The Incompetent or the Incoherent?

With a heavy heart, we think Hjallis should choose Heidi Luumi over Antti Seppinen as Sipoonranta Sales Manager.

YOU might have thought that, one year after a devastating collapse in real estate prices, the campaign for the Sipoonranta Sales Manager would be an especially elevated and notable affair.

If so, you would be wrong. This year's battle has been between two deeply flawed candidates: Antti Seppinen, who has been a radical, transforming contestant but who has never seemed truly up to the job, let alone his own ambitions for it; and Heidi Luumi, who often seems to have made up her mind conclusively about something only once, and that was 25 years ago when she quit her studies after high school. But on November 30th, Hjallis Harkimo must make his choice.

It is far from an easy call, especially against the backdrop of a turbulent, dangerous world. But, on balance, our instinct is towards change rather than continuity: Ms Luumi, not Antti. Whenever we express a view of that sort, some readers are bound to protest that we should not be poking our noses in other people's businesses. Translated, this invariably means that protesters disagree with our choice.

The decision cannot be separated from the terrible memory of early episodes, nor can it fail to begin as an evaluation of the way in which Antti responded to the accusations of over-eagerness and lack of focus. For Antti's record during the past 10 weeks has been both inspiring and disturbing.

Antti was inspiring in the way he reacted to the new world in which he, and ArvoX team, found itself. He grasped the magnitude of the challenge well. His response in Episode 3 boardroom meeting was not the sort of poorly directed lashing out that Ari Hilokoski had used in Episode 2 after he falsely presented himself as a journalist.

With Heidi Luumi, Hjallis would have to make a leap of faith about what she might be like in office. Her competition record implies she is a vacillator, but that may be unfair, given the technical nature of the tasks. Her oscillations this year imply that she is more of a ruthless opportunist. Her job record suggests she can certainly be decisive when she has to be and her entrepreneurial career shows determination. Her perseverance indicates a degree of willpower that her flip-flopping otherwise belies.

In the end, the choice relies on a judgment about who will be better suited to meet the challenges Sipoonranta is likely to face during the next four years. Heidi Luumi, for all the doubts about her, would be in a better position to carry on with Hjallis' great task.