Paula Salatie是Teknos集团的所有者，董事会成员兼首席执行官。自2018年开始，她就是欧洲油漆、印刷油墨和艺术家色彩行业理事会（CEPE）的董事会成员。

您在2021年的工作重点是什么？

因为疫情，2020年对每个人来说都是不同寻常的一年。第一季度改变了我们的生活节奏，我们不得不学会不同的工作方式。在未来，远程办公的状态还将持续。我们从这些经历中汲取教训，并渴望看到由此带来的新机会。同时，通过自身增长和收购，今年也将迎来新的增长机遇。对我们来说，招聘将是首要任务。想要实现增长，就要保证有足够强大的组织来支持我们的目标，这意味着我们需要以与以往不同的方式与人建立联系。

您是一位成功的商业领袖，迄今为止，您最引以为傲的职业成就是什么？

我从事这个行业已有20多年了，确实有些成就让我引以为豪。第一个就是我接管这家公司。作为家族企业，这意味着我要买下我兄弟的全部产权。但是，最令我感到自豪的，是我们实施了新战略，并且我们能够始终保持家族精神。扁平的组织结构确保了这一点，尽管我们在20多个国家和地区开展业务，净销售额约4亿欧元，但我们近1800名员工仍然能与每个人进行沟通。

Facebook首席运营官Sheryl Sandberg表示：“在未来，将不会有女性领导者，而只有领导者。”对此，您怎么看？

我从小受芬兰传统文化的熏陶，长久以来，性别平等在芬兰已成为现实。对我而言，“被允许”去做我想做的事情从来都不是问题。你是女性还是男性，眼睛是棕色或是蓝色，这些都是由偶然决定的。未来将只有领导者，话虽如此，但要真正达到这一点，还需要时间。因此，我们必须非常重视多样性，并为愿意承担挑战的人创造平等的机会。我讨厌这样的问题：你对女性的工作感觉如何？就像我要问一个人：你如何才能像男性一样处理好家庭生活的平衡？这个问题毫无意义，如果你擅长自己的工作，那么你就会在这个工作上做的很好。

您认为，涂料行业未来的挑战是什么？

我们行业和别的行业的发展方向是一样的。在未来，我们会更多的关注与客户，合作伙伴和自己员工之间的联系。关键问题是：我们怎样保证与所有利益相关者的长期关系。进一步确定我们的客户，并找到与他们互动的新方法（通过联合开发运营）来发掘他们的需求，这点至关重要，因为随着行业的发展，我们将经历更多的有关生命周期分析和涂料全面影响的交流变化，这意味着，我们需要将其转化为故事，并让客户意识到。对我们而言，可持续性是未来的关键组成部分，这不仅仅从环境角度出发，同时也需要考虑到公司的可持续发展，我们与客户及供应商的可持续发展。

Paula Salastie is the owner, Board member and CEO of Teknos Group Oy. She is also a member of CEPE board since 2018.

What are your priorities for 2021?

As for everybody the year 2020 has been an unorthodox year due to the pandemic. The first quarter changed our daily reality. We had to learn to work differently. In the future, we will continue to work remotely work. We have learned from this experience and are keen to see what new opportunities will arise from it. Also, this year will bring new opportunities for growth, both organic and through acquisitions. For us, recruitment will be on the top of the agenda. To be able to grow, we need to ensure that we have a strong organization to support our target. This, in turn, means that we need to connect with people in a different way than we have been used toto date.

You are a successful business leader, what so far is the achievement in your career that you are most proud of?

As I have been in the industry for more than 20 years, there are a few moments. Possibly, the first one set the course; it was my decision to take over the company. For a family business that meant to buy out my brother. However, what I am most proud of has been the implementation of our new strategy and that we were able to keep the family spirit. This was ensured by a flat organizational structure that enables our, almost 1800 employees, to communicate with each and every one, despite working for a global coatings company with operations in more than 20 countries with net sales of about €400 million.

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook said “in the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders”. What are your views on this quote?

I was brought up within the traditional Finnish culture which, in a way, is very tolerant. Gender equality has been a reality in Finland for quite a long time. For me, it was never a question to be “allowed” to do what I wanted. Whether you are female or male is decided by chance, as is whether you have brown or blue eyes. Having said that there will be just leaders, but it will still take some time to truly get to this point. Therefore, we must put a lot of emphasis on diversity and on creating equal opportunities for anybody who is willing to take on challenges. I hate the question: how do you like your job as a female? That would just be the same as if I would be asking somebody: how can you handle the family life balance as a man? I do not think that plays a role. If you are good at what you do, you are good at what you do.

What are, in your view, tomorrow’s challenges for the coatings industry?

Well, our industry is heading in the same direction as everybody else. In future, I see more focus on connectivity with customers, partners, and our own people. The key question is: how can we ensure a long-term relationship with all our stakeholders? It will be especially crucial to further identify our customers and to find new ways to engage with them, possibly through joint development operations, to discover their needs. This will be important, because we, as industry are going through the change of communicating more about the life cycle analysis and the full impact of coatings. That means that we need to be able to translate that into a story and make our customers aware. For us sustainability will be a key component of the future, but not only from an environmental perspective, but also in terms of company sustainability and sustainability in our relationships with customers and suppliers.