nominations

Today the Finnish Information Processing Association, FIPA (or TTL, Tietotekniikan Liitto) has chosen me as the opinion leader in ICT along with Angry Birds as the ICT product of the year!

The FIPA is a bit similar kind of organization in Finland as the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) is in the USA and worldwide.

It's a very positive surprise to be chosen in the first place, and even more positive to have such great company as Angry Birds by my side.

This honorary title of "Opinion Leader in ICT" (vuoden tietotekniikkavaikuttaja) has been received by some very prestigious people in the past;

Prof. Reino Kurki-Suonio
Prof. Pekka Himanen
Prof. Hannu Jaakkola
Risto Siilasmaa (2007)
Dr. Jyrki Kasvi, Member of Parliament (2008)
Dr. Mikko Kosonen (2009)

And now me for 2010.

What kind of themes I want to introduce in to the discussions?

Finland can no longer succeed with old models and processes of leadership, thinking about the old fashioned nature of work, and having an attitude geared more towards industrial production than for modern innovation.

People are not resources in a production facility.

The amount of work no longer correlates to good results or with more profits - the quality of the work and the brilliance of the idea does instead.

We kind of have an existential crisis in the Finnish economy; we have to be able to innovate and to think of work very differently from what we are used to.

Defining problems is more important than honing your skills in solving them. Independent critical thinking trumps common problem solving skills any time.

The whole world of ICT is full of opportunity for us all; and we have to be able to grasp those. Renew our entire concept of creativity, education, work and what it means to live your life as a contributing creative member of an organization and of society.

One good place to get your mindset right would be to start from reading Rework by 37signals. I have never seen more good thoughts compressed into a book than in Rework.

A finnish language story about this in Tietoviikko.

What do you think: how can we solve our crisis? Renew our thinking? Succeed in global competition?