Poll: Finnish companies reluctant to expand
Executives see greater efficiency as more important than winning new markets
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According to a fresh study, Finnish corporate executives are generally reluctant to seek new markets, or to expand their market shares.
Finnish executives were found to emphasise the importance of seeking greater efficiency. Keeping costs under control and improving profitability were revealed to be the top priorities in a survey of corporate executives.
The study was conducted in January by IRO Research at the request of the PHS advertising agency. Responses came from 126 executives of companies with at least 100 employees. The answers were given on the Internet, after the respondents were first informed of the study by telephone.
PHS CEO Petteri Kilpinen was surprised at the attitudes revealed in the study.
"Is there any point in living in a cage you have built yourself, to get just a little money, or would it be better to go all out and get much more money?" Kilpinen said at a seminar in Helsinki on Wednesday.
He said that growth and strengthening brands should be a much higher priority for Finnish executives.
Philosopher Pekka Himanen warned companies not to succumb to a "culture of faultless idleness".
He recalled that when he was in India he had wondered why there was so much trash on the streets, even though there were many street sweepers there.
A local researcher said that the question was incorrectly put. "The job of an Indian street sweeper is not to remove rubbish, but rather to be there, faultlessly, in the capacity of a street sweeper".
Himanen said that the same kind of culture can easily establish itself in companies, when employees are under more work than ever before. He said that in such a situation there is no room for "enriching interaction".
Himanen feels that creative passion is what drove 20-year-old Linus Torvalds to establish the basis for the Linux computer operating system, which has challenged even the software giant Microsoft.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 3.2.2005 - TODAY |
 Poll: Finnish companies reluctant to expand |
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