Look Closer in Finland

Trust is a major asset in the Finnish business sector but can also create unforeseen problems. Ben Gladnikoff is Look Closer’s country representative in Finland and helps companies carry out safer business and recruitments – and also protect against attacks from malicious actors of various kinds.

Ben Gladnikoff, Senior Analyst at Look Closer

In the first quarter of this year, foreign buyers accounted for about a third of completed corporate transactions in Finland, according to statistics from Mergermarket and EY Parthenon. Three of the five largest transactions involved foreign buyers.

Look Closer has advised clients on integrity due diligence (IDD) in the Finnish market for more than 15 years. Although it varies from year to year, cross-border corporate acquisitions are typically significant, says Ben Gladnikoff, Senior Analyst at Look Closer, based in Helsinki.

– The share of foreign investments in Finland remains large and we see buyers with both long experience of the Finnish market, not least from Sweden, and those making their first acquisition and are new to the local business culture. We see growing demand for our services, which are now used both in platform and add-on acquisitions, as well as in recruitment.

Just like in other Nordic countries, trust plays a big role in Finnish business culture. For better or worse, this tradition has been challenged in recent years. A high level of trust is considered a solid foundation for a growing business sector but can also conceal e.g. cronyism and morally questionable behavior. As a buyer or owner of a company, you may end up acquiring or hiring in problems if you do not check who you are dealing with.

– Conducting a thorough background check is especially important for individuals in senior positions and on the board. If you have a CEO with a history of poor leadership culture, or elements such as sexual harassment or racism, then that is a problem you inherit if you acquire the company or hire the individual, says Ben Gladnikoff and adds:

– You can no longer accept this and just say “he’s a good guy” anyway. There is a big difference in what we are willing to accept in the workplace today compared to just twenty years ago. Even if some still view background checks as an intrusion of privacy, the cost is far higher for everyone involved if the problems are not discovered in time.

An integrity due diligence conducted by Look Closer consists of open source research, but often also of discreet enquiries – a deeper form of reference checking. By combining research of physical archives, digital services, and a person’s online footprint with personal stories from interviews, a more nuanced and complete picture is formed. For particularly important positions, interviews are also conducted with the candidate.

– We work without preconceptions and have to turn over every stone. Our clients must be able to trust that we find what can be found. Trust is good, but when you’re responsible for other people’s money and resources, it is not enough. Then you need to verify.

Protection against corporate spies

Ben Gladnikoff has worked with complex investigations and intelligence analysis for nearly fifteen years. He worked at several international firms before joining Look Closer in Stockholm in 2020. During his time abroad, he experienced first-hand how private intelligence services are hired to spy on companies, which inspired the idea to offer services to protect businesses against such attacks.

– It’s not just private intelligence services that pose a threat in terms of infiltration and attempts to access individual employees’ knowledge. It can also be state actors or criminal networks. The difference is how willing they are to break laws, the size of the budget, and the time horizon – but the methods are exactly the same.

Ben Gladnikoff’s experience is that Nordic companies – especially Finnish ones – have low awareness of the risks. Most have robust IT security systems but forget that individual employees are often far more vulnerable. This is exploited by less scrupulous actors who, using fake fronts like recruitment firms or by posing as interested students, contact employees and trick them into revealing sensitive information. These methods can be used to collect many types of trade secrets.

– This is not something you can outsource, like IT protection – you have to do the work yourself. It’s about changing policies and building threat awareness, but ultimately it’s about changing your own behavior, which is a big challenge, says Ben Gladnikoff.

He has a simple rule of thumb he recommends everyone to follow:

– If you are contacted by an outsider who wants to ask questions or entices with a job offer, never share any information. Instead, start by asking yourself who this person is and why they are contacting you specifically. Double-check all information you receive and, as a first step, contact a colleague or manager.

Look Closer offers preventive training for management teams and security departments or people in other roles. Simply by making employees more aware of risks and the threat landscape, a company’s resilience can be significantly strengthened.

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