Mikael Honkavaara
Together with his team, the managing director of Hybrid Graphics Oy, Mikael Honkavaara, 42, has succeeded in piloting a small software company to a position as an internationally renowned and respected company.
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Together with his team, the managing director of Hybrid Graphics Oy, Mikael Honkavaara, 42, has succeeded in piloting a small software company to a position as an internationally renowned and respected company. Last spring, Hybrid ascended one step on the road to expansion, when its was acquired by NVIDIA, a world leader in programmable graphics processor technologies. The US company, which has a turnover of about EUR 2 billion and employs some 3,000 people, describes Hybrid's engineers as ?elite ninjas?.
So have things changed since the acquisition?
Well not really. Because it?s a question of a large publicly-listed company, now we have to think a little about what we can say and what we can't, as talk can affect the share price. By the way, I don't understand why Finland acts so indifferently to such deals. This opens up quite different kinds of possibilities for us to grow and expand. We?re now employing 37 people and, within a year, there?ll be 20 more, most of them engineers.
So what about this internationalisation?
What is internationalisation if not serving customers somewhere else? Stupid word. For us it just means going to where the customer is.
So how much do you people travel?
At best, an employee can be off travelling about 200 days a year. I myself am away on average 160-170 days a year. Taking care of customer relations abroad is of utmost importance - it?s more profitable to invest in travelling than internationalisation. Nowadays it?s great that customers also come here to meet us.
In practice, you?ve doubled your sales within a couple of years; how have you come to this point?
I didn?t become managing director until 2000, and by then the company already had over 1,500 contacts. During the first months, I chatted with the engineers and noticed that everyone had a passion not only for graphic skills but also academic. When a team is as ambitious as that, then it can go far. We simply wanted to rise to the top, our financial backers believed in us and gave us free rein to put our new plan into action and concentrate on our main product, the licensing of 3D graphics. Failure was not a possibility.
Why not?
It wasn't part of our plan. All the time, we have to believe that we'll make it - I can?t say it?s easy, as financially it?s always a tricky balancing act. The boss of a small company must give himself full credit when he succeeds at something. Every now and then you take a beating, but when you succeed, you have to make a noise about it.
How does growth happen?
The growth curve of a software company can be divided into three clear stages: at the start, you?ve got nothing to sell, no money and no customers. Just some great demos and you blow your own trumpet.
At the second stage, you?ve actually sold something and you have some turnover. You still blow your own trumpet. At the third stage, you?re already at the point where you don?t need to bellow any more. You don't talk about technology any more and you can sell products that you haven?t even started yet. For us, this development process took ten years.
What tips would you give to small business trying to grow?
There are two things that I?ve always wanted to do. This first is to be a professor of graphic design and the second is to set up a ?school of cock-ups?. You could get company directors to drop ten years' worth of clangers in three months, as everyone always makes the same mistakes. There?s no sense in going knocking on the doors of big companies straight away, as they simply won?t dare to buy anything from you. The same applies to trade fairs, where it?s never any use to go alone and occupy some sweaty little stand. It?s always worth going with a customer, because then it?s much easier for someone else to notice your abilities and have faith in them.
Education?
B.Sc. (Econ.)
Career turning point?
I?m sure it was when I was 25, stopped downhill skiing and went to school.
Role model and motto?
Difficult to name one. If you're looking through films, then Rokka of ?the Unknown Soldier? perhaps depicts me best. Don?t go through the fence at its lowest point, but there where the biggest hole has been made.
Interests?
Skiing and racket games like tennis, squash and badminton.
Toy?
A Fiat 500 L from 1969. I drove it here myself all the way from Milan.
Author: Jaakko Isoniemi
Translation: Arancho Nordic Oy