happens—they cannot blame the fact that they did not have the authority to stop it. It could still happen because of a lack of leadership, but not because there is a lack of technical tools or legislation or policy or architecture or direction.
The strength of the machinery can be seen from the fact that it took so long to find a formal replacement for me—the new GCIO started in the fall of 2021. Two of my former deputies had a shot at acting government CIO for a year, and everything continued to work. Even despite COVID-19; it is unreal the work they did to adjust to the pandemic. They had the governance and the right technology and their own leadership to keep things going.
Would You Do the Same Job Ever Again, Being Wiser Now, Too?
I have talked to a number of CIOs for other countries, including G7 and more. At the end of the day, the jobs are the same. I would definitely consider a job on the business side and citizen service side, not the technical side, and do it the way I think it should be done. So, I am never going to say that I will never take another public sector job. But I have done the government CIO job already.
What Are the Core Necessary Skills to Do This Kind of Job Well?
I think you need to definitely be able to have a public presence. Whether it is presentations, social media, media interviews, parliamentary committees—you need to be able to articulate your vision and the reasons why you are doing the things you are doing.
Listening is another big skill. I should have listened even more.
You have to be able to break things down into micro adjustments and keep at doing them. You need to do it this way in order not to fail big and to have a shot at changing the system.
You absolutely need to understand work-life balance in these jobs. These jobs can be all-encompassing. So, you definitely need some internal discipline on how to manage the balance in these cases.
What Are Your Bottom-Line Takeaways or Recommendations on How to Do the GCIO Type of Job Well?
My number one rule would be: remember that it is about the people, not the deliverables. It is about the memories you are going to have with those people, not what you will have delivered necessarily.
Number two: it is still just a job. A job like any other job. Do not lose sight of who you are, your hobbies, your family, whatever makes you really you.
Third thing: make sure you leave things in a better place than you when you inherited it. I think that you have to take a job like ours with the intention of leaving the place a better place than you started off with. If you do not do it, or if you cannot afterwards look back and say it, you should try harder or leave.
CHAPTER 3 Anna-Maija Karjalainen: Finland
Anna-Maija Karjalainen was the Director General in the Ministry of Finance of Finland for over seven years. Her responsibility area was the public sector ICT and digitalization, including the digital security.
Before joining the Ministry of Finance, she worked for five years as the divisional director in the State Treasury of Finland, leading the shared service center for state ICT services.
Prior to these governmental tasks she worked more than twenty years in the private sector leading ICT in international companies in the metal and paper industries.
She holds a master of science degree in engineering.
Maija was by far the closest colleague I had in the global digital government leaders' circuit. Part of it is because of the special relationship between our governments, which extended to the digital government sphere and took us to lead some internationally novel efforts. This included cofounding NIIS, the world's first intergovernmental govtech infrastructure consortium, to jointly develop the core technology of X-Road.
But we got close also because of our styles match. Maija is always very pragmatic, straight-shooting, no time wasting—but also always happy to have a good laugh and some fun, when the occasion is right.
Whichever international meeting she took part in, she always spoke out actively to share what they were doing in Finland, and she made her country noticed for the progress going on. She must be one of the most outspoken Finns there is, knowing the national stereotype of Finns as the most reserved folks on this earth!
It was not just talk that got others' attention, as you see from this chapter. Maija steered the Finnish public sector to a real turnaround in how it was delivering on digital government.
—SIIM
How Did You Become a Digital Government Leader in Finland?
I was working in IT in the private sector, and there was an opening to lead the consolidation of state IT services in the State Treasury of Finland. They wanted to build up a department to centrally provide to the public sector infrastructure-level services like network, email, collaboration, data center services.
So, I applied for that role, and I got it. I worked there for five years.
By 2014, there was a situation building up in the Ministry of Finance that the government CIO, my predecessor, was offered some new responsibilities. The heads of the ministry wanted to make a change, and I was asked if I could come in to cover the GCIO role for half a year, because so long appointment could be done just by the decision of the minister. Once I accepted, I was not sure I would not be in this position necessarily for longer.
What Was Your Motivation in Taking Up the Offer, Especially Given the Short Time?
I had seen that goals were not achieved. I had seen there was a sort of mistrust on how the GCIO team was able to deliver and do things. I saw the mistrust in if and how we could digitalize Finland. I wanted to build back the trust and belief that our government, and our ministry, would be able to deliver on digital government.
Of course, I was also very flattered to be offered the position. The Ministry in Finance is called the “super-ministry” in Finland, because they have power to see things through. A job with them was not something I had ever even dreamed about doing.
Did You Have Any Hesitations at All?
When I got the call, I asked how much time I would have to decide. They said ten minutes! I did not hesitate then at all and said “yes” because I thought it was worth a try. I did not even have time to talk to my husband at all. I was actually on holiday and jogging at the time of the call!
I surely did not know exactly what the work would be like. Of course, I had seen and been following from the agency side what was happening. But I did not know what the daily work was like. I was still anyways hoping that I could make some kind of change because of the mistrust in the atmosphere.
What Was the Expectation Laid Out to You or What Were You Called In to Do?
That
