A month ago, a journalist of a reputable Finnish magazine turned to our editorial board, as she needed a lift in writing about young and successful Russian Finns.
She asked us for help in finding protagonists of her future interviews. We handed her quite an extensive list of names and thought that we should keep up with our colleagues. After all, it was time to bring back to life our Success Story -column – it was time to introduce those who we could be proud of.
The protagonist of our first interview is Anna Nikina who, in spite of her young age, can be considered as a successful person with huge potential. Here it comes – judge for yourself.
— Anna, we would very much like to interview you for the Spektr. In our view, it will help many young Russian-speaking people to boost their self-confidence.
— I absolutely agree with you that success stories should be told and, to be honest with you, especially women's success stories. Working in international business, I often have to attend business events and high-level meetings where men are always in majority: male leaders, male executives. I feel it especially acutely now when I live in Russia and meet delegations coming here from all over the world to learn more about the largest innovation project of recent years — Skolkovo. This is why I think that the situation needs to be balanced, and more support should be given to female leaders, executives and entrepreneurs — sometimes they work so much and commit themselves to work to such extent that, during the process, they forget or do not find time to share and tell others about their success.
— You are young, successful, talented and beautiful. You have already lived in a number of countries, and you speak a few languages. What drives you? What helps and what hinders you?
— It seems to me the X-factor of success is made up of many components. It might seem strange, but to a certain extent it is in your genes. Among my relatives, there are a lot of strong women: my mother, grandmother and other females of my extended family, and each of them has been a leader in her employment field. My mother is an excellent musician, composer and a talented teacher. When she was even younger than me now, she was awarded the highest reward, the Order of the Badge of Honour, for her outstanding performance in studying and work. My grandmother was among the first people in the Soviet Union who engaged themselves in information technology, when computers were not even around.
Apart from bred-in-the-bone, upbringing is also of great importance. I have recently had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine, the director of human resources in a large company, who has years of experience in personnel management. We talked about staff motivation, and, summing up, he observed that the best motivation was your own example. I think this is what happens in the upbringing of children: parents show by their example, in the first place, how you should or can live, how you should work, set goals and achieve them.
And, of course, there is your own spark that drives you on when you understand that you can and should do more in your career, you strive to expand the boundaries of your own world, you engage in creative activities and mould your success with your own hands. Perhaps, there is such a thing as destiny that opens doors for you and puts your life on the right track, but as I get older and look more closely at my own career, I appreciate more that life is what you make it. One of my favourite English words is 'tenacity' which can mean a number of things: perseverance, resilience, strength, firmness of will etc. For me, it means both building a career path, and the ability to remain faithful to your personal values having to work at a high pace, and the necessity to achieve measurable results in a short space of time.
As for the question about what hinders me, I don’t tend to go too deep into that. Please do not misunderstand me. I am a human being, and I can also moan about anything starting with the weather and ending with all the everyday hardships, but the main thing is to be able to skip these things and focus on those that are in your power to change. To be honest, I have a feeling that, on the whole, if I succeed in something, it happens, in the first place, despite something: my young age, the circumstances, the obstacles. That is why it is difficult for me to find common ground with people who attribute their failures to the circumstances or, shrugging their shoulders, take the stance that "such is life" and "we do not live in an ideal world". This is the simplest thing: to replace the freedom of action by the status of a prisoner of circumstances.
— I know that you attended two schools at the same time. How did you manage? Did you not have a feeling as a child that you did not have any childhood — all kids had a normal life, and you had to grind away at your studies twice as much as them? And you had other pursuits as well. What do you make of it all now?
