What's Next Consulting

Elina Hiltunen defended her PhD about Weak signals in Organizational Futures learning

Elina — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:30:00 +0000

Elina Hiltunen has succesfully defended her PhD thesis named: Weak signals in Organizational Futures Learning at Aalto University, school of Economics (faculty of organization and management), 22nd June,2010. The thesis consists of 5 articles. Three of the articles focus on the definition of weak signals and coneecting them to change process. The articles also differentiate the concepts wild cards and weak signals that are sometimes used as synonyms for weak signals. Hiltunen presents a new concept “the future sign” that tries to clarify the dilemma of weak signal definition. The future sign is based on the semiotic thinking of Charles Peirce.

Hiltunen also examines the concept “organizational futures learning”, first time presented in this thesis. This concept includes weak signals (and other futures’ information) and its use in the organizational learning process. Hiltunen has studied global futurist commumnity and their ways and sources to find weak signals. She also introduces a new tool, the Futures Windows, in the thesis. This tool is one way in organizational futures learning process to efficiently disseminate weak signals in organizations.

The PhD thesis of Hiltunen can be bought from the Aalto University, school of economics book store.

Views of European Futurist about the year 2020

Elina — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:12:46 +0000

Elina Hiltunen has been commenting about how the world could look like in 2020 in IET magazine. Read the the story here.

Elina speaking in the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2010, London

Elina — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:49:06 +0000

Elina Hiltunen is having her speech about weak signals and anticipating the future from the business intelligence point of view in the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2010, February, London. See here the brochure of the summit.

Elinan kolumneja Talouselämässä

Elina — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:09:25 +0000

Elina kirjoittaa nykyään Talouselämässä kolumneja (varoitus: välillä pilke silmäkulmassa!!). Seuraavista linkeista pääsee suoraan kolumneihin.

Kolumni Lidlin kolamainoksesta

Kolumni ennakoinnista

Kolumni sosiaalisesta mediasta

Kolumni työssä jaksamisesta

100 euros challenge

Elina — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:07:54 +0000

Some days ago, in a seminar of Endero and their innovation management officer program I volunteered when five people were asked to step in fron t of everybody. Jim Solatie, and innovation couch totally surprised the five of the volunteers, by handing us a note of 100 euros (see the pic). The task for us was to use this note to something that encourages innovation. I spend very much time to think about where to spend this note, and finally came to a conclusion: I spend this note to enhhance the creativity of children.

Lately, I had a discussion with my daughter’s teacher and I asked her if it was possible to make the kids to draw and write about the future (for example 2020), and with that material to make a small book about their visions about the future. Every student would get a a book for themselves. The teacher said yes to me, and promised to start the project next January. Of course this is just the first discussions and you can never know what happens with this project, but I really like the idea that the kids could watch their creation after ten years and look ath their thoughts about the future at that time.

Printing is expensive, but luckily Nord Print volunteered to sponsor the printing, so we will get every child a book of his/her own.

I will keep posting about this issue in this blog, and how it turns out.

Elinan valokuvia esillä Espoon Ison Omenan kirjastossa 24.11-5.12

Elina — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:14:37 +0000

European Futurist conference 14-16th October

Elina — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:59:59 +0000

If you are interested in futures a good place to visit is European Futurist conference, which is arranged yearly in Lucern. The topic of the next conference is: Visioning 20.20- Escaping the Age of Stupid.

These issues are on the focus of the conference:

Understanding the Transformation

How far does the transformation reach beyond this worst crisis since the Great Depression?
What does the new architecture of a robust global financial system look like?
How do society’s values change?
How will customers make decisions in the future?
What is the future relationship between state and economy?
How does the transformation affect the sustainable development?
Which new technologies are driving tomorrow’s growth?

Conquering New Opportunities

What do the megatrends mean for small and medium-sized businesses?
Are the companies equipped for the future?
Where do corporate futurists see future opportunities?
How do companies combine insights about the future with their strategies?

programmecan be found here.

What’s Next Consulting jatkaa taas toimintaansa

Elina — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:22:14 +0000

What’s Next Consulting Oy jatkaa taas toimintaansa, koska Elina Hiltunen on päättänyt siirtyä Nokian futuristin paikalta takaisin konsultiksi. Mieli on täynnä uusia ideoita arvokkaan Nokiakokemuksen jälkeen.

-If change never happened, there would not be butterflies-

new blog

Elina — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:31:41 +0000

If you are interested in reading more about weak signals, please check my new (old ) blog:

http://www.future.vuodatus.net

I have continued writing about future and weak signals there.

Testing ti blog with mobilephone

Elina — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 11:11:20 +0000

I just got myself a new mobile phone E71 and of course I have to try it for blogging. I really like this qwerty keyboard and surfing with this phone is ok too (previously I have not surffed with cellphone).
Currently I am sitting in the car (not driving) we are coming from small Finnish town back to home. We visited local McDonalds and found a computer game there where children have to pedal real bikes to get the charachters in the screen to move. A weak signal!