Herlin built up Kone industrial empire at family’s expense

Candid book reveals tycoon suffered from alcoholism and erratic behaviour

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By Teemu Luukka
     
      Koneen ruhtinas – Pekka Herlinin elämä (“Prince of Kone, the Life of Pekka Herlin”) is an exceptional work of writing.
      Biographies of Finnish corporate are generally pieced together with silk gloves, in which the protagonist’s true character is well hidden between the lines. John Simon’s book on Pekka Herlin of the elevator manufacturer Kone is something different.
      Never before has such an open and stark description of a corporate manager been published. Koneen ruhtinas is a deep examination of the persona of one of the most important Finnish corporate managers, but it is also a story of the terrible tragedies that a seemingly perfect career and family life can contain.
     
At the age of 32, Pekka Herlin (1932-2003) became the managing director of Kone, which had been ruled by his father. Under Pekka Herlin’s rule (1964-2003) Kone grew from a medium-sized company in economic difficulty to an elevator giant with operations in 50 countries, employing 33,000 people. PH (as the subjects of the prince called him) made Kone Finland’s first genuinely international company.
      Simon draws a multidimensional and credible image of this extremely difficult persona.
     
The depiction is that of an overpowering corporate manager in his time: an intelligent risk-taker, for whom making decisions is difficult, but who does the background work of his numerous corporate deals meticulously, suppressing any emotions that decisions might raise.
      This Pekka Herlin is also a diversely refined conversationalist, who is one of Finland’s most accomplished open-sea yachtsmen, and the owner of a large farm.
      He is sensitive, charming, touchy, and emotional, but also stubborn, cruel, and coarse.
     
He is a stuttering rebel prone to fisticuffs, who spends four months in prison for drink driving, and because of his hair-trigger temper has been in lockups around the world. This Pekka Herlin is intrigued by the mafia, and rubs shoulders with criminals.
      He is a farmer who digs his hands deep into the soil, whose favourite place is Thorsvik, the family farm. This Pekka wants to remain a farmer, but the competitive instinct and sense of duty have him jump into his father’s boots.
      There is also an anguished man, who is an alcoholic from the late 1960s at least; four gin and tonics in an hour is a normal pace for him even as an older man. This PH is a two-pack-a-day smoking Mr. High Strung, who suffers from a number of personality disorders.
      According to the reigning prince of Kone, Antti Herlin, his father had a “fairly strong presence of schizophrenia, paranoia, and manic-depressiveness”. The other children add to their father’s character a narcissistic personality disorder, and a total inability to feel empathy.
      This PH never apologised for anything that he did.
     
The most poignant parts of the book are the descriptions of PH’s five children. Adding to the poignancy is that the children tell the stories with their own names. In them we get to know the father who always compels one child at a time to listen to his drunken rambling late-night monologues.
      Success really looks ugly when observed from the door of the nursery.
      In the book many say that the family meant everything for PH, but the children disagree. He pitted his beloved family against each other with his decisions concerning his inheritance.
      He deprived his wife Kirsti Herlin “of the only inheritance that she would have cared about: to live out her life together with her happy, loving children and grandchildren”, as the book describes.
      The book was also approved by wife Kirsti, to whom Pekka Herlin wrote adoring letters in their youth.
     
PH searched for someone among his children who would take over the family business, but nobody stepped up to the task. Finally farmer Antti agreed, and his father transferred power in the family company to him without informing his other children.
      When the deal came to the attention of the children, the firm solidarity of the children disappeared, and the family split up.
      It is hardly surprising that the one who best understood his father was the eldest son Antti, whom PH turned into Finland’s richest man. But on the other hand, in this way, Antti Herlin was forced to bear the same burden that contributed to the disintegration of the Herlin family.
     
The writer of the book, former literary researcher John Simon, is a New York Jew who worked for Kone for 25 years.
      The openness of the book might seem surprising especially considering that it was commissioned by Antti Herlin himself. Under the agreement, Simon was free to write whatever he wanted, but Antti Herlin was entitled to refuse to publish it at his discretion.
      Perhaps the conditions made Simon somewhat cautious, which may be why there is little in the book about Kone during Pekka’s last years - that is, when Antti was already the head of the company. For instance, there is nothing about why CEO Anssi Soila had to leave the company in 1999. On the other hand, the book does not even try to be a history of Kone, focussing instead on the prince himself and the psychological history of the family.
      It is amazing, and also worthy of respect, that such an influential family is capable of opening even its darkest closets - not only those of PH. Only the doors of the bedrooms remain shut.
     
Simon has managed to get people to speak surprisingly openly, especially family members and PH’s closest subordinates. Some long quotes are numbing, but direct quotations are a good choice in narrative technique, as they show the attitude of the speakers toward PH better than if Simon had simply filtered the information in the interviews into the book.
      The story in the book moves from happiness and great hopes toward a sad fate just like in a classic tragedy.
      Simon ponders, and if he has not found a sure answer, he states it openly. His style is revealing and honest. His vision with many voices only increases credibility. This book is a good example about how it is possible to interpret people’s behaviour in many ways, and how differently people behave in different situations.
     
The book is an exceptional depiction of the corporate world, in that its scent is that of a human being. But here is a warning for those with a voyeuristic bent: the book mulls at length over business management strategies, and backgrounds of corporate deals.
      The American aspect also comes out. The book is replete with psychological speculation and hyperbole. The Finnish reader finds it easy to read extreme expressions if they are used to describe a person’s negative characteristics, but if the narrative crosses over to the side of praise, nothing can be done no matter how worthy of superlatives the target may have been.
      At times there is excessive repetition, but all in all, Koneen ruhtinas is a sublime performance and a work of literature, which makes it a hard act to follow for the next writers of boss biographies. Admittedly, personalities like Pekka Herlin are rare - and yet...
      John Simon wonders on a number of occasions, how PH managed to achieve so much.
      That is something for the reader wonder as well.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.9.2009

More on this subject:
 Diving into an autocrat’s life

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Herlin not stepping down from EK Board, despite Kone price-fixing fines (26.2.2007)
  Member of Herlin industrial dynasty held hostage for over two weeks (15.6.2009)
  Kone CEO Antti Herlin to head Confederation of Finnish Industries EK (12.10.2006)
  No insider trading charges against Kone CEO (3.2.2005)
  Kone CEO and secretary of board suspected of insider trading (29.8.2005)
  Young Herlins purged from Kone holding company (24.5.2000)

TEEMU LUUKKA / Helsingin Sanomat
teemu.luukka@hs.fi