎 Rick Rubin