The bi-annual CTO Forum spring event was held on 19th of March at restaurant Palace. This time the focus of the event was on Finland 4.0 - how to increase the R&D expenditure of GDP to 4.0%.
R&D and smart innovation actions are key assets for continuous growth of business and well-being. However, during the last eight years Finland has been suffering from decreasing R&D assets (from 3.8% in 2009 to 2.7 % in 2017). Keynote speakers addressed this trend and how to turn this trend around to keep the Finnish industry competitive.
Keynote speakers consisted of Petri Rouvinen, CEO, Etlatieto, talking about Finland's R&D intensity to 4.0% - what does it mean in practice? while Professor Karl-Erik Michelsen's, (Lappeenranta University of Technology) message to the audience was "We need new sciencem technology and innovation policy for the post-industrial Finland". Pekka Koponen, CEO of Spinverse, emphasised to the CTO audience the importance of making the 4.0% happen. The theme was wrapped up well in the in panel consisting of Pekka Soini, Director General, CEO, Business Finland; Taneli Tikka, Head of Innovation, Tieto; Anne Jalkala, VP Start-up and fund investments, Fortum; Anders Stenbäck, Digital Director, SVP, OP Financial Group; Sauli Eloranta, Head of Innovation & Technology, Rolls-Royce Marine and chaired by Pekka Koponen.
The event culminated in the CTO of the Year 2018 awards, where the winners Vesa Varjonen, VP of Reseacrh & Technology, Planmeca and Matti Heikkilä, CTO, MetGen were presented with the awards.
The CTO Forum is a community for Chief Technology Officers and technology leaders to learn from their peers and benchmark against the best practices in the field. The Forum provides a platform for networking across different industries and for companies of all sizes, raises the awareness of Finnish technology leadership and promotes visibility of CTOs and their companies. The Finnish CTO Forum is implemented as a joint undertaking with key partners Business Finland, Technology Industries of Finland and Spinverse.