"Creative Destruction Is a Great Opportunity"
“When we futurists said at the start of the millennium that you should forget mobile phones, nobody thanked us. Nobody thanked us either, when we said that holding on to paper production was a mistake. And nobody is thanking us now, when we say that clinging to cruise ships is a mistake.”
Olli Hietanen, Head of Development for the Finland Futures Research Centre, talks calmly but decisively about an uncertain future. Hietanen says that large social and economic changes will occur even faster in the future.
“If there is any phenomenon that controls the modern day, it's the increasing speed of change. The people trying to prop up the old will have a hard time of it. Those who can make change into a strength and invent new things continuously will have the competitive advantage,” says Hietanen.
According to Hietanen, the maritime industry has gotten stuck on the production of cruise ships. He does not claim that maritime industry is entering its twilight years. On the contrary: in the future, people will be more and more involved with the sea. It is simply that the expertise related to the cruise ships prevents Finns from seeing that the maritime industry goes far beyond cruise ships.
“Why would we restrict ourselves to building ships, when we could build houses, energy plants, factories, shopping centres and spas in the sea – anything. On the other hand, if we stop making ships soon, we can use the same technological expertise in air, on land, or even in space.”
“Instead of bemoaning our fate, we should take a different attitude towards what is going on in the world and ask first what opportunities the new situation can bring. Even if it involves destruction, such as a pandemic or war, because even those things always open possibilities.”
When large companies move their jobs abroad, they should be replaced by cultivating small and medium-sized businesses that do completely new things and create jobs.
“All creative, completely different thinking is usually born in small companies that, in time, grow into new giants in their field. Or at the very least, their networks grow into large ecosystems. The essential thing is that we have a society that constantly generates something new.”
There are already new, creative companies in the maritime industry germinating in the shadow of the shipbuilding industry in Southwest Finland and Satakunta. According to Hietanen, the society should just be able to nurture the creative maritime, forest and information industry much more. The nation should be encouraged to be enthusiastic and become entrepreneurs.
“Our high level of expertise together with entrepreneurial spirit would be a ’killer’ combination. The problem is finding the can-do spirit in Finland.”
“If we stop making ships soon, we can use the same technological expertise in air, on land, or even in space.”
Finland Futures Research Centre (FFRC) is a multidisciplinary academic research, training, and development organisation and a part of Turku School of Economics. The main goal of FFRC is to create a responsible and sustainable future. The people at FFRC research alternative futures, and the challenges and possibilities included in them. Academic research places special emphasis on foresight, environmental and energy research, socio-cultural research, food and consumption, bio-economy, security and education.
Text: Hannu Aaltonen
Photograph: Hanna Oksanen
The article was first published in Finnish in Turku School of Economics' stakeholder magazine Mercurius in 2013.