I have been a couple of years in the board of Paper Engineers’ Association in Finland. We have also our own magazine, Paper and Timber (Paperi ja Puu). I have been in a few discussions regarding the future of printed media and was thinking about a possibility of actually implementing the new ideas our branch has with our own journal. Wouldn’t that make sense or what? But what could the ideas be like? Let’s ideate on the topic:

First, how about joining forces with company newsprint and magazines. Our big companies send thousands of magazines to their customers. Why couldn’t we include Paper and Timber contents in these publications.
    - An issue with each of the companies as main sponsors for just their customers + PE members
    - Issues with all of the PE member companies with delivery to all their distribution AND PE distribution

Second, let’s make trial publications that include intelligent content. There are quite a few such development projects going on.
    - What would be the intelligent packaging of a magazine? Something with a chip and a card that one could use in downloading?
    - Some novel RFID application to try?
    - 2 –dimensional bar codes and other images that could be used jointly with mobile phones to download info
    - Electronic paper applications

Third, new materials to be tried on Paper and Timber?
    - Nano structures in use on the sheets or nano sheets.
    - Other ultra thin papers
    - Extra bulky pages for some tough stuff
    - Very environmental friendly number
    - Eatable version of Paper and Timber

Fourth, new printing technologies
    - Every member would get their own, specialized version
    - Changing content with some interactivity
    - Order your own interesting articles on Paper and Timber
    - Print your own magazine at home

I guess this list should continue much further, but please help me with this. I challenge you. I think Paper and Timber could be an excellent test bed for wild ideas. Something to think when enjoying summer ;-)

Cheers,

Leksa

The exhibition is over. I have somewhat mixed feelings about this. Comments in Finnish Technology Journal  were on the lines: “when do we hear something new”. To me there are lots of old ideas that have not been approached yet. Why haven’t we done anything about even the most obvious and quickly beneficial ideas? One answer is the lack of entrepreneurial spirit in companies and the actual entrepreneurs that would start new businesses. Finland is full of various support organizations for new businesses, but the pipeline is empty. There are no risk takers that would actually make things happen.

I made a small presentation and was even lucky to be interviewed on Finnish television. Looks like there is a need for fresh opinions. A summary of what I showed the 3rd of June at the Winning Change session can be seen behind this link. Comment, also if you disagree!

As many of you might know, I was very sick during the first months of the year. I caught a serious brain inflammation and meningitis in January. The inflammation, also called encephalitis is mortal in 10-30% of cases. Most of the patients never recover fully. The hard thing for the people around the sick one is that the symptom awareness is  practically zero. My IQ dropped down to a level of a ten year old, but simultaneously I demanded my lap top and phone from my wife and co-workers, because I felt perfectly capable to do my job. At the worst stages of the sickness I was tied to my bed, because I was so restless suffering from severe headaches.

What happened at GloCell was amazing to me. My brother read about the disease and understood that I might never recover. He contacted the board and our new COO, Pirita, and held a meeting on what to do at GloCell when or if I’m not there anymore? They decided on strategy, kept meeting with the rest of the company and everyone was willing to work harder to fill in during my absence. The result was that GloCell had the best first quarter in its history! The commitment to do this was there. All of our employees could have also immediately started the search for new jobs and leave the sinking ship that GloCell seemed to be. I’m greatly thankful to the board as well as the core team we have with Pirita Mikkanen as COO, and Sirpa Välimaa, Jukka Seppänen and Markku Jouppila as specialists. This type of commitment and putting the company before ones immediate self interests will take us far.

Now I'm back. Still trying to reserve enough time for golf, with variable success. GloCell is doing great and the future looks very interesting.

Many of the R&D efforts are just seen as “expenses” or something that will bring money in the future.
Also much of the monetary outcome expectations of the R&D efforts are based on wrong or insufficient information.
There have not been efficient ways to analyze risk and potential and to build non-biased R&D portfolios in companies in our oppinion in the past.

Now we are presenting a solution that might be the answer in helping to evaluate the importance of R&D.

Please check the presentation behind the LINK.

Our customers have asked us to put togther a tool with most of potential pulps for benchmarking world wide. The reason is that there are tens of pulps in the market and quite a number of companies test and benchmark the same pulps. Simultaneously companies do a lot of testing ensuring quality and benchmarking pulps, but due to different procedures comparisons cannot often be made.
We present a possible solution in the presentation behind the link.

Please comment if you think this makes sense and if not the comments are even more welcome!

LINK