There can’t be too many pre-schoolers with a head for business : throughout his schooling Heikki Viitikko had got into trouble by exhibiting a single-mindedness and go it alone attitude at odds with his fellow pupils.
He had begun aged four by selling the domestic roller blinds that were the mainstay of his parents’ own business. Two decades later, following their retirement, he briefly took over management of the company as the same time as climbing the rungs of technology and manufacturing group Honeywell in his native Finland. With his self-employed parents working all hours he had little emotional support throughout childhood ‘leaving me to carve my own way out.’ It was largely this ‘stand on your own two feet’ approach that Viitikko attributes to his own resilience and determination to succeed.
‘Entrepreneurs are risk takers who are determined to walk their own way,’ he says. ‘They rarely copy other people. Although their idea may be similar to another’s they refine that idea and are utterly determined to make it happen.’
‘As I’ve got older my principles and values have combined into a strong and stubborn belief about what’s wrong and what’s right,’ he says. ‘Justice is a principle I don’t give up on. For instance when I was in middle management and I came across white lies being told by colleagues to customers in order to secure a deal I would contest that with them quite vigorously.’
‘When you’re young money is a driver but for me what ranks highest is the sense of achievement,’ he says. 'Sometimes when I’ve made a deal I sing from the office all the way home.................
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