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
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.
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,
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,
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
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,
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
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
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