Hankendagen and Hanken & SSE mark 20 years with a focus on navigating a changing world

The event's opening speech was delivered by Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz. He stated that Finland and the Nordic countries are especially well equipped to handle a changing world. 

“In the Nordics we know that joining forces makes us stronger. Our strength doesn’t lie in size or power but in our ability to cooperate and in our courage to hold onto democratic principles even when the world around us is shifting”, Minister Adlercreutz said.

He noted that our welfare society is grounded in the concepts of democracy, freedom and responsibility, on looking after one another and on believing that we, by working together, can solve the issues that we face. 

“Our society is built on trust, something I often call the Finnish superpower. Trust builds unity, unity builds stability and stability makes us resilient and maybe daring to innovate and be inspired. Trust is our strategic asset when navigating change.”

Education is evolving

Futurologist and author Magnus Lindkvist held one of the two key notes at the event. 

During his talk he referred to a McKinsey study published earlier this year. According to the study health is expected to be the fastest-growing consumption category in the coming decades. Meanwhile, sectors expected to decline include alcohol and tobacco, restaurants and hotels, and, most notably, education.

“Learning itself isn’t disappearing but education is changing. In the past, we received most of our education early in life, and it was expected to last a lifetime. Education used to be a vertical copying machine – become exactly like your mum and dad and learn what they learned - into what I call a horizontal forum for discovery.”

According to Lindkvist, one of the most important ways in navigating in a changing world is to look elsewhere, to go where people are not going and to see what they are not seeing. He urges us to experiment more, whether it is on an individual level or for your company, simply because we are bad at predicting the future. 

“The future doesn’t begin, there’s no planning date – it erupts. Where there was once nothing there is all of a sudden everything. It’s a world that requires from us not just logic, formal education but imagination, experimentation and beyond.”

New study on leadership

The event also featured the presentation of a new study exploring how organisations can strengthen their long-term capacity for growth and renewal through strategic leadership. The study has been conducted by Mari Tasanto, growth area director at Hanken & SSE and Violetta Khoreva, project researcher at Hanken.

The second keynote of the event was presented by Hanken alum and Atria Plc CEO Kai Gyllström. He shared his five learnings from his experiences on how to accelerate international growth: innovation is key and you should think internationalisation from the start, understand your competitive advantage and amplify it, a strong route-to-market is king, internationalisation may require help from governments and leading abroad may require adapting your leadership style.

In addition, Kai Gyllström, Mari Tasanto and Magnus Lindkvist participated in a panel discussion led by DEI consultant Kamilla Sultanova. 

The event ended with the announcement of Jannica Fagerholm as Alum of the Year. Learn more about the recognition here: Alum of the Year Jannica Fagerholm: “Hanken alumni play a key role in driving Finland's growth”

Text: Jessica Gustafsson
Pictures: Niklas Günsberg

The event “20 years of Hankendagen and Hanken & SSE Navigating a changing world” was held at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki on 7 November. Hanken alums Lotta Backlund and Robert Ingman hosted the even, with musical performances by Jennifer Holmberg (vocals) and Henrik Wikström (piano). After the seminar, a dinner and afterparty were held, where Spruce performed.

You can watch the recording of the event here.

Photos from the event are available here:
20 years of Hankendagen and Hanken & SSE