---
title: "Boosting Finland's Image Abroad Through Humane Leadership | Mårten Mickos"
titleOriginal: "Reipasta Suomikuvaa ulkomaille | Mickos | #neuvottelija Sisäpiiri 131"
episodeNumber: "131"
guest: "Mårten Mickos"
datePublished: 2026-01-25
duration: "08:34"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8"
captionsVtt: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/659-reipasta-suomikuvaa-ulkomaille-mickos-neuvottelija-sisapiiri/captions.en.vtt
captionsSrt: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/659-reipasta-suomikuvaa-ulkomaille-mickos-neuvottelija-sisapiiri/captions.en.srt
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["leadership_governance","saas_software"]
subtitleMethod: "claude-fi-to-en-cue-preserving-translation"
provenance: "local SBV curated by Sami Miettinen (Neuvottelija-Subtitles folder)"
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/659-reipasta-suomikuvaa-ulkomaille-mickos-neuvottelija-sisapiiri"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/659-reipasta-suomikuvaa-ulkomaille-mickos-neuvottelija-sisapiiri/
---
# Boosting Finland's Image Abroad Through Humane Leadership | Mårten Mickos

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=0s) Nordic leadership style around the world
- [01:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=78s) MySQL Radio Sakila and the importance of music
- [02:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=156s) Humanity as part of company culture
- [03:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=234s) Software projects and tight deadlines
- [05:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=312s) The CEO's haircut as a result of a bet
- [06:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=390s) Public challenges and ways to motivate
- [07:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=468s) Sami sings 'Den Glider In' to the Swedes at a crayfish party

## Summary

Boost Finland's Image Abroad | Mickos | #neuvottelija Sisäpiiri 131. Mårten Mickos and the importance of humane leadership. Mårten Mickos shares his experiences as a Finnish leader in Silicon Valley and tells how unconventional methods such as schnapps songs and having his hair shaved over a bet can build a strong company culture. Mickos emphasizes the importance of a leader's humanity and being able to laugh at himself as part of developing the work community and achieving shared goals.

## Transcript

*English transcript derived from validated English subtitles ([WebVTT](https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/659-reipasta-suomikuvaa-ulkomaille-mickos-neuvottelija-sisapiiri/captions.en.vtt) · [SRT](https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/659-reipasta-suomikuvaa-ulkomaille-mickos-neuvottelija-sisapiiri/captions.en.srt)). Timestamps link to the original video.*

[**00:00**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=0s) On the Sisäpiiri side we continue with Mårten Mickos. So you were just apparently this kind of crazy Finn out there abroad, that is, that is a CEO there. So then you've, um, kind of played this game a bit, so that have you played it heavy, or what have you done out there, huh? Well, in a way when I left for abroad and for Silicon Valley, I thought that you shouldn't, like, emphasize too much where you're from or anything. That we're just there doing business and need to, like, advance that. But every now and then there'd be an opportunity where people would ask, tell me now about this, like what is the Nordic leadership style, or like people wanted to know, and employees wanted to know, and many came to work for us because they valued this kind of Nordic value — value base. And a nice example is at MySQL, when I was there as CEO, we had employees, 30 in two countries, and once a month we decided that we'd hold a town-hall-type meeting, where everyone takes part and gets to listen to

[**01:01**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=61s) the CEO's updates and the latest information. So everyone would call in into a kind of call center back then, because there weren't yet video conferences. And then, and then they'd listen to me for about an hour, as I talked about the business and gave these kinds of updates, the latest reports. So, so we gave this thing the name Radio Sakila. Sakila was the name of our logo's dolphin, so I thought that Radio Sakila was a nice name for this meeting, and when we held it for the first time and I'd gone through the whole program, then at the end our Bulgarian developer [unclear] wrote in our IRC channel. That was the way to communicate back. They put, um, that you can't call this radio unless there's music in it. That radio must always have music. And then I replied that, well that's true, that no, no, it's not radio unless there's music. And then I couldn't think of any other music at that moment, as I was sitting at home somewhere in Silicon Valley.

[**02:01**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=121s) I didn't have anything else besides what you'd have, like a desk and a microphone. So then I thought, okay, that now I'll sing you a song. And since I don't know very many songs, but I do know a lot of schnapps songs, drinking songs, so I sang the Helan Går song yesterday, because it's the first thing that comes to mind. Then I sang it and said this is this kind of Nordic-style drinking song, like take it or leave it, and everyone cheered and liked it. Then a month passed and it was this same format again, and I again gave the business updates, how things had gone and what we were doing. And then at the end they were like, Mårten, what are you singing today? And then I thought damn, that I've now gotten hooked, or they've hooked me, that now I can't, can't back out of this. So then, what the hell do I sing now, and then I thought, well but I do know drinking songs, and then I sang the next one and then it became a tradition that I never sang the same song, but I always sang a drinking song for them. And I sang Norwegian, Danish,

