The Nordic Business Forum 2025 was exactly that: an intense journey through innovation, culture, change, and purpose, with a clear and pressing message: the future won’t wait for us, but it can be shaped with us.

Last week, Softway’s New Business team landed in Helsinki, welcomed by the biting Baltic cold and, unexpectedly, by an atmosphere of warmth and connection. 7,500 people from across the globe gathered in a single congress hall just outside the city center, for one of the largest leadership and management events in Europe. Every year, thousands of leaders come together to reflect on what’s next. It’s more than a conference: it’s an immersive experience where talks intertwine with music, networking sparks into meaningful conversations, and nothing feels accidental. Everything is carefully designed to pull us out of routine and open space for fresh perspectives, a journey meant to transform us, and through us, the organizations we serve.

This year’s theme, Moving Forward, was not a distant promise but an urgent call: moving forward requires looking at the path already taken, choosing what we carry into the future and what we must leave behind. It was an invitation to reflection, to look ahead with courage, to let go of habits that no longer serve us, and to cultivate routines that prepare us for uncertainty. More than a catchy slogan, Moving Forward was a guiding thread felt as a vibrant appeal in every talk, every conversation, every musical moment. Structured around three main pillars - Culture, Foresight, and Growth - the program took us on a true journey, challenging us to design organizations that are more authentic, more creative, and above all, more resilient in the face of tomorrow.

Over two days it became clear that Moving Forward is not just about advancing, but about innovating with courage, breaking with the past, and preparing for a future that refuses to be predicted. We realized that true progress is not about piling up the latest technology or chasing trends, but about the profoundly human (and uncertain) experience of daring to experiment with what does not yet exist.

Because to speak of Moving Forward is, inevitably, to speak of innovation. And to speak of innovation is to speak of humanity, of people.

On the main stage, many voices resonated, each with its own perspective, yet all pointing in the same direction: the future demands humanity, clarity, and courage. Howard Yu reminded us that innovation is not a project with a beginning and an end, but a continuous habit of learning and scaling new capabilities. Risto Siilasmaa, with the experience of leading Nokia through turbulent times, reinforced that optimism must always be accompanied by prudence and strategic vision. Meanwhile, April Rinne invited us to see uncertainty not as a threat, but as fertile ground for possibility - a space where adaptability becomes the greatest competitive advantage.

What remains is the awareness that being “future ready” means cultivating open, creative, and people-centered cultures. As Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO of Xero, put it: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s just not.” At the same time, the idea of strategic foresight echoed strongly - it is more than observation. It requires the courage to act on intuition, to question continuously, because, as Risto Siilasmaa reminded us, “the future rewards those who act on what they see.”

The idea of growth, in turn, was marked by the calm irreverence of the almost mythical American music producer Rick Rubin, who challenged us with the notion that expansion inevitably means simplifying to gain clarity. His perspective, through a creative and almost zen lens, showed us that growth is not about doing more, but about creating space, silence, and focus so that innovation can emerge.

Regardless of the speaker or the format, the same foundation always shone through: the human link. It was inspiring to see how, amid so many different perspectives, the vision of the future was anchored in the idea that innovation only makes sense when it puts people at the center. The message was clear: we can and must move forward, experiment, and reinvent, but without losing sight of the humanism that gives meaning to progress. It is this trust in human potential that reminds us that the future is not only a challenge to face, but also a promise of new opportunities.

We returned from Helsinki with the unease and excitement of discovering what Moving Forward means for Softway. It is questioning old beliefs, leaving behind the “zombies,” as Dana Kadr put it, and making space for the new way. It is finding balance between major transformations and the small gestures that keep the soul of an organization alive, with the awareness that even a single centimeter forward can be enough to spark extraordinary change. It is realizing that “AI is a great tool. But it can’t make people care.”

And perhaps most importantly: we did not return with ready-made answers, but with better questions. What does it mean to be prepared for a future that evolves ten times faster than the industrial revolution? How can we innovate without losing sight of our humanity? How can we build the future, rather than just react to it?

Among many ideas, echoes remain with us, and the commitment to let them resonate here, at Softway.