Hannu Laakso Email & Phone Number

After close to 30 years of corporate life I'm now focusing on things that I genuinely find most interesting. My offering includes- business consulting on foreseeing future trends connected with emerging yet still invisible business opportunities and threats (see the Luotzi link below in Finnish)- how to differentiate from competitors- creative visualization of corporate and business communication thru differentiating photography- corporate blogs- corporate history stories- creating inspiring strategy wording- inspirational speaker on sustainability and nature issues- interim marketing management- books on nature photography- selling high-quality nature photos as gifts and interior design (see the Kuvat.fi link below in Finnish and English).My next book dealing with nature photography will be published in 2022.

Helsinki Area, Finland

Business consulting on foreseeing future trends connected with emerging yet still invisible business opportunities and threats.See the Luotzi link in Finnish: http://www.luotzi.fi/

Helsinki Area, Finland

Photography and story-telling in countries of coffee origin. A large photography tour through the whole Central America to salute Eduard Paulig's impressing five-month expedition in 1927. The main themes: Paulig brand heritage and sustainability.

Vuosaari, Helsinki

Leading Paulig Coffee Division's marketing organization of 60+ highly skilled professionals located in Finland, Baltics and Russia. Responsible for brand and portfolio strategies, new product development process and country-specific marketing. Very excited to turn market intelligence and consumer insights into business opportunities together with Paulig colleagues. A member of Paulig Coffee Management Team.Highly involved in developing Division strategy with responsibility being a corner stone in absolutely everything we do. We buy 1 % of the global coffee production - that's plenty of coffee for a family business.Exploring great taste and practicing Paulig core values such as curiosity is a true delight on a daily basis. We settle for nothing less than striving for excellence from bean to cup and from cup to great coffee experience – the Paulig way.

Including Board Membership 2009 - 2015During my time IUM Oy was a media agency owned by Interpublic Group and Publicis. Up until June 2013 we were known as Pool Media International. Our clients were A-class international and domestic marketers. We turned our company around ever since December 2008. We widened our offering thru investing on new diversified services such as digital services, research concepts and community management. Thanks to that, we saw new revenue streams grow taking greater share of our total revenue.Our latest annual Staff Survey results ranked us in TOP5 of 23 EMEA markets (starting from the last position in 2008). In our daily work we put a lot of energy in communicating insights, second opinions and guidance to our clients. We based our recommendations on analysing and understanding customer and media behavior in the digitizing world. We believed in using marketing communication in a holistic way through paid, own and earned media.

Fulfilling the long-time dream of sabbatico - doing things that were 'shadowed' by long working hours. Things such as spending more time with the family, travel photography, playing music (drums), sports activities, studying Spanish, voluntary work on national defence, writing business columns to Helsingin Sanomat, writing a book on how to work with ad agencies etc. Last but not least: enjoying some days of empty calendar. Highly recommendable for anyone dreaming about this.

As the Chief Marketing Officer I was responsible for the whole of marketing within Elisa Group, reporting to the CEO. I got to work also with Vodafone, due to the marketing alliance between Elisa and Vodafone. A lot of gifted people in both companies. Perhaps the most unconventional and fascinating part of my job was at the time when I was the owner of Product Lifecycle Process - an MBA in the world of engineers. Now I understand Sting's hit 'an Englishman in New York' :)

My responsibilities were BtoB and BtoC marketing, PR & Communications, Research and the Brand Manager Team. I had the fortune of being involved in a turnaround story up-grading a great media company, including leading a massive on-air identity facelift project. As competition was getting stronger, it was time for MTV to retune itself. I also accomplished Bonnier's international management training programme that lasted one year. Also want to mention playing drums in MTV3 House Band, quite a few funny gigs.

Finland

Responsible for national marketing. I started by cleaning the toilets and doing other restaurant floor activities to understand the business. Then I took the McDonald's Marketing University exam in Chicago and started the real-life marketing, including marketing alliances with Coca-Cola and Disney. McDonald's highly developed best practices have been very useful ever since. These years were a world-class experience for building sales and differentiating the brand. I got to know gifted colleagues - both domestic and international. Plus the smart and hard-working restaurant franchisees.

Working as a brand manager within beer industry was one of coolest jobs I could imagine at that time. Olvi was and still is a great company. Those were the years of establishing Olvi's national position in the Finnish market of beer, beverages and mineral water. I got to work a lot around R&D and quality control as well - so many interesting sessions of product evalution. Iisalmi was a great place to live, including the opportunity to play in a groovy band with a horn section.

Nokia Data was my first employer after having finished my studies in Turku School of Economics. It was (and still is) valuable to learn the very fundamental business skill: how to sell. I learned quite a bit of ICT category, too. I started with direct medium-size clients and later moved onwards dealing with selected Key Clients. I was also responsible for the areal dealer sales. Due to an acquisition Nokia Data merged into ICL in 1991. I gave a lot of time to work but quite a few hours to a band called Sixpack as well.

Education record

Master'S Degree, International Marketing With Secondary Focus On Commercial Law, Economics And Foreign Languages, Master Of Science, Economics And Business Administration

Activities and Societies: Diverse working experience to finance my studies, for example physical work in building sites and Turku Harbour.

Intensive Marketing Programme In Chicago, With Areas Such As Competition Analytics, Planning Marketing Activities, Presentation Skills

Activities and Societies: Learning marketing the McDonald's way together with dozens and dozens of colleagues from all over the world..

One-Year Leadership Programme For Business Leaders And Journalists

Activities and Societies: A one-year cross-functional training programme for a group of 20 people consisting of journalists and business.