---
title: "Kasvuryhmä and Family Businesses | Peter Fredman | Negotiator 86"
titleOriginal: "Kasvuryhmä ja perheyritykset | Peter Fredman | Neuvottelija 86"
episodeNumber: "86"
guest: "Peter Fredman"
datePublished: 2021-06-20
duration: "46:41"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["ownership_capital_tax","leadership_governance","finnish_economy_policy"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one. The marks are genuine: twenty-one of them, with gaps from 25 to over 270 seconds, tracking the recording rather than a grid. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. The guest owns the group discussed and is a member of the three networks examined; the revenue target is his own forward-looking statement made in June 2021 and this page takes no position on whether it was met. The brand change is described as having preceded the public controversy, which is the guest's account of the sequence."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/98-kasvuryhma-ja-perheyritykset-peter-fredman-neuvottelija-86"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep86-kasvuryhma-ja-perheyritykset-peter-fredman/
---
# Kasvuryhmä and Family Businesses | Peter Fredman | Negotiator 86

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=0s) An outrageous promise, and the owner's three roles
- [01:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=85s) Peter Fredman, and a Finnish Mittelstand
- [03:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=189s) Fredman Group's history from an MBO to family ownership
- [05:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=340s) From the Eskimo brand to the Fredman brand, ahead of the controversy
- [08:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=514s) The Family Business Association, and generational handovers
- [12:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=779s) Kasvuryhmä, and the outrageous promise of a hundred million
- [16:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=993s) A coming podcast series on the tools of ownership
- [17:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=1056s) The Confederation of Finnish Industries' image, and the entrepreneurs' delegation
- [22:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=1329s) From entrepreneur to owner: three hats at the same time
- [25:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=1555s) Board as a service, and strong roles on the board
- [27:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=1679s) A board is built to match the strategy
- [29:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=1766s) Options, commitment, and the continuity of ownership
- [31:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=1916s) The exchange, and a change of ownership as the start of a new story
- [33:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=1990s) Thinking in generations, and Sweden's popular capitalism
- [34:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=2062s) Finland as a capital-poor country, and pension wealth
- [35:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=2140s) An unlisted company as the best owner's interface
- [37:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=2268s) Internationalisation through a scalable service business
- [39:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=2343s) Food safety and hygiene after Covid
- [40:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=2428s) Food waste, and the sustainable development agenda
- [42:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=2573s) IoT sensors, data and predictive analytics
- [45:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY&t=2747s) The service business's share of the growth, and closing words

## Summary

Fredman Group's owner Peter Fredman has made an outrageous promise in the Kasvuryhmä growth network: to take his group from thirty million to a hundred million in revenue in a little over three years. The episode examines why Finland lacks a German-style Mittelstand and opens up three communities — the Family Business Association, Kasvuryhmä and the entrepreneurs' delegation of the Confederation of Finnish Industries — which the host describes bluntly as closed circles. Fredman concedes the criticism and says he has challenged all three to open up. The substantive core is the division of ownership roles: he has served simultaneously as chief executive, board chair and owner, and argues that blurring those roles is one of the most common reasons growth strategies stall. Also covered: the switch from the Eskimo brand to the Fredman brand ahead of the public controversy, and the IoT-sensor service business meant to deliver half the targeted growth.

## Three hats and nobody to argue

Owner, chair and chief executive in one person is the ordinary condition of a Finnish family company, and Fredman's point is that it removes the friction a growth plan needs. The chair cannot challenge the chief executive; the owner cannot hold the chair to account. The plan then proceeds unexamined, which is a structural explanation for stalling rather than a personal one.

## Closed circles, conceded

The host names three networks as closed, in front of a member of all three, and the guest agrees and says he has pushed them to open. That exchange is worth more than the promise the episode is titled around.

## Where the promise is at risk

Roughly half the targeted growth is to come from an IoT service business the group is building rather than from what it already sells. That is where the commitment either holds or does not, and the episode is candid about it.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Kasvuryhmä ja perheyritykset | Peter Fredman | Neuvottelija 86](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGKVyPE5TY).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/98-kasvuryhma-ja-perheyritykset-peter-fredman-neuvottelija-86).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep86-kasvuryhma-ja-perheyritykset-peter-fredman/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/economy/ep86-kasvuryhma-ja-perheyritykset-peter-fredman/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Kasvuryhmä and Family Businesses | Peter Fredman | Negotiator 86, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep86-kasvuryhma-ja-perheyritykset-peter-fredman/, 2021-06-20. For quotes include episode 86 and timestamp.