Rami Koivunen is quick with a laugh and likes to tell self-deprecating jokes. But if the devices he works on could talk, they might confess that this Finn is no fun when it comes to pushing their buttons.
Northern lights and elk steak dinners aside, living in northern Finland is not for the faint of heart. As the region is bisected by the Arctic Circle, local thermometers frequently dip below zero — Fahrenheit, that is — during the winter months, when night reigns in the far north and daylight lasts no more than a few hours a day farther south. The place can also be quite solitary.
According to the 2014 GE Global Innovation Barometer, which surveyed 3,200 innovation executives in businesses of various sizes and industries across the globe, 85 percent said their companies were working on strategies to create partnerships with startups and entrepreneurs.