Finland named world’s strongest foundation for success

The Social Progress Imperative (SPI) has ranked Finland as the best country in the world when measured by the Social Progress Index, which measures countries’ success independent of GDP. We Finns have been able to improve our position in this year’s Index measuring despite the economic challenges we’ve faced in recent years. 

From my perspective the index results reflect at least three important things:

1. We will not have a complete picture of our human and societal development and opportunities by relying solely on a country’s wealth or GDP. We also need to understand our progress in important areas such as healthcare, education, housing, policing, rights and tolerance. These are the foundations of wellbeing and sustainable economic growth. The progress in these aspects is not sufficiently measured by GDP - a broader set of measurement is needed.
   
2. We have the keys to develop Finland’s competitive advantage. We have plenty of companies that are forerunners in tackling many of the challenges of sustainable growth with their products and services. Combining strong product expertise with our capability to build wellbeing, as well as the skills necessary to find completely new solutions, means Finland is uniquely placed to respond to the globally growing need for sustainable products and services.
   
3. Maintaining first place demands developing our society continuously. The index also shines a spotlight on those societal areas which we must improve to strengthen our pioneer position. Finland’s basic education gives children a first class foundation for success. However to secure our competitiveness in the future, we need to focus on maintaining the motivation of young men in further education as well as strengthening our advanced education institutions. Compared to peers countries with similar resources, we also have some work ahead of us when it comes to creating a more tolerant society.  

We Finns have an exquisite foundation on which to build our success, helping to meet the world’s growing demand for sustainable products and services. Now is the time to work on our global brand as the most successful country in both sustainable solutions and a prosperous society. Let’s be proud of this international recognition and boldly make the most of it nationally, and around the world.

- Kimmo Salakka, Director, Deloitte Finland

Kimmo leads the Supply Chain and Manufacturing offering in Finland. He has worked with clients in multiple industries in business model and supply chain transformation, and operational improvement. Prior to Deloitte Kimmo worked in the forest and logistics industries, with a focus on supply chain operations. Kimmo’s experience spans across the areas of supply chain strategies and planning, operations and process improvement, and related IT systems development.

Read the author’s full bio.