Succeedcast

In this episode, I sat down with Kati Riikonen, VP Sales and Marketing of Beauty & Wellness BU at EG A/S and Senior Board member across global technology companies. We talk about where AI belongs on the strategic board agenda.

We explore why Board strategic deep dives of Business functions should include AI, how to balance experimentation with duty to shareholders, and why minimum viable products don’t cut it in a competitive market. We also cover where data work should start, how to measure AI success through revenue, time to revenue, or cost, and why the best technology is the one you don’t notice.

Hear it straight from a very senior, strategic business leader who specialises in commercialising technology products and services. Happy listening!

Lead, Speed, Succeed!

In this episode of Succeedcast, I sat down with Crisis communication expert Christina Forsgård, founder of Netprofile in Helsinki. With 26 years behind her in this field, Christina explains how AI is changing crisis management. She emphasizes why trust is a company’s fuel and shield, why boards should rehearse crises before they happen, and why AI can connect dots for bad actors faster than any human. Her key message is humans must lead, govern and prevent crisis especially in this day and age of AI.

In this episode, I sat down with Maria Niiniharju, VP AI strategy & Transformation at Siili Solutions . Siili is a Helsinki-based frontrunner in AI-powered software development. Maria cuts through the noise and reveals the real reason AI transformations fail: it’s not about the technology. It’s about who’s actually accountable for results, budget, resources and processes that AI will transform. Discover why your CEO needs to personally own the AI mandate and drive it from the top.

Happy listening!

In this conversation we sit down to talk with Janina Luoto who is the CEO and Owner of Islet Group. Islet is one of Finland’s most respected SAP, Data & AI boutique consulting firms. They have now delivered close to 20 enterprise AI projects. We learn from Janina and their experience at Islet how to focus on the enterprise problem instead of technology to create value. And that, not everything needs to be solved with AI.

This is one of the most concrete conversations with very tangible examples that you all can benefit from. Come, take a listen and if you enjoy it, please share it forward.

In this episode, I sat down with Krista Korelin who is a VP and Nordic Head of Digital Sales and Customer Engagement at Nordea’s Business Banking division.

We discussed about the benefits of AI in a highly regulated sector like Banking on both short and long horizons. Krista makes a very wise point about focusing on key business processes that create most business value and using AI to remove friction from those processes. She also encourages leaders to look beyond mere cost savings in the short term and take a long-range view on how to transform the business models with AI.

Take a listen and share it forward if you enjoy the conversation.

In this episode, I spoke with Nina Nissilä, who serves as Director, and 2nd Deputy Director General at Kela, which is Finland’s Social Insurance Institution. Kela is undergoing a 7-year long journey to modernize its IT systems for Finnish citizens benefits processing and Nina is its strategic leader. We talk about where AI makes sense and where just rule-based automation suffices to bring efficiency and speed. Finland is EU’s most digitally-savvy nation which makes this episode particularly worth listening to. Hear more about smart, efficient, safe, digital- and AI-assisted services for 5.5 million residents served by the Public sector institution of Finland. Take a listen and enjoy!

Chapters

(00:00) — Introduction to Nina Nissilä and Kela

(02:37) — Nina’s career path and leadership background

(08:28) — The EEPOS transformation program - Finland’s largest IT modernization efforts

(15:00) — Change management at scale for 8000 people

(17:26) — AI at Kela: early experiments, to real use cases

(26:44) — Public trust, data, and responsible AI

(30:11) — AI roadmap for 2035

(33:35) — EU AI policy and Finland’s position

(37:04) — Technology and AI adoption in Public vs private sector

(42:42)— Leadership, recognition, and the road ahead

(52:02) — Nina’s recommendations for leading AI transformations

(55:16) — Behind the curtains: AI’s take on the episode

In this episode we discuss with Maria Krajewska-Olkkonen, Managing Director, Corporate and Individual Business at Hintsa Performance. Hintsa is a premium performance coaching brand from Finland. They specialise in coaching & elevating performance of elite athletes, executives and their teams. In the age of AI while retaining AI as a strategic priority, premium brands like Hintsa go above and beyond to deliver genuinely unique human experiences in coaching. Listen on to learn more from Maria how Hintsa is leveraging AI while staying true to its high touch, human-oriented brand.

Listen until the very end after the music to get a 60 seconds recap from AI what it understood of our human world :)

(0:00) Introduction & guest welcome

(1:56) Meet Maria & Hintsa Performance

(4:41) Is AI a strategic priority for Hintsa?

(7:16) Wholistic wellbeing and the science of performance

(9:55) Sustainable performance & Hintsa's Formula One origins

(13:21) Deploying AI for internal efficiency

(19:56) Protecting the human element of coaching in the age of AI

(27:48) Scaling a global premium brand with AI and human touch

(32:51) A high-performance framework for the AI era

(35:51) The biggest mistake high achievers make

(39:17) Three recommendations for leaders in the AI era

(44:34) Behind the curtains: the AI assistant's take

In this episode, we discuss with Mika Majakorpi, the CTO of Nitor, a digital engineering company in the heart of Helsinki. We talk about how AI is changing their own business model and their clients operating model. We also get useful tips from Mika on how to run AI transformations successfully starting with data plumbing

Listen until the very end after the music, to hear a 60 seconds recap of this interview by AI. It’s witty and funny and makes us wonder about our exciting future with AI :-)

(00:00) Welcome to Succeedcast

(00:26) Meet Mika Majakorpi — CTO at Nitor

(02:40) Does the custom software development model hold in the AI era?

(04:30) AI-assisted coding: Efficiency play or leverage

(07:49) Conversational commerce and product discovery

(12:06) Turning AI experimentation into business results

(18:21) Beyond chat: autonomous AI agents

(20:17) Three concrete recommendations for business leaders

(23:31) Closing: lead, speed and succeed

(24:40) Behind the curtains with Rashmi and her AI assistant

In this episode, we talk with Katri Harra, a senior Board professional, former CDO of Finnair & Kojamo & Founder of Grip Strategy. Katri shares how she led Finnair through its greatest digital leap, why cultural transformation and Team work matter the most in Transformations, how boards should govern AI strategy, and what every leader needs to do today to future-proof their organisation in the age of AI.

Chapters in this Episode:

(00:00) Introduction

(04:30) Katri’s journey with Finnair Digital Transformation

(15:05) Boards in the Age of AI

(24:29) Does Every Company Need an AI Strategy?

(32:18) Introducing GRIP Strategy

(37:49) Close the distance between Tech and Business

(43:12) Three Recommendations for AI Leaders + A Bonus

(50:13) Behind the Curtains with Rashmi and her AI Assistant

Why the timing for AI is commercially apt now? How have the previous industrial revolutions changed our business landscape and where does AI fit into this? And what should business leaders do about this evolution? What is the opportunity and how do we grab it fast?

Listen until the very end after the music, AI has something to say :-)

Chapters in this episode:

(00:00) Why the timing feels so apt for AI?

(01:31) Welcome to Succeedcast

(02:18) A modern twist — meet the AI co-host

(02:42) First industrial revolution: mechanisation and the factory system

(03:51) Second industrial revolution: steam, railways and national markets

(04:38) Third industrial revolution: redesigning operating models with the electric motor

(06:15) Fourth industrial revolution: semiconductors, software and the internet

(07:20) Why incumbents break when technology evolves

(08:06) The judgment bottleneck and its three dimensions

(09:58) Global scale and why AI arrives now

(10:58) Recap: the pattern across industrial revolutions

(11:50) Rashmi’s three practical recommendations for leaders

(13:18) Closing: Lead, speed and succeed

(14:08) Humor with AI