Our new baby.... long time no blog

Finally soft launched our new company's video alarm phone Lumo. Super exciting times. And so great to work for something that really matters.

Zero to One

Excellent reading (or listening (best way to spend time in car)) by Peter Thiel: Zero to One.
He is after chasing great secrets again, finding ways to escape our current great technological stagnation, doing something completely new, going from 0 to 1. Great food for everyone's thoughts I believe.

Audio books rule! ... but p2p marketing is tough

Thanks to Audible, my numerous hours in car have turned into life changing hours I am always looking forward to.
Audio (business) books work exceptionally well for me - can't stop "reading" to do memos while driving and thinking irons out the occasional repetition and "air" from book.  I have also been trying to sell the idea of using commuting hours for audio books to my friends with these arguments:
"Audible has actually changed my life for better. They give the first book for free so there is no risk if you do not like. Apps are available for all ecosystems. Warren Berger's More Beautiful Question is a book everyone should really I mean really read or listen. I have done it twice."
Weirdly nobody seems to buy this. I am obviously less credible P2P marketer than I'd like to think.

If Toyota Lean Leadership audio book has the power to make 10.5hours drive from Helsinki to Oulu and back most enjoyable, it must be good?  

Pay for your "paper"!

Just watched the document on the rise of Nazis in the 1930s.
Most of the people didn't really feel ok what Nazis stood for and didn't like the fact that they are getting in power. But, everybody just guessed it's ok, because most of people don't seem to be opposing and "things" progress.
People who still think :) don't quite feel ok with slowly but clearly dying professional media/newspapers. But, we guess it's ok because news and "stuff" is available free anyways from Facebook, Google,.... somehow it will be sorted out. Hey new business models will be invented and blaa blaa blaa.

The attitude of general public (what ever that means) nowadays towards decline of professional media and journalism resembles the attitude of general public in Germany in the 30s - they silently accepted decline of democracy and we silently accept the decline of journalism. They lost freedom and replaced human dignity with uniforms. We loose media which aims to share information independently and objectively about the world, and replace it with funny videos and provocative opinions.  They lost for Nazis, we loose for money.

Pay for your "paper"!!

Dream of better digital classical music experience, Lean Startup and understanding (finally) about the value of small batches...

I have co-founded 2 corporate internal startups and 1.5 "normal" startups. The second corporate internal startup (WidSets.com in 2005-2008) had very Lean approach. The second "normal" startup (Adaptamag.com in 2011-2013) was extremely far from Lean even tought we thought we were a Lean startup. At the time I did read Eric Ries's book but it's obvious to me now that I did not understand it then at all.

I have now started experimenting (as a hobby) with one of the long time dreams i.e. creating better digital experience for classical music. I've also digged into Lean startup book again, this time listening it via Audible. Few weeks earlier that I had just listened 10hrs of "The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence Through Leadership Development by Liker, Convis, Meskimen" on Helsinki-Oulu-Hamina-Helsinki trip.
These 2 books melted into a better understanding on how I could and should approach "Why-whatif-how"-ideas.

I have now started doing small batch testing of my hypothesis in www.artmus.org. This has been a small revolution to me in many ways. One very basic hypothsesis has already been proved wrong. Now I believe I have a better question in my hands for that.
 
Thick head, long wires but I am excited.
Also, can't wait to be able to put the learnings in action in my next job.  

MAKIA ... sweet

Accidentally and luckily I started to read what was on MAKIA's pullover sales label. Otetta :) Good touch.
"Maintained by the errors and triumphs of a bunch of individuals, MAKIA strives for the better. It's not a produced thing, but a fact. The heart of MAKIA rises from the growing pains we get from making every imaginable mistake and learning from it. There is no sulking away or sucking a thumb behind the copying machine. Everything is real-time in your face accountability. After a bar fight you still turn up to work the next morning for yet another great workday with the guy who gave you a black eye. Thats what maturity is. After all, life is a hard romance."

Mr. Ries nailing the essential...

Eric Ries in the lastest Success mag CD with Darren Hardy:

"I am shocked in my travels all over modern capitalism, I have been truly shocked how often people in business are doing stuff but they don't really know why. Because they were told to do it by their boss.  I heard my boss thought it was a good idea. Well, he or she just knows it  - they are the boss. I don't know. Or, it's just how we've always done it. We did it last year this way so we continue to do it this way. Just is how it is.
There is an incredible amount of waste that is happening in our modern business.
And you know we have in today's companies we have our most talented brightest, most creative people on the planet doing this work. And to waste all that time and energy, I think is an appalling appalling waste of human potential.
It's not really any individual person's fault. Everyone is doing their job the way they were told. And yet, the net result of sum total is millions and millions and millions of person hours of time and energy being absolutely squandered.
So that's what we as business leaders, as entrepreneurs, as CEOs, as  managers, as policy makers, that's we are confronted with. An enormous waste of human potential because the systems that we are building make it so.
And the question we gotta really ask ourselves is that if we learn to be more experimental in the work we do is, there a better way? And I really believe the answer is yes."


The essential question not only for work life but also even in terms of the survival of the mankind in a world with ever more scarce resources and our limitless appetite for more?