Krogerus Transactions Forum 2025 offered insights on ownership and navigating a changing world
In a world reshaped by political turmoil, shifting power dynamics, and sustainability imperatives, the concept of ownership is being redefined. How can the Nordics navigate a rapidly changing world with agility, purpose, and innovation? Krogerus Transactions Forum 2025, our exclusive annual live forum, organised on 17 September at Little Finlandia, provided answers to this question by exploring the major forces transforming ownership and value creation in the Nordics and beyond. This article dives deeper into the event's themes by discussing courage and resilience as a part of today's business environment.
"The idea behind Krogerus Transactions Forum came up in our partnership, since the general sentiment in Finland might sometimes be too gloomy when it comes to the economic outlook, which does not resonate with our mindset at Krogerus or with the mindset of our clients or international friends. We wanted to create an event for business leaders, investors and decision-makers, that moves the focus from pessimism to realism and takes a more proactive and constructive approach to our future", says Managing Partner Mårten Knuts.
The theme of the forum was "Rethinking Ownership in a New Era", which was explored through three sessions: the first one covering ownership in a changing world, with a panel discussion on developing our corporates and the meaning of ownership. The panel included Jan Ståhlberg, Founder and Managing Partner at Trill Impact; Andreas Tallberg, Chair at Tesi and Chair and CEO at GWS; and Salla Pöyry, Professor of Practice at Aalto University and Chair of the Board at Procurator. The second session covered ownership of a changing world, with a panel focusing on the ongoing significant geopolitical changes and their effects on the business environment. The panel included Morten Rud Pedersen, President and CEO at Rud Pedersen, and Heljä Ossa, Research Fellow at The London School of Economics and Political Science. The final session of the day showcased three Finnish success stories: Ren-Gas, with CEO Saara Kujala; Hostaway, with its CSO and Co-founder Saber Kordestanchi; and ICEYE, with Chief of Staff to the CEO, Toni Pöllänen. The forum was opened by a keynote speech by Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko, President and CEO at Marimekko.
Courage as the fundament to growth and investments
The Transactions Forum's keynote was delivered by Marimekko's Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko, who shared insights on how to scale up the global Marimekko brand phenomenon and the courage it requires.
Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko presented five theses that guide Marimekko's growth:
- Creating a global company and brand starts with a meaningful purpose and vision: A strong purpose increases motivation, builds culture, creates customer loyalty and strategic direction, which ultimately leads to better financial performance.
- Be razor sharp at what you are the best in the world: Companies face massive competition in today's world. To leverage the full potential of your brand, it is key to decide what immediately comes to mind when customers think of your brand, stick with it, and build your desirability and positioning based on that with a long-term perspective.
- Be passionate about your customer: Focus on understanding the lifestyle, needs and preferences of your customer, while still staying true to the original DNA of the brand.
- Do things together with the team, partners and business model to scale up: In a smaller country like Finland, we need to go international immediately to find scale. You must have courage to invest upfront in a strong team and build partnerships. No-one can succeed alone.
- Have courage even at the risk of failure: You must have the courage to stand out. Courage is fundamental for growth, innovation and success. Mistakes need to be turned into learning experiences, which requires a strong organisational culture, where it is also safe to fail.
"Ultimately this is a story about courage, which is integral in each company. Courage is needed for the investments required for growth. We at Marimekko truly believe, that the winners of tomorrow are defined in the tougher market times like today's. I am a strong believer that with this kind of courageous attitude we can create and build even more success stories from Finland to the world", summarises Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko.
Resilience as a critical business and societal priority
The second panel discussion of the day was opened by Heljä Ossa, Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, with a speech on the end of innocence, faltering democracy and the resilience needed in today's business environment.
"The international order is changing rapidly. What drives this new emerging world order, is competition and power struggle, conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and the decline of democracy. Today only 28% of the world’s population is living under democratic governance, which creates political instability and economic risk for global businesses. Increasingly conflict-prone international relations bring instability and unpredictability, which is poisonous for business and trade. Where there is political and financial uncertainty, there are risks: legal risks, disrupted trade and supply chain risks, and reputational risks", says Heljä Ossa.
"There is very little we can do about the dynamics of the changing world order, since it is simply not in our control. What we can do, is to be prepared and resilient. Unlike defence, resilience is not just the responsibility of the state or the military", states Heljä Ossa.
The majority of the infrastructure, services and production that are critical for security, are owned and operated by the private sector. In other words, much of readiness and resilience depends on the private sector according to Heljä Ossa. "I encourage you to ask yourselves, do you have the tools to be resilient against hybrid attacks? Do you feel prepared in the face of the changing world order and what it may bring along? Are your supply chains secured?" asks Heljä Ossa.
Another aspect to resilience Heljä Ossa highlighted is the question of democratic resilience, which refers to ensuring that our democracy can survive both external and internal challenges. This is an enormous task that requires cooperation and dialogue on all levels: companies, national and local governments, academia, civil society, media, and the culture sector.
"As companies you can, for example, ensure that your lobbying is transparent, that your innovations and products are used ethically, and that you don’t even unintentionally spread misinformation or disinformation. Also, companies can partner with organisations and initiatives that support media freedom and civil society. This is not just altruism and philanthropy. It is also risk management: stable and inclusive democracies reduce economic risk, attract investment, and provide the predictability that markets need to thrive. We are all responsible for building democratic resilience by maintaining good and constructive political and societal dialogue. Discussion forums like Transactions Forum are an excellent place for this kind of dialogue between business leaders, policymakers and academics", concludes Heljä Ossa.
Ownership as a tool to offer direction and clarity
Courage, trust and resilience, were themes that connected all the speeches and discussions of Transactions Forum to each other. We need courage to be bolder, invest in growth and dare to fail. We need to continue supporting and building the trust, principals and stability we have in Finland. Lastly, we need resilience to build and develop our businesses and our society also in more challenging geopolitical and economic times. This is where ownership can offer direction to companies and help create an organisational culture supporting these themes.
"From navigating new global realities to examining the structures that govern long-term value creation – we’ve seen ownership as not just a structure, but as a mindset in our conversations at the Krogerus Transaction Forum. One that requires courage, clarity, and sometimes, a willingness to rethink the familiar. What’s clear is this: Finnish and Nordic business is not on the sidelines of global change – it’s playing a key role in it. And the conversations we’ve had during the forum, we hope, help equip all of us to do that work even better", concludes Marcus Möller, Head of M&A at Krogerus.
We are already looking forward to organising Krogerus Transactions Forum 2026, which we will release more information on later.
