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01732 759725 Q&A 44 We also said we would explore options to list our consumer business separately, turning us into two listed businesses on the Stock Exchange. We said we would make an announcement by the end of H1 next year, though I expect us to do it sooner. That raised a lot of interest. Another highlight was the launch of a new product portfolio on the B2B side called Elements. It is not just a product but a full-blown business system through which our partners can do business with us. Those would qualify as the biggest highlights. TR: Why are you considering a separate listing for the B2C business? JH: Historically, we have always taken the decision to invest in B2B or B2C. But results show that all our market segments are growing, so rather than saying we are going to favour one or the other in terms of investment, we want to create an environment where both B2B and B2C do well. It is partly related to the capital structure we have for supporting these businesses. TR: You have held leadership roles in the telecommunications, software and materials handling industries, and have board experience in the aviation and construction sectors. Had you had any experience of the cyber security industry In October 2020, Juhani Hintikka was appointed CEO of F-Secure, a cyber security company operating in three main markets – business security, consumer security and cybersecurity consulting. Here, Technology Reseller asks him about his first year in charge, his impressions of the cyber security industry and his future plans for F-Secure. Technology Reseller (TR ): I understand you have been in the role for a year now. What have been the highlights of your first year in charge? Juhani Hintikka (JH): What made these first 12 months challenging and interesting at the same time was that I became CEO in the midst of the pandemic. I was able to go to the office to start with, but after the first month it was all remote. Trying to get to know and understand the company and its people in fully remote mode is quite an experience. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a highlight, but it was certainly different to what I was used to. As any new CEO does, I initially spent time forming a view about the company before working on renewing our strategy in the Spring. There are a couple of highlights relating to the decisions we took then. One was the announcement of our intention to launch two distinctive brands – one for the B2B business and one for B2C. before joining F-Secure? JH: My only previous experience of the cyber security industry was as a private investor. That said, there are certain aspects of cyber security that are very close to what I have done before. For example, I was in the communications industry for about 20 years and some of the things relating to the assurance of quality in networks is very similar to elements of cyber security, such as ensuring you have the right configurations in place. That is both a quality question and an information security question, so there are interesting parallels. But I can’t claim to be a cyber expert. I am on a very steep learning curve now. TR: What are your first impressions of the cyber security industry? JH: That it is a very crowded market, a big market, with companies coming in from left and right with new ideas. All the segments are growing, so there is a lot of activity, but because it is evolving so fast, it is hard for any company to have a comprehensive offering covering all the bases – this is especially true for product companies, because sometimes there simply aren’t yet products available that cater to certain needs. This has led to the development of a fairly large services-driven cyber market, especially in consulting. TR: What challenges have you encountered over the last 12 months? JH: On a personal level, I would say the pandemic is the biggest one. I haven’t been able to travel, and we have 25 locations around the world. My leadership style is very much about meeting people in person and combining anecdotal experience with data from the reports we use around the company, so that has made things a bit difficult. And, of course, the people would benefit from getting to know me a little. In times of change, people like the leadership to be visible, so that has been a bit of a challenge. Regarding the industry as a whole, we have had some serious data breaches and attacks, especially in the past 12 months – Solarwinds, Vastaamo in Finland – and we have been part of the response. Those have been highly publicised events and created a lot of demand for our services. With Juhani Hintikka, CEO of F-Secure Tristan Foureur Q&A Juhani Hintikka