Europe is waking up to the notion of a multicultural workplace. Foreign talent is already helping Finnish businesses grow and succeed, but what we still often fail to see is the value of diversity in leadership teams. A multicultural C-suite or boardroom is not a fad. From access to new markets and better customer understanding to fresh new perspectives, diversity is a competitive advantage that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Himadri Majumdar is the CEO and Co-founder of SemiQon and a Boardman Member.

Diverse workplaces have seldom come about on accident. Neither were they the product of virtuous values and equal opportunities. Diversity has entered boardrooms because it makes business sense. What paved the way for more diverse leadership in the US was primarily the globalization of markets. When the likes of China and India opened their doors to foreign direct investment and welcomed foreign companies, multinationals started to become multicultural.

American Tech Companies Led by Foreign-Born CEOs

FMCG and tech companies often lead the charge in changing the way businesses run. Here too, we can see a pattern in companies like Microsoft, IBM, Google, NVIDIA, AMD, and more having foreign-born CEOs, often with Asian heritage and upbringing.

The value of diversity in the C-suite and the boardroom is often a combination of different factors. On the one hand, the right leadership can provide access to new markets. For example, significant number of American multinationals now have a strong presence in Asia. In many cases, their cherished clientele is also in Asia. This made the choice of having a CEO who understands those cultures pivotal for success. On the other hand, executives with Asian backgrounds have often grown up in multiethnic, multifaith, and multilingual societies, where diversity is as ingrained as it is in the modern global marketplace.

Similarly, those who have lived and worked in developing economies are accustomed to navigating complex business, social and political environments and engaging in different types of problem solving – often with endless uncertainties and finite resources.

Finnish Businesses Should Enrich Their Leadership Teams and Boards

Europe is slowly adapting to the reality of multiculturalism. There is hope and excitement, but also fear and backlash. Luckily the populist narratives and narrow-minded policies we see in politics are less common in the business world. European businesses are getting more multicultural than ever before, with one reason being the continent’s aging population. Most European economies have come to accept the cost of the demographic shift, and increasingly understand that they depend on immigration and foreign talent.

Attracting foreign talent already benefits companies, but we can do more. Finnish businesses should start enriching not just their personnel but their leadership teams and boards. Gender diversity is highlighted strongly, and rightly so. But further diversification will provide even more fresh perspectives. This adds value especially in markets that demand cultural understanding – including our largest export partner, the US.

Experts and leaders that were born elsewhere will be a growing trend in export-oriented businesses. We might witness some growing pains along the way, possibly stemming from a sense of loss of control and identity as workplaces become more diverse, and even more so with non-native leadership teams. But the direction is inevitable.

One approach is to sit around and wait for this to happen organically. It can – and with time it probably will – but if Finnish companies are hungry to grow, they should make diversity a conscious priority.

Nokia led the way in showing that the best candidate, regardless of national origin, can rise to the top. Others have embraced the same ideology and are seeing success. “You are who you are because of what you do, not the color of your skin” Ajay Banga, former CEO of Mastercard has been quoted saying.

Empathy Drives Leadership Success

As co-founder and CEO of a Finnish deep-tech company who was not born in Finland, grew up with a different culture and has a foreign name, but who has built a life and a career in Finland, I am one of the privileged few who are witnessing history in the making. Just earlier this fall, President Stubb speculated that in the future we might see a Finnish president who wasn’t born in Finland. I hope and believe that already much sooner, we will see a substantial increase in business leaders with different backgrounds and profiles.

SemiQon is now a company of twelve with five different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. We strive to break down barriers and create diversity in all its forms – we see experts as leaders and vice versa, and we try to make room for different ways of thinking. This enriches us and keeps us ahead in a globally competitive field.

Good leadership isn’t a product of a specific culture, nationality, or ethnicity, but our values and backgrounds shape our view of the world. In fact, research on how morals and values affect leadership has shown that for example South Asian executives are more likely to focus on the greater good than the bottom line. With me, this hits home.

I leave you with one last thought. Empathy is a cornerstone of successful leadership. We live in a divisive world. Having the willingness and ability to handle diverse points of view and then creating a culture, either in society or business, that aligns with all voices, will be the gold standard of future leadership. And we should accept no less in Finland.

Further reading

Stop Overlooking the Leadership Potential of Asian Employees: https://hbr.org/2024/06/stop-overlooking-the-leadership-potential-of-asian-employees

What Top-Performing Asian Leaders Do Differently: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2021/what-top-performing-asian-business-leaders-do-differently

Are CEOs Really India’s Leading Export? https://hbr.org/2014/03/are-ceos-really-indias-leading-export

Author

Himadri Majumdar is the CEO and Co-founder of SemiQon. Majumdar moved to Finland from India 20 years ago, and initially, he built his career in Finland as a researcher. Now he leads VTT’s spin-off SemiQon that is building scalable quantum technology based on semiconductors. Majumdar is a Boardman Member and has gone through Boardman’s CG and Board Work in Finland Training in spring 2023.

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