Author and lecturer Lenita Airisto opens up windows to a boundless world. Her lectures are based on her personal experiences and knowledge as a businesswoman and on her books, whose core messages are ENTREPRENEURSHIP, WOMEN’S RIGHTS, AGEING OF THE POPULATION and BENEFITING FROM THE GLOBAL ECONOMY.
The world is full of signals of new phenomena. The everyday reality of Finns is splintered, forcing us to consider the relationship of information and action to our values and to ask how these issues were being addressed elsewhere in the increasingly integrated world.
Lenita Airisto takes her readers on a tour of the financial world and business culture in Finland and Europe and also in the USA, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and our neighbour Russia. Her inspiring stories of survival and success are punctuated by interviews with top experts, economists and politicians.
She gives lectures based on all her books at universities, schools of economics and other academic educational institutions, where her books are also used as textbooks. She also addresses entrepreneurs’ seminars and events organized by academic organizations and businesses in Finland and abroad.
- May I? I will anyway! (SAANKO LUVAN? EI KUN OMIN LUVIN!), 2007
- Beauty is Value-Added (KAUNEUS on lisäarvo), 2004
- Female Energy, The Benefit and the Threat
(NAARASENERGIA hyöty ja uhka), 2002
- Extra Time molto vivace (JATKOAIKA molto vivace), 2000
- Women of Iron and Men of Steel in the Global
(MarketplaceRAUTAROUVA/TERÄSMIES globaalilla markkinapaikalla), 1998
- Success! (MENESTYS!), 1996
- The Will to Win (VOITONTAHTO), 1994
Her books are used as textbooks at schools of economics and other academic educational institutions.
Before turning to writing, Lenita Airisto was a TV journalist for more than 30 years and appeared on more than 300 prime time current affairs shows. She is indisputably one of the first TV personalities in Finland, and even today she is a significant opinion leader, controversial and admired in equal measure.
Her influence is verified by a survey commissioned from Taloustutkimus in 2008, whereby she ranked among the ten most influential women in Finland. This reflects her impact as an author and a lecturer.
May I? I will anyway!
This lecture is a call to arms on behalf of women, but not against men.
Why is being a woman like being in shadow? Why are women expected to be nice and submissive? Why are women hesitant to make a stand and assume responsibility – and power? What is holding women back? Is it still the intimidation through the seven deadly sins?
The fundamental precepts of our ancient Christian morality – the seven deadly sins – have been interpreted and applied differently to men and women, and they have even been used as tools in discriminating against women and oppressing them. This lecture compares the old deadly sins to contemporary themes of transition and change, which mainly involve women. The status of women today is discussed from the viewpoint of arrogant publicity, seductive power and the lure of money.
Finnish women take freedom and self-determination for granted. But women in certain other places in the world are not so fortunate. The lecture is also a startling report on how women live in the world today.
So, how do we tear down the seven deadly sins?
The dissidents are already on the move. They are misfits and difficult alpha females who are in control of their own lives. They are today’s witches, not girls brought up to be nice. They hate sexism and exploitation and hit back when required. But their message is a joyful one, and men would do well to listen to it too: today, when women in the media are often seen just as chance encounters in a soup of sex or even just a quick lay, it is all too easy to forget that these women too need tenderness and love.
Only those who can see the invisible
can make the impossible possible.
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BEAUTY is Value-Added
This lecture tells the success story of how Finland left behind its post-war reality of shortages and rationing to become a successful and innovative country in the front ranks of the global marketplace. The lecture provides fascinating examples of how international buyers have reacted emotionally to the beauty of exported Finnish Design products. It also illuminates how the era of design awareness gave Lenita Airisto’s own company, Airisto Oy, the opportunity and raw materials to become a successful and wide-ranging international business that powerfully marketed Finnish industrial products while promoting Finland’s image and culture abroad.
The words “creativity”, “beauty” and “design” are featuring prominently again in business discussions in Finland and around the world. In the opinion of many people, the ability to utilize aesthetics is a prerequisite for successful business.
