interview

Was on the air this morning at the MTV3's Huomenta Suomi program, with Tapio Hedman.

Tapio is soon about to start in his new job, as the Managing Director of SEK&GREY, one of the largest advertising agencies in Finland.

We talked about the 2012 Presidential Elections, social media, the role of advertising, and the like.

Video here embedded from Vimeo, as usual.

Taneli Tikka on MTV3 Huomenta Suomi on 30.1.2012 talking about presidential elections and social media from Taneli Tikka on Vimeo.

It has been an active start of the autumn with several interviews and things going on; more on video than usual.

On 13th of October 2011 Finland is celebrating our second annual national fail day - a bold attempt to influence culture and attitudes. Trying to suggest that Finns could recheck the negative attitude towards risk and failure - and view the whole topic with a more intelligent angle.

"Success is inspirational - failure is educational." (quote from Prof. Mike Shaner).

You can find more about fail day in finnish from here:

www.epaonnistumisenpaiva.fi

And here's my fail day video in Finnish:

The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) also showed the video on their morningTV segment and interviewed mr. Petri Vilén on the phone. That's here (in finnish again, sorry folks):

The very next day I was also on MTV3 channel "Good Morning Finland" program again, this time talking about the upcoming changes with Facebook. In finnish again, video here:

Next year I will also be one of the people on stage in the Nordic Business Forum 2012 with sir Richard Branson and big names from Finland and abroad. They released the "teaser trailer" for the event yesterday on Youtube, it's here (in english):

Plenty more interesting things to come this autumn I hope! I have been mostly busy with developing Soprano Brain Alliance forward (we are still hiring, big time, btw). And working with a few startups on the side, as a kind of a hobby. Keeping it busy with mostly very positive things!

This morning again I was visiting MTV3 Huomenta Suomi program with Helene Auramo, CEO of Zipipop.

Video is up in Vimeo, and embedded here:

MTV3 Huomenta Suomi 9.5.2011 Taneli Tikka ja Helene Auramo keskustelevat sosiaalisesta mediasta from Taneli Tikka on Vimeo.

nHere's the same videoclip in YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLCqTT80DRU

All critique and comments are welcomed as always!

This theme could have gone on for quite a while, we just barely touched on the surface details. It's a shame that TV, because of the nature of its format, kind of automatically means that the substance will have a touch of entertainment and popular topics in there. And always too little time for it all...

Earlier today I was a guest in Good Morning Finland (Huomenta Suomi) on the MTV3 channel. I was there with Jaana Kurjenoja, Chief Economist of the Federation of Finnish Commerce. Topic was ecommerce and its relation to the structural change of trade; how it affects the trade of special items and how services are also transferring to ecommerce models. And how ecommerce is evolving.

Here's the video clip from it:

Taneli Tikka 8.2.2011 Huomenta Suomi - Ecommerce from Taneli Tikka on Vimeo.

All feedback much welcomed!

I recently blogged about upcoming events here. It turns out that they had to move the 6.10.2010 event to a future date (perhaps in early 2011), so that'll have to wait.

Last week I was a speaker and a panelist at the www.veemaisin.fi event. Here's a finnish language story and wrap up about the event. One direct quote from it: "”Tilastokeskus ei ole suostunut julkaisemaan tämän hetken tilannetta. Suomessa on ylisuuri julkinen sektori ja alaspäin syöksyvän spiraalien kierre, kun sen pitäisi olla toisin päin”, jyrähti Tikka ja sai lähes täydeltä salilta spontaanit aplodit."" I am talking about public spending (and its ratio to GDP) and the fact that the Finnish statistics bureau currently refuses to report the situation. The latest statistic we have on the topic is this one from 2008. The EU statistics bureau (Eurostat) luckily has the 2009 figures behind this link. The 2010 figures are estimated to be even worse. According to Eurostat the only EU country spending even more (in relation to their GDP) than Finland is Denmark. When our GDP is growing slower than our government expenses are; you can guess what happens? This is a particular problem for Finland who has "corporative-conservative" societal structures, making change very slow and preserving the Status Quo one of the top priorities of the government. In another words = are going for broke. Full speed. Greek style. At least there is a very significant risk of this happening.

I would have the solutions to our situation and it is rather frustrating to see our impotent politicians unable to make decisions and act.

However often when I mention this topic to people they come up with the counterargument: money isn't really money, so taking in more debt and going for broke is only an illusion. Naturally, in a twisted way, they are right: the Euro as a currency is not real money at all and only represents a faith based currency of no intrinsic value. Also people often argue that if Finland doesn't soil the value of the Euro to the ground, the Greeks and others alike will do it anyways. These are fair arguments. They are also problems government has created for us. Why are we looking towards the government for solutions to the kind of problems they have created in the first place?

Ok, enough of that. If you would like to see a change in reckless government spending and expansion there are a few things you can do: openly oppose it and talk about it frequently. Let your opinion be heard. Vote for people who do so also, and encourage others to do so as well.

Then way back to an oldie but goldie:

Remember this old talk from almost a year ago?:

Taneli Tikka talking about entrepreneurship 15.12.2009 from Taneli Tikka on Vimeo.

It's me and Petri Niemi (Capman) discussing with Mauri Pekkarinen (minister of the economy) about startup finance, entrepreneurship and creating a competitive environment for growth.