[**03:01**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=181s) Swedish, German, Finnish songs, and that lasted probably two to three years, once a month, and always the CEO alone sang the song and they loved it. Mm. And I didn't realize back then yet that in a way it, like, softened this CEO role, and they realized that I too am just an ordinary person and can be, like, can laugh at myself, be a bit, like, silly, so that it had a very significant, um, function in developing the company culture, even though it was, as it were, just a coincidence and I just went along with it. But that's certainly true. I mean I myself also always, even now there's that so I'd play, like, some LAN games with some Quake, and I had this theory that they always, like, my subordinates would, like, attack me and got, um, psychological satisfaction from killing me first, but yeah, it like, probably the work community, and like this kind of, like, the boss's voluntary humbling is, I think, like, really a very important skill, in that it, like,

[**04:04**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=244s) humanizes the organization and then removes that micromanaging from the organization too. Yeah, at Eucalyptus we then had another thing, where we just, like, couldn't get the software to work at all, or it worked, but it kept crashing, was difficult, stuff like that. And I said, now we absolutely need to produce a version that's genuinely easy to use and efficient and functional. And then it kept developing, it kept getting pushed back, the deadline, and they'd say, no, not now, but in two months. Two months from now. Then finally I said, no, this company can't take this anymore, that you're not getting it done. So now, now there's a new date. Was it February fifth or something, I said if you get it done by then then, well, first I said that I'd, I'd run naked through Santa Barbara, because that's where our office was, and then, don't make me do that, well I wouldn't actually do that, but I said, you can, say, cut my hair off my head if you pull it off, and I just threw that out like that, and of course that's what happened, they got the software done, it was in top shape, so we had an absolutely great version then, and then they came and said, now, we

[**05:07**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=307s) did what we, like, promised, and now go out to the backyard, we've got a chair for you, and then I went and sat there, and then they got out the electric — what is this is this, this is, um, [unclear] anyway, yeah, and they started to cut my hair off, and then I had no hair left at all except this, this test engineer Kyo, who did it — he was really skilled with his hands and then he, like, drew, or left on the back of my head, our company's logo — he, like, skillfully left hair uncut in a way that from it came out something almost like, like, a tattoo, but an image and it was our logo. So, so, so from the front I just looked bald, like a bald man, and that was new to me, but from behind I looked like some mafia boss, since I had this kind of, some dangerous-looking tattoo, well, if you have a big tattoo on the back of your head — but, but that also brought about this feeling for everyone that, okay, now we're doing this together. Mm. the CEO demanded this, but he also committed himself, and he paid, like,

[**06:08**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=368s) with his own, own hair for this great version, and we got a lot of like, public attention too from that, as I went around San Francisco and looked totally different than before, and people asked what had happened and then I'd explain this story, and it became internally and externally just a great, great thing. That's by the way, I mean, a public bet I'm using that too now. I have a bet this year that I'm almost certainly going to lose. My partner, um, colleague Tero Nummenpää, well, um, he has to do six pull-ups with 20 kg of extra weight. He can already do that now, um, with his 10-year-old son hanging from his legs, and I'm supposed to manage, unassisted, to get Sanna Marin matched, that is, six pull-ups, and it's not looking good, that it'll go to video, but I've made it public, so, um, but it's, like, in a way there's something fun in that, like, in a public bet, if you, you are willing to, like, humiliate yourself, so — yeah, I guess we'll then probably do that video when I come, or I still have a small, small chance here, I haven't given up yet, the year isn't over yet, um

[**07:08**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=428s) maybe by then to the Kräftskiva, so, um, I've also been in Nordic organizations, and I was maybe a bit of a, like, non-Swedish-speaking Finn, but I've like, learned to appreciate it. Even now at Translink we always go, like, in turn — last time we were at a Kräftskiva in Stockholm. So yeah, I then performed there, in front of the stunned Swedes: Det glider in, Det glider in, det glider in i må igen! Vi ska kämpa vi ska ge, allt som vi ha, vi ska ta guld igen! but it, um, was just fun there, the old Swedes didn't care because they have 20 golds, so one, one Finnish, um, championship doesn't mean anything but then one younger woman said, was that some hockey song or yeah, but I thought, I thought it's, like, there's something great in that, in those traditions, yeah, um, and it does resonate, though it's a bit of a shame for those crayfish, that we should come up with some, some, um, new festive food for that table, but

[**08:10**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksxiuEtBrQ8&t=490s) otherwise, well, someone could come up with some new one. Yeah, yeah, maybe some vegetarian alternative so they eat something, I don't know, some artichokes or something there, but I'm still willing to, like, murder those crayfish, but at some point it'll then get um, get, um, difficult, and great, thanks for this, and if you came in through this way, then check out our main episode on, um, the growth formula thanks, thank you

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Boosting Finland's Image Abroad Through Humane Leadership | Mårten Mickos, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/659-reipasta-suomikuvaa-ulkomaille-mickos-neuvottelija-sisapiiri/, 2026-01-25. For quotes include episode 131 and timestamp.