Anyone who has ever lusted after an object knows the power of great design. The reason an object exists – its function - is the foundation of any design. In this era of design awareness, colour, shape and function are the leading forces driving consumer trends. Beauty can sway thinking, influence perception and incite emotion.
The “Beauty is Value-Added” lecture also uses material drawn from interviews with top experts in the arts, design and business in order to open perspectives into the future for Finland, Russia, the USA, China and the borderless global marketplace.
Beauty is like love, it gets us moving
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FEMALE ENERGY
The Benefit and The Threat
The women of the world are a gigantic untapped source of energy in every area of business. In the developing countries where womens’ education is improving, populations are decreasing. In countries where the female entrepreneurial spirit is rising, so too does the national economy.
The “Female Energy” lecture reports on the working lives of women in different parts of the world, on how modern women have inherited the resilience of their mothers and grandmothers and become successful business leaders in Finland, Russia, the USA, Hungary, Turkey, France and other countries. The lecture describes how women have taken charge of their destinies in cultures with different traditions and beliefs, and the importance of love, marriage and family in their lives. It reveals where these independent women get support for their efforts and consolation for their disappointments, as well as their sources of strength and operating strategies.
To know a society, know the women in it!
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EXTRA TIME Molto Vivace
Population projections say that by the year 2009 Finland will have more people over 65 years of age than under 15. Around the world, the number of people over 100 years old will grow at a fast pace. According to the UN’s calculations, there are about 135,000 people alive today who have reached 100. Fifty years from now, it is projected that the number of 100-year-olds will be 2.2 million.
The “Extra Time molto vivace” lecture asks a big question: is there a retirement time-bomb lying in wait for Finland or a marketing time-bomb?
The seniors of the future will be pioneers of long life, people who replace their vertebrae and internal organs like we replace teeth today. Soon we will have 100-year-olds with the energy and physical health of today’s 60-year-olds. Have we prepared ourselves for this? How long can a lifetime be? Will our pension system be robust enough for this brave new world, or will we have to restructure it for the longer lives that people will lead? And where are the business incubators for senior-citizen entrepreneurs? How shall we organize spare parts and warranty tune-ups for the human engine? How can the biotechnology of the west and the alternative medicines of the east be made to work together in harmony? Where shall we find meaning and purpose in our longer lives?
This all builds towards the question waiting for today’s healthy 60-somethings who are readying themselves for retirement: “Do you plan to play Bingo for the next 30 years?”
The “Extra Time molto vivace” lecture is again based on numerous interviews conducted with top professionals in different parts of the world: China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, the USA, France, Poland, Russia and Finland.
Seniors are about competence, not old age.
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WOMEN OF IRON AND MEN OF STEEL
in the Global Marketplace
What are the emerging markets today and how are they influencing the Finnish economy? What is India’s strong suit as it competes at China’s side to take over the west’s technical services and outsourced production? What role will the Mercosur countries, Brazil and Argentina, play in the world’s future agricultural production? Will the economic policies of the Eastern European countries be influenced by Chile’s experience of market liberalization? Who will the women of iron and the men of steel be in the emerging markets? What kinds of resources are they committing and what will their success stories be?
The lecture is based on interviews with leading experts who have provided economic insight into what the future may hold for Finland, Russia, the USA, Estonia, India, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and the European Union region.
Open windows to the borderless globalizing world!
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SUCCESS!
This lecture outlines how beliefs, traditions and education affect the ability of a country to achieve cultural and economic success. How do the basic cultural values of different countries affect their ability to reach their economic goals?
What is culture? Can we understand how cultural programming controls our attitudes and ways of interacting with our physical environment and the people around us? How can we get along with people in our business relationships who have a completely different cultural inheritance than ours?
The lecture is based on research and interviews carried out in Europe (Finland, Sweden, Germany, France and Switzerland), in the Middle East (Israel, Jordan and Lebanon), in the Far East (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore), as well as in the USA and Russia.
Together with all our differences, we are more
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