— Yes, I studied in two schools at the same time. I went to a Finnish school, and simultaneously I was obtaining general education in a Russian school as an extra-mural student. It is not easy to explain because, of course, it was hard, and my workload was heavy. From time to time, I would complain to my parents about how hard it was to study like that, especially because in Russia each subject is studied as a science, whereas, in the Finnish education system, a child can choose either a short or a long (that is, either simplified or advanced) curriculum in mathematics, physics, chemistry and a number of other subjects, depending on his or her interests. But I still enjoyed studying algebra, Russian language, history and literature. On the other hand, though I did moan sometimes (like any other child), I always had a feeling that I was on the right track, and that I was doing the right thing. Otherwise, today, I would perhaps be talking to you in Finnish or English, and not Russian.
Outside school, I sang and danced for many years in a Russian folk song and dance ensemble that was directed by my mother. This involved numerous rehearsals, performances, tours, TV and radio recordings and even a grand prix, which we won at a festival in Belgium. All this was a source of inspiration, new friends and a taste for creation.
Now I think that the huge amount of the work that I did as a child is my great wealth as an adult. And, actually, the fact that I find it easy today to communicate with the public, with a large audience, from the stage is thanks to my hobby.
— Who do you see yourself as: a Finn, a Russian or a cosmopolitan? How important is it in the environment in which you have lived and are living now? Have you experienced, at any point in your life, a mismatch between your perception of yourself and other people's attitude towards you? Many young Russian-speaking people say that it is difficult for them to find where they belong in the Finnish environment. Some withdraw to themselves, others try to blend in with the crowd hiding their Russianness deep down, and others achieve recognition by their deeds — for example, Minister Maria Guzenina-Richardson who has only recently started to talk openly of her Russian roots. Is this close or alien to you? Or is your story totally different?
— To be honest, this issue is not easy to analyse. A long time ago, I heard someone say that language is the key to a person's soul. The fact that I am fluent in Russian, Finnish and English, and speak a few other languages to some extent, opens up the world, my perception of it, and of myself as part of it, from different angles. You start to perceive yourself as a person with a more complex spiritual and emotional structure, without confining yourself to the boundaries of a single identity — Russian, Finn or cosmopolitan. And do you need to put yourself in some category? It is a person's whole portrait that is interesting, the portrait of life. You know, it is like black-and-white photos taken by Steve Schapiro or other talented photographers able to capture on the film the moment when you are not acting in front of the camera, you just forget about the camera. In such photos, you always see more than just the national identity: you can see the real Person with his or her strengths and weaknesses. And it seems to me that it is that Person that you need to nourish in yourself.
As for young Russian people who cannot find where they belong in Finnish society, I was bullied at school, too, when my Finnish was not good, and it was hard for me to open up to new people and develop a deep friendship. It is hard to know what to advise here. Perhaps, it is important not to fall into the comfort and isolation zone, but to be bolder, to communicate, to be open to contact, and not to confine yourself to the concept of being a Russian, a Finn or a foreigner. I have a lot of friends among the Finns who I find interesting and who I can rely on — and that is invaluable. Perhaps, they would have come into my life sooner if we had paid more attention to what we had in common rather than what differences we had.
I would suggest that those who find it challenging to find where they belong in Finland should look at the situation from a different angle. It is in Finland that I received my first higher — free — education, obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, International Business, with distinction. A European degree and a strong basic education, in turn, enabled me to continue my studies abroad: I did my Master's degree in Business Administration, International Business, in a program of the University of Stockholm in France, and I wrote and defended my doctoral dissertation in the universities of Grenoble, France, and School of Economics and Management in Shanghai. As for my professional career, straight after I got my first degree, I managed to find a job relevant to my qualifications. I had a an interesting position in a Finnish company, where, virtually from the first days, I was engaged in business communication with company executives, managers and entrepreneurs, who paid a lot less attention to my young age and a lot more — to what I had to offer as a professional, my potential, and they gave me an opportunity to prove my worth. Finland is a unique country, open and not hierarchical, and I believe that this has become an important part of my professional experience, especially in my communication at a high level. Before I made a move to Moscow, Skolkovo, I had a chance of working in Finland in such companies as Trainers’ House and Nokia; I have been an entrepreneur, too. For the last three years before my move, I worked in the Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce in Helsinki, where, apart from everything else, I arranged and participated in visits of business delegations to different corners of Russia, very often under the supervision of the Finnish minister or the Finnish ambassador to Russia. Besides, the Chamber has strong Finnish female leaders (among them, Jaana Rekolainen and Mirja Tiri) who are successful, committed and fair — I think they are a good example of what one could strive for. So I have no doubt that the most important thing is to see and understand what unique opportunities for communication and development Finnish society has to offer. And if somebody decides to move to France, Italy or any other country, why do they think that it will be easier? When I first moved to study, work and live in France, I also had to start from scratch as I did not know the language, and I had to make new acquaintances and contacts — and everything worked out. Actually, it is most likely that it worked out thanks to the school of life that I had gone through in Finland.
