Nordic Business Forum

In this keynote presented at Nordic Business Forum 2026, professor Michael Beckely explains:- How to challenge the outdated growth assumptions, especially about China, that might be hiding massive risks in your current strategy.- How to build a winning strategy when you’re no longer competing with companies, but with the subsidized power of nations.- How to design a resilient, “shock-proof” supply chain and market strategy for a world that is breaking into geopolitical blocs.

In this Main Stage keynote, the former CEO of Unilever Paul Polman explains how to:- Build the right partnerships across your ecosystem — from suppliers and peers to competitors and communities — to unlock the kind of collective impact no company can achieve alone, and which sits at the heart of becoming truly Net Positive.- Build the radical trust and transparency required to lead transformative change across your entire value chain.- Turn humanity’s greatest challenges into your company’s biggest opportunities and most profitable ventures.- Find the personal courage to lead with purpose, making the tough, values-driven calls that build unbreakable trust with your team.

Former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, Patty McCord, shared how to build high-performing teams that deliver results at the Nordic Business Forum 2026. More specifically, she focused on:

- How to implement ‘radical honesty’ as the foundation for a high-performance culture where trust isn’t just a poster on the wall, but a daily practice.- How to dismantle the traditional HR systems that kill motivation and replace them with a culture of freedom and responsibility that attracts and retains true A-players.- How to build a ‘team, not a family,’ where every member is a high-performer, enabling the level of trust and collaboration required to achieve extraordinary results.

From the crucial difference between performance and productivity to the spillover effect between your personal and professional life, this episode unpacks the deeper mechanics of human efficiency. Expect sharp insights on the reality of wearable tech and a step-by-step blueprint to optimize your energy from your morning arrival to your evening wind-down. Plus: how to conquer the post-lunch slump, ways to measure mental well-being, and the single biggest hidden habit that is quietly killing your daily performance.

00:00 – Intro: What We’ve Gotten Wrong About Performance

01:15 – Why More Optimization Often Makes Things Worse

03:59 – James Hewitt’s 3C Model: Capacity, Control, Coordination

06:10 – Why Doing Less Is a Performance Strategy

07:37 – Wearables, Tracking, and the Data Obsession Trap

11:03 – Sleep, Stress, and Leadership Performance

13:42 – What Formula 1 Teams Teach Us About Performing Under Pressure

17:47 – Managing Mistakes Without Losing Control

19:05 – The Science of High-Performing Teams

21:11 – Why Most Teams Fail to Coordinate Properly

23:13 – Plan, Brief, Execute, Debrief: System for Teams

26:30 – The Importance of Psychological Safety and Failure

29:22 – High-Performance Teams Succeed in Organized Hybrid Settings

34:23 – Cognitive Load of Online Meetings

37:30 – Boundary Management Between Work and Non-Work Time

39:01 – Building Better Attention Habits

41:14 – The 3C Model Applied to Personal Life

43:43 – Attention Is Our Most Valuable Resource

45:00 – Attention Is an Act of Love

45:33 – Why Self-Compassion Improves Performance

In a world where silence is no longer safe, today’s CEOs face a new reality: take a stand or risk losing relevance. But what does it really mean to lead in an age of polarization?Host Heli sits down with Annika Arras (CEO, Miltton New Nordics) and Thomas Kolster (marketing advisor & author) to unpack the rise of corporate activism.From the tension between profit and purpose to the risks of “performative” values, this episode explores why neutrality is fading and what replaces it.Expect sharp insights on leadership, trust, stakeholder pressure, and the messy intersection of business and politics. Plus: real-world examples, hard truths about money and morality, and a practical playbook for navigating activism without breaking your company.

00:00 – Intro: The End of the Neutral CEO

03:00 – What Corporate Activism Really Means Today

04:10 – From Milton Friedman to Modern CEOs: What Changed?

05:58 – The “Hero Trap”: When Activism Becomes Self-Serving

07:48 – US vs. Nordics: Why Context Matters in Taking a Stand

10:39 – Should CEOs Follow Values or Customers?

