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Finland celebrates its 100 years of independence this year. Being attacked in 1939 by the Soviet Union was a particularly painful part of the journey. The progress after the war - from an agrarian country with some forest industry - has been good. There are now a fair number of Finnish companies amongst the globally leading in several sectors.
Nokia is, of course, the best known - mostly because of its now divested handset business. For a small country (5 million) to give birth to a globally leading (for 14 years - often selling more than a daily average of 1 million handsets) consumer electronics actor was eye-opening. Also that such a position could be lost. But Nokia continues as one of the top 2 in the network business and the numerous start-up activities demonstrated at the huge Slush-event is a promising sign for new growth.
The financial sector has for its part also brought some important gifts to the celebrating country and - I dare say - to the world. With home-e-banking launched in 1982 and later expanded into "connecting customers" ecosystem elements like e-id services, e-invoicing, e-commerce payments and e-salary the banks have demonstrated that there is significant new dimensions of customer value to be delivered. The success story - which now is about to be continued with e-receipts - has been possible by co-operation in standardization and thus strengthened competition. Nordea Bank - a Finnish initiative - took these concepts to the other Nordic countries.
Looking forward into the data-driven economy and Single European market we know that trust will be the currency of interaction. From this angle, it is particularly pleasing to note the banking sector's e-ID service in this jubilee year will be used 100 million times. What gift could be more important?
This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
Patrick Bermingham CEO at Adflex
29 August
Ben Lane VP of Colleague Experience Group at American Express UK
28 August
Alex Kreger Founder & CEO at UXDA
27 August
Luigi Wewege President at Caye International Bank
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