Move from growth ambition to focused international action
Bold International Growth - BIG
A premium multi-company growth journey designed to help Boards and Management teams build clarity, courage and alignment around international growth decisions in an increasingly complex global environment. By combining Nordic academic excellence, proven real-world growth practice and peer learning in a curated non-competing cohort, BIG helps you sharpen customer- and brand-led growth logic and translate insight into focused action.
The Finnish economy has not grown in 18 years. It is time to change this.
The key is in the hands of our companies: to raise growth ambitions and to develop the right mindset and company culture for that. We at Hanken & SSE are on a mission to support companies in making clearer growth choices, develop faster learning and build stronger alignment around growth between owners, boards and management to succeed internationally.
BIG strengthens alignment across owners, board and management—so international growth choices become priorities, investments and action.
For companies ready to commit to bold international growth
Created for organisations with a serious intent to grow internationally. BIG is ideal for Chairs, CEOs, leadership teams and key experts who want to strengthen growth governance, sharpen customer- and brand-led growth logic and build faster learning in a rapidly changing global context shaped by AI, data and geopolitical uncertainty.
The Hanken & SSE edge: Finnish reality × Swedish growth recipe
Drawing on our unique Hanken & SSE dual-business school foundation, BIG combines:
- a deep understanding of Finnish business realities and mentality
- a proven Swedish growth recipe built on customer value, branding and international scaling
BIG builds a shared Growth Mindset across the OBM chain with a bold ambition, clear priorities, and strong growth-enabling culture.
How BIG works
To bridge the common gap between strategy and execution, BIG runs in two streams.
Stream 1 focuses on the core growth themes (for CEOs and Chairs of Board):
You build a shared direction, priorities and decision-making around international growth for your organisation.
Stream 2 ensures immediate application (for leadership teams or change task forces in participating companies):
Participants work on real company challenges in workshops that translate the themes into concrete initiatives and learning in practice.
The programme themes and structure are based on in-depth-interviews and Round Table discussions with CEOs and Chairs and other growth professionals during spring 2026 to ensure highest relevance and impact—with special attention to AI, data and geopolitical uncertainty.
After BIG your organisation will have
- A clear shared growth ambition anchored at Board & Management level
- A focused growth logic built on customer value, branding and international scaling
- A Board-Management aligned growth plan with priorities and investment principles
- A model for fast learning through courageous experimentation
- Practical use cases for AI & data as growth accelerators
- A trusted peer cohort of growth-committed companies (non-competing)
Programme Director Petri Kokko
Petri is one of the most experienced tech leadership and AI-profiles in our country with an international leadership background from e.g. Google and Nike. He is Executive in Residence at Hanken and a member of the Board of Directors at e.g. Oras and Arbonaut.
Why companies join multi-company programmes
A multi-company programme brings together 5–8 non-competing organisations, each sending 3–5 participants, to learn around a shared strategic theme.
Companies value this format because it offers more than learning alone:
- Better decisions through broader perspectives and stronger systems thinking
- Strategic networking and peer dialogue across organisations facing similar challenges
- Cross-company benchmarking to test assumptions and compare approaches
- A trusted space to learn, unlearn and challenge ideas with a curated peer group
- A shared investment and immediate practical impact through work on real company priorities
- Valuable relationships that last beyond the programme
Your contact for this programme
