Spirit and courage will decide the future of Finland

Leaders forum consisting of 200 decision-makers, opinion leaders and business sector representatives find the prevention of climate change, and the utilisation of business opportunities related to it, as the keys to the future success of Finland. The opinion leaders also believe that prosperity must be created by new means and that the service structures of municipalities need to be fully redefined. The Sources of Vitality programme, coordinated by Sitra, is a six-month process consisting of three opinion leader forums and a workshop process between them dealing with the themes. This was the second opinion leader forum in the programme.

The Sources of Vitality development programme aims to seek the development paths Finland needs to follow to find success in the future. Now, the second event of the process addressed a great deal of the themes, from among which the participants chose the most important ones with respect to our future, and which we will further refine in the programme into actual proposals and ideas.

Climate change and related actions were considered the most important theme for Finland’s future success. According to the opinion leader forum, the inevitability of climate change requires profound changes from individuals, companies and societies.

“However, climate change provides big opportunities for the economy, as the radical change is comparable to the industrial revolution. Business must be reach out for these new opportunities, while companies, municipalities and the government must invest in new forms of business,” says Tuuli Kaskinen, who presented the theme at the forum.

Another important factor of societal success was found to be the establishment of prosperity by doing things well and by jointly sharing understanding regarding that this prosperity cannot be sustained in the long run by controlling the advantages that have been gained.

“We need an active approach, and a genuine will in people to participate in shared matters and to take responsibility,” says Paavali Kukkonen, who analysed the theme in the work group.

As the third important theme, the opinion leader forum highlighted the need to totally redefine the current service structures of municipalities, and it was seen that this would make it possible to also create new recipes of success for international business and success.

In addition to these themes, the opinion leader forum also addressed entrepreneurship, leadership, innovations, education and know-how. Ten central arguments were formed from the themes, and the three themes mentioned above were voted as the most important.

“Finland’s future and vitality will decied by the spirit, courage and boldness to make changes. These themes should be processed further into concrete ideas concerning the direction, vision and future scenarios,” says Sari Baldauf, chairperson of the development programme.

For more information, please contact: 

Kari Tolvanen, Executive Director, Sitra, +358 9 6189 9289, firstname.lastname@sitra.fi

Elina Kiiski, Information Officer, Sitra, +358 44 540 3367, firstname.lastname@sitra.fi