Entrepreneurship
In 1898, Polón participated in the founding of the rubber company Suomen Kumitehdas and became the company's deputy manager the following year. He served as CEO from 1900 to 1929 and from 1921 he was chairman of the board. It was decided to transfer the plant to the city of Nokia in 1904. Initially, the company faced major financial difficulties. As a result, a number of board members, led by Karl Alfred Paloheimo, wanted to oust Polón as CEO. Polón settled the dispute by buying the shares of Paloheimo and his other opponents and in 1915 became the company's majority shareholder.[4]
Thanks to the assets he acquired during the First World War, Polón created a group around Suomen Kumitehdas, which is now called Nokia Corporation. In 1918, Polón first acquired Nokia Ab, a wood processing and power generation company founded by Fredrik Idestam in the 1860s. In 1922, Suomen Kumitehdas, the rubber company, bought Suomen Kaapelitehdas, the Finnish Cable Works, founded by Arvid Wikström in 1912. The 1920s turned out to be a fruitful period of economic success for the Polón Group. Polón increased his prestige by making various donations for the benefit of the workers. This, however, did not prevent the company from drifting into serious labor difficulties in the late 1920s.[4]
Polón decided to name the company Nokia, the name of the town where the factories were based, in order to differentiate their products from Russian competitors.
Although the three companies mentioned were not formally merged owing to legal difficulties, the commercial success of Polón's investments created a "de facto group" or a cluster of three large companies in the early 1920s. The 'holding company' was operated by the board of directors of the Rubber Factory and by its CEO, owner and chairman of the board, Polón. Polón had to resign as CEO of the Suomen Kumitehdas in November 1929 after suffering from increasing symptoms of paralysis. His successor Torsten Westerlund had long opposed the merging of the companies because he feared that the leftist forces in Finland would insist on nationalization as the group had already become too large. The companies were officially merged with Nokia Ab in 1967.[6]
