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Finland invites Indian firms to join hands in mapping the entire hardware-software value chain. By Aresh Shirali 'Nokia, so fear what?' Transliteration n all, those five words could make an alternative headline for this story. An alternative headline for an Indian-Scandinavian affair, that is, that's still too incipient to survive the glare of over-attention. An affair of such piquant hybridity that it could shake things up in its very rejection of long held preconceptions. An affair, to be sure, that must be encouraged. Except that the $36 billion corporate entity that has a third of the global market for cellphone handsets is not all there is to Finland, a country of 5 million people that has as big a share of world trade---0.7 per cent---as does India, 200 times its size. Mercator's projection of the world map onto a flat surface exaggerates Finland's landmass. In actual scale, it really is a rather tiny country. In terms of influence, however, it counts. It counts for a lot. Sirkka Aura, CEO, Invest In Finland, a promotional body set up by the Finnish government, cites a small instance to make her point---with characteristic understatement. "Finland," she says, "is the leading country in the technology and research of forest products." That simple fact, however, must be placed in the overall context of global needs to grasp its actual significance. The real marvel, you might then discover, is the way Finland, from its humble location atop the globe, has managed to position itself as the world's point of intermediation. For a country more focused, you might have to launch a few more explorer crafts into outer space. Er, point of intermediation? It's a big word. But it's appropriate once you give it some thought. Finland is the world's leader in meeting communication needs, be it paper and pulp (it has been supplying Indian newspapers newsprint for well over a century) or modern handheld gadgetry (Nokia got tripped last year, but has the sound of a winner again). It is also on top of the world in several other zones of technological endeavour, some of them niche. It has a near 100-per cent share of the world market for ice-breakers, if you please. Circumstances may have something to do with this. Circumstances, and a strong urge to shape the future. When an expansionist Russia was busy taking over as much of Europe (and Asia) as it could to create the Soviet empire. Weaker states in the region gave in, but Finland responded to the join-or-else threat with destiny-driving defiance. "The people of Finland, faced with an ultimatum by their vastly more powerful Russian neighbour in 1939," writes Jared Diamond in his marvellous new book, Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Survive, "chose to value their freedom over their lives, fought with a courage that astonished the world, and won their gamble, even while losing the war." Ever since, Finland has been acutely aware of its vulnerability, and has striven to leverage technology to its best effect, while planning and thinking global-global-global, relentlessly and furiously----as a matter of survival for a tiny country with a domestic market too small to support large businesses that could satisfy the most demanding of the species. By way of domestic policy, Finland strove to ensure that its people (and especially the worst off) would not regret the decision to stay aloof. The result? One of the world's best examples of a free market thriving within a generous welfare state---a 'mixed economy' of the kind once envisaged by India. Understanding diversity, says Taneli Saari, director, Invest In Finland, is natural to Finns. "India is a multi-cultural country," he adds, "so is Finland." Interested? Finland's proposition is almost too elegant to believe: 'we have the hardware, you have the software... let's make lots of money'. "It's a global platform," sary Saari, "and so it's an ideal marriage." Software leaders Wipro and TCS have already set themselves up in Finland, and he is confident that the opportunity (direct access to the EU market, for once) is too tempting for other Indian globalizers not to follow. For access to the world's huge telecom software opportunity, particularly, "there are very few gates," says Saari, matter-of-factly, "the Motorola gate, the Samsung gate, and this". Nokia, as market analysts have pointed out, is an efficient large-scale manufacturer, with unrivalled expertise in supply-chain logistics (handling 60 billion components a year) and a market-friendly sense of hardware design, but has had some trouble getting its software act together. Its recent deal with Microsoft is aimed at closing that gap. But is it enough? Leadership entails an obsessive involvement with consumer dynamics as much as all the technical possibilities of those 0s and 1s. On this, too, Nokia has been caught unawares (as, one might add, has Microsoft on occasion). The 2004 transformation of the handset into an iPod like music player, for example, caught the handset maker by surprise---even as Motorola and others rocked. Of course, Nokia is breathing easier with the Microsoft deal, but as the game gets even more competitive, it needs to orchestrate an even more multifarious set of alliances. And that brings us to Finland's bigger proposition: the chance to ascend the software value gradient all the way up. As a genuine partner, not some distant supplier. Sharing the risks, sharing the returns, and shattering many a preconception in the fully-made-up mind. "Finland is good at data and mobile security, while India has internet solutions," says Saari, to give another example. So far, Indian firms have been into software coding, testing and offshore maintenance, largely. These are relatively unremunerative roles, to be frank. Roles that Silicon Valley has 'outgrown', since it has better stuff to do. But Finnish firms, in Saari's telling, would like to have Indian partners all along the value-to-market cycle, from start to finish---from idea, planning and architecture, all the way to the market interface. With a focused strategy, and given a fearless zest for true partnership, much can be achieved. This, in itself, is obvious. The question is what that strategy could be, and how well it can be put across without barriers getting in the way.
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