— Did you know exactly what you wanted to be?
— No, I did not know, and my way in international business has been paved as I moved along. Some people have obvious inclinations, for example, for music, dancing, or, maybe, they have always wanted to be a doctor. At the crucial moment when it was time to go to university, I simply made the decision that I would study international business. As it is quite a broad area, it seemed to me that I would surely find how to apply myself in it. Moreover, it was my conscious decision to study at the international faculty: I wanted a diversity of communication, and, as a result, studying was interesting. Though here again I probably felt like the odd one out sometimes because I was the youngest in my year. But I am sure that you should not limit yourself or feel inferior for no reason. As a result, I have had a few very close friends since then with whom I still keep in touch.
And a bit more about whether I knew what I wanted to be as a child. I have noticed that successful people have this common feature: they are people of action who, even if they are not 100% sure that they have chosen the right path, they nevertheless start to act, and then adjust their actions as needed. The same applies to choosing a profession: I don't think you should be afraid to make the wrong choice — life is long enough for you to have an opportunity to make the adjustments.
This also refers to those circumstances that are sometimes beyond me. It might be due to my young age, but it seems to me that I could make all the achievements in my career even faster.
Sometimes I feel like I should be developing my career in one way, but life suddenly turns me to something else, and I get an absolutely different proposal to what I have been fighting for. In such cases, it is very important to be flexible, to be able to adjust to the situation, and to be open to the other scenarios that life throws at you.
— Anna, you are a creative person, and you write poems in English and Russian. Is creativity a way to protect yourself in the conditions of quite a tough world, or is it something else?
— I hardly ever tell anybody about this, but yes, I do write poems sometimes — I both enjoy the beauty around me, and I love creating beauty myself. As my workload is very heavy, my creative moments are now cooking a nice dinner, or writing a poem on the wave of inspiration, or the dreams that I allow myself sometimes when having a cup of tea, and the flowers that live in my home, and the books that I co-write. Apart from my career achievements, all that is me as well.
Anna was born in Moscow in 1984 and moved to Finland at the age of six. She received most of her higher education while working, starting from the age of 19. In France she defended the doctoral dissertation on female entrepreneurs in Scandinavia (and devoted the work to her mother). In 2012, on her birthday, Anna Nikina was awarded the prize of the year in New Orleans, USA, for her dissertation-based publication’s practical contribution to entrepreneurship. She has a nine-year career in international business and development of business partnerships with large companies and start-ups, investors and in business development consulting, including also the governmental level. Anna has built her career mostly in the EU and Finland, in such organisations as Trainers’ House, Nokia and the Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce. Since the beginning of 2012, she has been appointed Head of Development for International Programs and Business Partnerships at Skolkovo, the largest innovation project in Russia. She has taught at Hааgа-Heliа University in Finland and currently teaches at Grenoble University in France the topics of innovation management and development of international relations, and supervises student projects. She has co-authored books on entrepreneurship, including one of the latest books on female entrepreneurship published by Pearson Education (2012).
Translated from an interview published in Spektr Magazine (12/10/2012).
Original text available here