Nordic Business Forum 2014 recap Day 1 – Unofficial notes from the Qvikies

We have been fan’s of the Nordic Business Forum for years.  The NBForum app has been made by us for all platforms for the benefit of all seminar guests. Of course the highlight for this years seminar is that there’s also a #moviestar speaking at the event. Ok, he may have also been in charge of one of the planets biggest economies, but in advance all we’re looking to hear is: “I’ll be back”. We’re ofcourse talking about Arnold.

This year there are six Qvikies in attendance Anu-Kaisa, Erika, Matias, Lasse, Tommy and Elias. We’ll be posting our quick notes (QvikNotes ;)) from Messukeskus to share the learnings with you.

What did we learn from the business masters today?

Jim Collins  – The Process of Building Great Companies

Jim Collins gave a inspirational speech about the process of building great companies, as well as what differientiates a good company from a great one.

Anu-Kaisa picked some highlights from Collins speech:

• Good is the enemy of the great
• Big things happen when you do a great amount of small things supremely well.
• What is leadership? Leadership only exists when people follow when they have the option of not to follow. Otherwise it’s just power.
• Level 5 (great) leaders get people to follow a cause, company culture and sacrifice thenselves for that.
• Level 4 (good) leaders ask people to follow him, a person.
• Therefore the best leaders lead companies that would survive without them.
• Success in business is not about who invents, but who can scale.
• Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, but he scaled it. What to do, is to calibrate your direction with bullets and when you find the right direction go big and bold with canons.
• True discipline comes with not just what to do, but with what not to do, what to stop doing.

Matti Alahuhta – Reaching the Next Level by Engaging Everyone

The CEO of KONE Corporation since 2006 gave speech about reaching the next level by engaging everyone.

• Learning from leading markets
• The great value of diversity
• Invest a lot in developing talent
• Timing: Utilize the opportunities of industry shifts and difficult times

William Wolfram, Anna Nyboe, Vladimir Funtikov and Linda Liukas – Developing the Future

Four members of the 30 under 30 list came together to discuss the future with professor Alf Rehn. Best picks by Matias.

Linda Liukas: What the young have to offer is their energy and lack of the knowledge of rules. Today it’s easier than ever to become an enterpreneur as the cost of entry is minimal thanks to information technology. However, it’s not the technology that will disrupt businesses, it’s the people with vision.

William Wolfram: The chaos we are living in is the new normal and we are just getting started. Most of the people on the globe are not online yet. Had we known how hard it is, we would not have started the company.

Anna Nyboe: If you have something better to do, drop out from your school. If not, stay. However, finding your mission early on is not the point. I have developed my business at an early age but also paid a price for that.

Vladimir Funtikov: In Estonia the domestic market is so small that the only option is to think big from the day one. The best the government can do is to make it dead-simple to start a company.

We were a bunch of fools when we started our company in dire circumstances with no connections. The next step is to build the company from good to great.

Arnold Schwarzenegger – My Rules for Success 

There are many exceptional speakers in the Nordic Business Forum but there was only one Arnold.

Anu-Kaisa made notes from his speech:

• Find your vision. Know exactly where you’re going. Work is a struggle if you don’t have a vision layed out in front of your eyes everyday.
• Never ever think small. Think big.
• Ignore the nay-sayers
• Work your arse off
• Don’t just take, give something back. Serve a cause greater that yourself

Arnold’s answer to “What is the way to success”:

• 22 inch biceps
• Be able to fight predators with bare hands
• Be able to travel back in time
• Have an Austrian accent

And one pick from Lasse, rules: find your vision, Don’t think small, don’t listen to the nai sayers, work your ass off, don’t just take give something back.

 

This was a great day and now our team is ready for some networking!

Closure for day one:

Do not do what your parents did, what they expect you to do, or what they could teach you to do. Do more. Find your own vision.