"If something is not essential for achieving the goal, it won't be done"

Juha, you're involved in numerous companies spanning technology to wellbeing. You have a distinctive approach to problem-solving. What's it all about?

"Over the past 15 years I've developed a model I call reverse thinking. Where most people start by building a company from the bottom up, I start from the goal — the exit. I work backwards from the exit to the starting point and identify what is genuinely necessary.

I apply theoretical minimisation to this. If something is not essential for achieving the goal, it doesn't get done. This way, the workload can drop by as much as 90 percent. Companies often waste resources and lose time. When we work forward from the goal, we identify early on the critical points where additional resources are truly needed. Problems arise when no one has a unified picture of where things are heading and why."

How does this show up in practice when it comes to running a company?

"I encourage owners to speak openly about their personal goals. It's surprising how rarely these are discussed in concrete terms. If one person wants to sell the company in three years and another wants to pass it on to their children, you're on a collision course. A vague target always leads to inefficiency."

You're also involved in solving major environmental problems — through Betolar, for instance, addressing the carbon emissions of construction. Here, problem-solving happens at a systemic level. Betolar has developed a process capable of separating up to 99 percent of the critical minerals contained in tailings sand. The remaining material becomes green cement in the process. What drives you towards these kinds of questions?

"I want to focus on things that have real, calculable significance. Swapping out plastic cotton buds is the kind of 'nonsense' that won't save the world. But if we can replace cement or recover critical metals from tailings sand, we're talking about a scale that actually has impact — tailings sand is the world's largest environmental problem.

In all the hype around the green transition, we've seen how many large international companies operating in Finland have put their green projects on hold because they're generating nothing but losses. With the technology we've developed, waste mountains can be utilised in a way that improves the state of the environment while making the business economically viable at the same time. That's when things start to happen. It's the only way to bring about major change."

"Real environmental impact requires honest mathematics. In green transition projects, for example, you have to be willing to calculate all of the impacts. When you do, it quickly becomes clear that the actual environmental value may turn out to be marginal."

You've also been involved in legislative drafting working groups at the Finnish government. What is it like bringing an entrepreneur's voice into the ministries to support decision-making?

"It's been great to discover that a private individual can have quite a significant impact when they raise issues in a practical way and argue them from an ordinary person's perspective. I've been involved in shaping four or five pieces of legislation. Ministries need people who can explain how things work in real life — not just on paper. That's something wonderful about Finland: experts are genuinely heard in the ministries."

You talk a lot about energy and raw materials. How do you envision the world if these systemic problems are solved?

"I believe we're heading towards a point where energy will be so cheap that we'll be able to break materials down to atoms or molecules and rebuild from them endlessly. Raw materials will begin to circulate in their own closed loop.

When materialism reaches a point where everything is possible, people's values will change. I can already see it in today's younger generation: status is no longer built around possessions in the same way. The world I hope for is one where people seek spiritual wellbeing, connection and community. That's a healthy direction — and one that should have come sooner."

How do you yourself recover from all of this? Your work seems quite intense.

"The boundary between work and leisure has blurred with technology — in principle, I'm always working and always off. That's freedom. As a counterbalance, I do physical work on my farm. When you've spent days at a screen, there's something interesting about doing something quite heavy with your hands. Nature, hunting and being out on the water keep the mind clear."

The Ahaa article series features visionary innovators who are helping to build a sustainable future.