Episode 99 · 2021-09-18 · 52:47 · Original in Finnish
Saving Strategy | Mika Sutinen and Antti Haapakorva | Negotiator 99
Originally published as “Pelastetaan strategia! | Mika Sutinen Antti Haapakorva | Neuvottelija 99”
Mika Sutinen and Antti Haapakorva have written a book with an uncomfortable thesis: strategy is not spoiled because it is hard, but because we made it too complicated and less inspiring ourselves. In their interview material only one company in four considers its own strategy execution adequate, and the diagnosis has two parts — focus is missing, and many organisations lack even the idea that execution ought to have a system. The remedy is a four-stage model running from understanding through vision and choices to execution, and its load-bearing principle is that modern people commit only to what they helped make. The most interesting passage is a disagreement left unresolved: the host wants a meatier role for the board, Sutinen opposes it and grounds that in a question — can management be critical of a superior who works for them? Running through it is Musti ja Mirri's transformation from a loss-making company with 20 million in revenue to a market value of over a billion.
Core theses
- One company in four rates its own execution adequate, and the two causes are a missing focus and the absence of any system for execution at all.
- People commit only to what they helped make, which is why a strategy built jointly does not need to be rolled out.
- The board's role is where the episode disagrees with itself and does not resolve it: can management be critical of a superior who works for them?
- The premortem is Gary Klein's method rather than Kahneman's, and attribution matters when a technique is being recommended.
Watch and listen
Key moments
- 00:00 — A strategy is a plan, not a definition
- 01:03 — The book review begins: Sutinen and Haapakorva from Kuopio to the studio
- 02:30 — Sutinen's Musti ja Mirri years under EQT's ownership
- 04:16 — A dark ski loop on Puijo produced the idea for the book
- 05:40 — Musti ja Mirri's transformation from a loss to a billion in value
- 06:41 — The host's future funnel, and the book's strategy model
- 09:38 — Why strategy needs saving
- 11:03 — People commit only to a strategy they made themselves
- 12:28 — The research: strategy execution scores a three out of five
- 13:25 — A missing focus, and missing systematics in execution
- 15:16 — The four-stage model: understanding, vision, choices, execution
- 18:38 — Vision, and scenario thinking
- 19:53 — The paranoid optimist, and tsunami risks
- 22:28 — Tools for execution: must win battles and OKRs
- 26:43 — Kotipizza's OKR example, and making it inspiring
- 29:01 — Board as a service, and the four levels of strategy
- 30:16 — Karelia University of Applied Sciences involving its whole staff
- 31:25 — The owner's intent as a premortem exercise at Reaktor and SGN
- 32:34 — Management owns the strategy, the board spars with it
- 33:51 — The board's coaching role, and the dangers of going operational
- 37:15 — A strategy made together does not need rolling out
- 39:29 — Kahneman's premortem, and paranoid scenarios
- 41:15 — Rewards as an instrument for steering strategy
- 43:09 — Innofactor, Kasvuryhmä and twenty-five interviews
- 45:48 — Acquisitions in a growth strategy: Sweden by buying, Norway greenfield
- 49:19 — Closing words: the mystification of strategy is self-inflicted
- 51:10 — Facebook's rescue squad, and a book recommendation
Summary
Mika Sutinen and Antti Haapakorva have written a book with an uncomfortable thesis: strategy is not spoiled because it is hard, but because we made it too complicated and less inspiring ourselves. In their interview material only one company in four considers its own strategy execution adequate, and the diagnosis has two parts — focus is missing, and many organisations lack even the idea that execution ought to have a system. The remedy is a four-stage model running from understanding through vision and choices to execution, and its load-bearing principle is that modern people commit only to what they helped make. The most interesting passage is a disagreement left unresolved: the host wants a meatier role for the board, Sutinen opposes it and grounds that in a question — can management be critical of a superior who works for them? Running through it is Musti ja Mirri’s transformation from a loss-making company with 20 million in revenue to a market value of over a billion.
One in four
That is how many of the companies they interviewed rate their own strategy execution as adequate. The number is theirs and the diagnosis under it is the useful part: the failures divide into having no focus and having no system for executing at all, and those need different remedies.
Made together, so no rollout needed
The claim that people commit only to what they helped make is not new. What follows from it is: if the strategy was built with the people who will execute it, the implementation phase that consumes most of the effort elsewhere simply does not arise.
The argument they leave open
The host wants boards to do more; Sutinen resists, and his reason is the sharpest question in the episode — can a management team be genuinely critical of a chair who, formally, works for them? Neither side wins, and the page keeps it that way.
Watch
The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: Pelastetaan strategia! | Mika Sutinen Antti Haapakorva | Neuvottelija 99. A Finnish edition of this episode is published at www.neuvottelija.fi.
In depth
The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode: English · suomeksi.
Go deeper
Explore the ideas in depth
Guides connected to this conversation, with frameworks and further reading.
How to Sell a Company in Finland: An M&A Banker's Guide to a Clean Exit
A practical guide to selling a company in Finland and the Nordics — the process phase by phase, share deal vs asset deal, valuation, due diligence, buyer types, deal structures, taxes on the sale, minority squeeze-outs and the ownership context that shapes every exit. Grounded in Neuvottelija conversations and Translink M&A practice.
Nordic SaaS Valuation & M&A: How AI Reprices Software Companies
How software companies in the Nordics are valued and sold as AI moves inference into the cost of goods sold — where multiples stand in mid-2026, the metrics that get repriced, why vertical SaaS defends its premium, AI due diligence, and the shift from seats to outcomes. Grounded in Translink's SaaS valuation work and Neuvottelija conversations.
Private equity in Finland: active ownership, growth and AI-assisted investor relations
A practical guide to venture capital, growth and buyouts, ownership economics, risks and investor communication — with Pia Santavirta’s Neuvottelija 94 interview and Sami Miettinen’s March 2026 FVCA workshop.
People and topics
Guests: Mika Sutinen, Antti Haapakorva
Topics: Leadership & Governance M&A & Exits