13:00 – The Three Drivers of Activism: Material, Societal, Existential

18:06 – “Everything Is Politics”: Why CEOs Are Already Political

25:22 – It’s Sustainable to Be Inclusive

28:02 – Leaders Need to Create the Space for Difficult Discussions

29:45 – Challenger Brands vs. Corporates: Who Can Take Stronger Stands?

32:37 – When Activism Works: Examples from Finlayson and Others

35:15 – Short-Term vs. Long-Term Thinking in Leadership

37:14 – Why CEOs Must Stay Curious and Close to Society

39:25 – What Kind of Money Do You Want to Make?

44:14 – Practical Guidelines: Why, What, How, and When to Act

58:55 – The One Thing Leaders Should Remember

01:02:28 – Outro: It’s Okay to Disagree

AI can boost your thinking but it can also replace it completely. In this episode, we explore how to use AI in a way that strengthens your brain instead of weakening it. Host Olivia Ojala is joined by neuroscientist Mona Moisala and Pactum AI co-founder Kaspar Korjus to discuss what research says about AI’s impact on cognition, memory, and decision-making. When does AI enhance learning, and when does it lead to shallow thinking?

You’ll hear practical insights for professionals and leaders: how to use AI as a co-thinker, what tasks to delegate, how to avoid “AI slop,” and why “think first, prompt second” might be the most important rule of all. A must-listen for anyone navigating AI at work and wanting to stay sharp while doing it.

00:00 – Intro: Is AI Enhancing or Rotting Your Brain?

02:21 – The Neuroscience of AI: Cognitive Offloading vs. Atrophy

04:52 – Think First, Prompt Second: The Golden Rule for Brain Health

06:55 – AI Agents as "Graduate Students": How to Train Your Tools

12:29 – The Fears and Misconceptions around AI

17:34 or 18:46 – Integrating AI at the Workplace: Useful Strategies for Companies and Leaders

20:47 – The Adoption Inequality Gap: Winners and Losers of AI

26:57 – The Fine Line between Outsourcing Tasks for Productivity and Killing Expertise

33:50 – Beware of "AI Slop": Spotting Hallucinations and Fake Citations

36:36 – How AI Really Works: Next-Character Prediction vs. Human Logic

41:26 – Using AI as a Co-Thinker: The Active Way of Using AI at Work

46:17 –  Building Your Brain Muscle Back

47:54 – The 3x Productivity Trap: Why AI Makes Us More Stressed

49:13 – Leading with Empathy: Mental Health in the AI Era

53:48 – Bridging the Generation Gap: How AI Impacts us Across Generations

56:03 – Outro: How to Stay Human in an Automated World

Engaged employees are essential to the success of any organization. Still, in many companies, employee engagement is measured by results from annual HR surveys, and companies lack real action based on the results.

Research shows that organizational performance is deeply connected to the success, well-being, and happiness of people. With this knowledge, employee engagement practices are changing.

How can you ensure that you focus on people—the most important asset of your organization? And what do you need to know to manage your workforce in the challenges of tomorrow?

This session will help you find the path toward successful employee engagement!

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused, above all dreadful loss, grief, anxiety, and fear. It has also drastically changed the geopolitical landscape we operate in as businesses. So, how can you navigate your business strategy now?

We’ll try to find that out at our next live webinar as we sit down with the economist and author, Kjell A Nordström.

In the last two years, everything changed. People changed. Technology changed. The office changed. Priorities changed. And the way we work changed.

The future of work is now. Are you prepared for opportunity, choice, and growth in the accelerated future of work?

Terence Mauri is on a mission to help leaders harness the upside of disruption, leadership, and growth in the accelerated future of work. He holds Entrepreneur Mentor roles at MIT and IE Business School and is the founder of the management think tank Hack Future Lab. His latest book The 3D Leader: Take your leadership to the next dimension has been described as a ‘game changer’ by Forbes.