As a follow on to my Denmark trip I popped into Helsinki, Finland for a few meetings at Nokia HQ. I’m sure there are some picturesque office locations all over the world but I was struck by the lakes and forests surrounding the Nokia offices.

I’m not sure it adequately compensates for the mif weather for 9 months of the year but if you can pull-off a summer stint ,go for it.

To keep friends and family abreast I had an ongoing travelogue via my facebook mobile which really went well since on returning my friends were in the loop and didn’t just ask "How was it?", rather the questions were more targeted like, "What were you doing at the Annual Baltic Sea Herring Festival?!" or "How was your first ice hockey match?". The answer to the latter is that I have no clue how the game works and I’m convinced the puck is an excuse for body slamming but it’s a lot of fun to watch as for the former question, I’m not sure since I don’t eat much herring, but hey, Helsinki in October doesn’t have all that much going on.

I don’t come from the most cosmopolitan region in the world so I’m not sure if body piercing is currently in vogue but the Fins have taken heavy metal from a genre of music to fashion accessories, that being said I found the locals to be the friendliest I‘ve encountered anywhere in Europe and every time I asked a well-bolted teenager for directions they were smiley and obliging.

From my gleanings of local newspapers, Helsinki seems to be doing some soul searching trying to understand why it’s difficult for them to attract international skilled professionals. I must admit it wouldn’t be top of my list for an international transfer but for anyone contemplating working in the region I would suggest at least giving it a serious consideration since despite the obvious climatological cons it has a lot going for it especially if you like saunas and herring and particularly if enjoy them combined.

For those still perplexed about the Mikhail Gorbachev reference in the title of this blog, it originates from the Nokia head office where they have a random display of Nokia phones from different periods including one of the frontrunners; the original GSM phone used my Gorbachev back in the murky days of the USSR. It’s interesting to see the transformation of mobile phones in a brief epoch evolving from pallets with a handset to what we have today. I was also reminded of the remarkable transition which Nokia made after the end of communism whereby they ditched 90% of their business in favour of pursuing mobile phone manufacture, a text book case of prescient strategic management