Growth Collective 10 years

‍Before the first meeting — growth awakening

“When this movement was launched just over 10 years ago, Finland was lagging behind. We were frozen in some kind of slump. Only about 10 to 15 per cent of companies actively sought growth and renewal. We thought that something had to be done about it.”

— Aaro Cantell, founding member

The roots of the Growth Collective go back to 2013, when the association Technology Industries for Finland set up a working group to consider how Finnish companies' desire for growth could be concretely strengthened. An insight emerged: medium-sized companies have significant growth potential — but their management needs examples, courage and peers to support them.

In autumn 2014, the Grow Finland! event was organised at the Marina Congress Center in Helsinki. Risto Siilasmaa, Sari Baldauf, Mika Anttonen and Aaro Cantell were on stage — and there was a group of decision-makers who were united by a desire to grow. This event sparked a movement that grew into the Growth Collective.

Community is being built | 2014-2015

In 2015, the activity became more concrete: the first KASKI event was organized and the first five sparring teams were established. These confidential small groups made it possible to share growth strategies, defuse uncertainty and build ambitious plans. More than 100 members joined the community. During the first year, there were already 25 sparring sessions organised in small groups.

A community was born, where the members shared no ready answers, but rather talked about honest decisions and uncertainty surrounding growth. Experiences were shared in openly and in confidentiality, and peer support was a real asset.

Growth as a Community | 2016—2019

The Growth Collective evolved into a programmatic community: theme nights, growth hacking, pop-up meetings, Future Back events and even a 1-on-1 matching app emerged. In 2019, a dedicated web-based workspace was established to provide a platform for communication across the community. The big Kaski events brought together different actors of the whole community and society in a broad way, to showcase the will to grow as well as successful companies.

At the heart of the community, the same basic idea remained: bold growth only comes when it is talked about openly. The Growth Collective also developed its own growth methodology and vocabulary to frame its activities. The outrageous promise, growth initiatives, milestones, and concrete steps spurred growth leaders to work and increase the will to grow.

A growth mindset in the midst of the pandemic | 2020-2021

As the world closed in, the Growth Collective adapted. During this exceptional period with restrictions, the Sustainable Growth -programme and the Virtual Growth Captain Cafes were launched. These were new discussion formats that created space for renewal, and were able to be implemented nimbly within the framework of COVID restrictions. At the same time, virtual 1-on-1 matchings between members were created to help companies with individual growth decisions.

Sustainable growth and corporate social responsibility were increasingly themes at the centre of the sparring. The aim was to deepen the effectiveness of the operations of the Growth Collective by opening up the opportunity to participate in the Sustainable Growth -programme for the members of the management team of member companies.

“Throughout the journey, the Growth Collective has lived as they teach: launch and learn. Tried, revamped and moved on.”

— Aaro Cantell, founding member

Peer-to-peer sparring brought to the new normal | 2022—2023

In 2022, we got used to face-to-face meetings again and the launched the Growth Days — a new community forum dedicated to issues of leadership and renewal. The theme meetings continued virtually. The sparring teams were organised in a hybrid format and were reduced in size to give individual members higher quality and more targeted sparring. At most, the Growth Collective had 19 sparring teams active at the same time.

The content of the sparring began to focus more and more on strategic changes, radical renewal, and on building bolder growth leaps for companies. The themes of 2023 revolved around sustainable growth and radical renewal.

Growth Collective Rebooth | 2024—2025

In 2024, the theme of the sparring year was radical renewal and discussions focused on issues such as responsibility, internationalisation, ecosystems and the use of artificial intelligence. The time was also ripe for the Growth Collective to reform itself.

The objective of the reform of the Growth Collective was to establish an increasingly ambitious and influential role in the community of growth leaders for the Growth Collective. We wanted to restore the Growth Collective as a movement, as it was in the beginning. The aim was to create a sustainable basis for operations and to build a new direction towards 2030.

In 2025, the “reboot” of the Growth Collective was carried out. We published the Vision for Finland's Growth -report, which is an invitation to the entire business community to join in creating a new national identity for Finland. An identity in which we look at ourselves with fresh eyes, act fearlessly and generate momentum for growth around us.

Our theme this year is Transforming the Business, which aims to discover new opportunities for growth, including in areas that have yet to be mapped out. At the beginning of the year, a renewed sparring team service was launched, where members pitch their BIG BET for renewal, i.e. a significant strategic choice. Each group has an experienced growth mentor to support them in addition to the peers.

Our future direction has begun to emerge through more than 100 BIG BETs. Our community is now building a service-oriented, technology-enabled and internationally scalable business, where the green transition and a new kind of customer focus form a new platform for growth.

The pursuit of growth is the choice by which innovative companies are now building the next chapter of the Finnish economy. That's why, as trendsetters, our vision is to make growth into our new national identity. Today we celebrate not only our history but the fact that we are once again on the move. Thank you to everyone who has been or will be on our journey! 🥂

Over the past 10 years, we have involved:

⭐ 400 member companies

⭐ 600 executives

⭐ 500 peer sparring sessions

The history of the Growth Collective is also part of Finland's economic history. We have been a movement of bold growth in the midst of uncertainty, pandemic, geopolitical upheaval - and yet we have always looked ahead. We are united by a passion to map out those opportunities that have not yet been conquered. The pursuit of growth is the choice by which innovative companies are now building the next chapter of the Finnish economy. That's why, as trendsetters, our vision is to make growth a national identity. Thank you to everyone who has been with you on the journey!

“The growth group has at least as great a task today as it has in history—perhaps even greater.”

— Aaro Cantell, founding member