|
 Oulu, with a population of about a quarter million, was once a key
Nokia R&D site, before the mobile maker was left for dead in the
global smartphone race by Apple's iPhone and handsets running
Google's Android software.
Nokia and its networks venture at one point employed about 5,000
people in Oulu, more than three times the next biggest private
sector employer, but now it has work for less than half that.
The city's unemployment rate topped 16 percent in the summer, a
level not seen since the Finnish financial crisis of the early
1990s.
But despite the gloom, and an average annual temperature of 2
degrees Celsius (36F), the buds of a recovery are visible in
Finland's biggest northern city, 600 kilometers from Helsinki.
It is becoming a model for the rest of the country as it fights to
fill the gap left by Nokia's tumbling sales and the tens of
thousands of job cuts that preceded the former world beater's
September decision to give up the mobile business and sell to
Microsoft.
Oulu is now a leading candidate to host a new data center for
Microsoft, which wants to invest $250 million on such facilities in
Finland after it takes over the Nokia business next year.
Former "Nokians" are starting to land on their feet, too.
Pasi Leipala, a former senior manager at Nokia, is now chief
executive at Haltian, which designs electronics and software
products and is one of the city's most successful start-ups.
Last year you could count its employees on the fingers of one hand.
Now it has a staff of 70.
"The best thing about Oulu is that there are so many skilled people;
it's easy to hire some of the best talents," said Leipala.
U.S. wireless chipmaker Broadcom is expected to save hundreds of
jobs by buying the Finnish wireless modem division of Japan's
Renesas Electronics, which previously planned to dismiss all
employees in Oulu, most of whom had transferred from Nokia back in
2010.
Telecom equipment maker Nokia Solutions and Networks, which will
account for 90 percent of group turnover after the sale of the
handset division, also plans to keep its 2,300 workers in Oulu, and
there is talk of hiring more.
Oulu's resilience is in part a national story, the fruits of a
determined focus on educational standards, which keeps the nation of
5.4 million people competitive. Finnish students score highly in
international proficiency tests, and an OECD test in October showed
its adults second only to the Japanese in both literacy and numeracy.
But even by Finnish standards, Oulu outperforms. A high
concentration of technology and science researchers, including those
at the University of Oulu and Oulu University of Applied Sciences,
means that head for head it outperforms Helsinki by more than two to
one in terms of the volume of registered intellectual property
rights, according to city officials.
MAKE LOCAL, SELL GLOBAL
The city doesn't just depend on hi tech, however.
Many residents take a short drive to the nearby industrial
neighborhoods to work in traditional businesses such as forestry and
machinery.
These sectors have struggled through Europe's long period of
economic stagnation. Finnish industrial output fell for the 12th
straight month in October, and the Bank of Finland expects GDP to
contract 1 percent in 2013.
Some local businesses, however, are finding ways round that
weakness. Johanna Koskelainen, CEO of Kymppi-Eristys, a family-owned
business specializing in industrial scaffolding and insulation for
mining and industrial projects, managed to grow sales this year
thanks to overseas contracts.
Its biggest customer has been Stora Enso's new pulp plant in
Uruguay, and more than half the company's sales comes from outside
Finland.
[to top of second column] |
"We have to be more global. In Finland I don't see many big projects
in the future," she said. "The growth is now coming 100 percent from
abroad."
Honkamajat, which makes log houses, has also been growing in
overseas markets such as Japan and Russia, while incorporating
automation technologies to make the manufacturing and delivery
process more efficient.
"We're now exporting log houses to more than 30 countries," said CEO
Kari Tolvanen in the company's plant in the outskirts of Oulu. "For
example, that one will be taken to Moscow by truck," he said,
pointing to logs being machine-cut with millimeter precision.
He expects sales this year will be near levels before the global
financial crisis of 2008, thanks to strong overseas sales. Without
exports, he would be at the mercy of a local factory-made log house
market that by total turnover is still around 25 percent lower than
pre-crisis levels.
WINTER BLUES
While Oulu's light summer nights and quirky events such as the Air
Guitar World Championships attract visitors, some local
entrepreneurs have even managed to capitalize on the long dark
winters.
Valkee, a company that sells headsets designed to relieve seasonal
affective disorder (SAD), a depressive condition that peaks in the
cold sunless months, was founded by former Nokia engineer Antti
Aunio and his scientist friend Juuso Nissila.
Like many Finns, Aunio struggled with SAD and asked Nissila for
advice.
They went on to develop portable devices that treat the condition by
channeling bright light directly to photosensitive regions of the
brain through the ear canal. It raised 7.4 million euros from
investors in June, adding to a previous round in which angel
investor Esther Dyson took part.
Others are hoping to emulate their success, helped by funding from
Nokia's Bridge program for former employees looking to start new
businesses, as well as the state's Tekes fund, which grants money to
technology start-ups.
A start-up center backed by the city and local universities is due
to hold a unique event in February called Polar Bear Pitching, in
which start-ups are invited to deliver pitches to potential
investors in freezing cold water from inside holes cut in the ice.
The cold, they say, will make them cut to the chase.
Kari Kivisto, another former Nokia employee, said Oulu would
innovate its way out of the downturn, recovering as it once did
after the tar industry collapsed in the 19th century. The city was a
center of tar production in the days of wooden ships, but their iron
and steel successors put paid to that.
"The tar business once flourished, and then all of a sudden it
disappeared," said Kivisto, whose start-up Spektikor makes
disposable heart-rate monitors that flash vital signs and help
paramedics respond efficiently.
"Once again we're seeing tremendous change. We'll survive."
(Editing by Will Waterman)
[© 2013 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2013 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
