Boss Level Podcast

Today's guest is Peter Sunde, co-founder of The Pirate Bay, Flattr and Njalla. The Pirate Bay is an online index of digital content often used for sharing copyrighted material such as movies, TV shows or music. The Pirate Bay is possibly one of the world’s most resilient websites, since the authorities have been trying to take it down for more than a decade and yet it’s still running. Since The Pirate Bay Peter has worked on several things, such as Flattr, a way of making micropayments to content creators and Njalla, a privacy-oriented domain registrar. We discuss how Peter got into The Pirate Bay, how The Pirate Bay operated, what the trial was like and what Peter is up to nowadays. Sponsor links: Nitor: http://nitor.fi Nitor myths: http://nitor.fi/myths Talented: http://talented.fi Talented: https://talented.fi/paljonko-tienaisit-freelancerina/ Links for the episode: Peter Sunde on Twitter The Pirate Bay Flattr Njalla Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.fa

For this episode I sat down for a chat with Tim Hwang. Tim has been labeled by Forbes magazine as the ’Busiest Man on the Internet’. First, he started ROFLcon, which stands for Rolling On the Floor Laughing Conference. It was a conference that studied internet culture through memes. After ROFLcon, he founded The Awesome Foundation For Arts And Sciences. The foundation’s sole aim is to promote awesomeness in the universe. It has donated over 2,5 million dollars to various projects through grants. The foundation operates through autonomous chapters that independently fund the grants and make decisions on recipients. He then started a law firm called Robot, Robot and Hwang to study how lawyers could be automated. Currently he advises Google on the impacts of artificial intelligence on public policy. Tim has done a lot considering he just turned 30. At the end of the interview I asked him what his next project is going to be and his answer was not exactly the kind of answer you normally get. Sponsor links: Talen

My guest today is Risto Siilasmaa. Risto is first and foremost an entrepreneur and a paranoid optimist. He’s the founder and former CEO of cybersecurity company F-Secure. His current role in the company is Chairman of the Board. Risto is also Chairman of the Board at Nokia. He took on the role in 2012 when Nokia was in a very difficult situation and actually one topics we discuss is how he came to accept the offer. We start off with Risto’s programming background, then move on to the early days of F-Secure and explore how the company was founded and how it grew. Regarding Nokia, we talk about the people side of the transformation Risto has led, the disadvantages of being a public company and whether structures drive behavior or the other way around. Sponsor links: Talented: http://www.talented.fi Columbia Road: http://www.columbiaroad.com/bosslevel Links for the episode: Risto Siilasmaa on Wikipedia Risto Siilasmaa on Twitter F-Secure Acquired Podcast Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.co

Start of the new, fourth season! My first guest for this season is James Hewitt. James is the Head of Science and Innovation at Hintsa Performance. He’s a sports scientist and performance coach searching for fresh perspectives and new approaches to enhance the performance of people, products and projects. We talk about the Circle of Better Life, which is a model that covers all the important aspects of well-being. We talk about the science behind the methods they use and new and interesting research in measuring cognitive load in knowledge work. Towards the end you’ll hear some pretty simple tips for improving your brain’s performance. Sponsor links: Talented: http://talented.fi Columbia Road: https://www.columbiaroad.com/bosslevel Links for the episode: James Hewitt on Twitter James's website Hintsa Performance The Circle of Better Life Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https

As is suitable for the season finale, I have a very special guest. I’m interviewing retired four-star general Stan McChrystal. Former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates described McChrystal as "perhaps the finest warrior and leader of men in combat”. McChrystal took command of an elite military organization, Joint Special Operations Task Force, and transformed it from a rigid hierarchy to a network of autonomous teams. The teams were encouraged to act autonomously as long as their actions served the purpose and were not immoral or illegal. For such a high level of autonomy to function the organization had to start sharing data extensively in order to create a shared concisousness. The story of the transformation is laid out in the book Team of Teams. What I especially love about the story is that it basically takes away all the excuses. If a military bureauacracy can transform itself to an agile network of teams, so can any business organization, no matter how large or traditional. Sponsor link: Varma: h

My guest is Sari Baldauf. Sari was selected as the most influential female executive in the year 1998 by Fortune magazine. In 2002 the Wall Street Journal named Baldauf as Europe's most successful female executive. Sari joined Nokia in 1983 and held several executive positions there. From 1998 to 2005 she was the General Manager of Nokia’s Networks business. She sat on the Executive Board of Nokia from 1994 until January 2005. In the end of 2004 she resigned from Nokia for personal reasons. Since then she’s moved on to become a respected board professional, working as the chairwoman of the board at Fortum, the Finnish energy giant, and as a member of the board at Daimler, among other roles. We talk about her defining moments, her happiest and saddest times during her career and her lessons learned on strategy and leadership. Sponsor link: Evervest: http://www.evervest.com Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitte

In this episode I’m interviewing Joshua Spodek. He teaches leadership at New York University, has a PhD in astrophysics and does burpees everyday. I think that’s a pretty amazing one line description for anyone. His book Leadership Step by Step will be released in a couple of weeks. We talk about his principles for getting things done, his routines, his views on leadership, and we do a five minute walk-through of his book. We end the interview with some empathy and book recommendations. Sponsor link: Evervest: http://www.evervest.com Links for the episode: Joshua Spodek website Joshua Spodek on Twitter Leadership Step by Step on Amazon Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043 Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com Sami's bl

My guest is Akiko Naka. She is the CEO of Wantedly, a Japanese social recruiting platform with 1,2 million monthly active users and a 100 employees. She’s passionate about helping people find work they love doing. We discuss her bold career moves, Wantedly’s business, decision making in organizations and strategies for finding a job you love. Sponsor link: Evervest: http://www.evervest.com/bosslevel Links for the episode: Akiko Naka on Twitter Wantedly Photo of recording setup at Slush Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043 Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com

If I’m concerned about privacy, my guest today is probably ten times more so. Aral is an activist, a designer and a software developer. He’s one of the founders of Indie, a tiny social enterprise working for social justice in the digital age. He’s also the man behind the Ethical Design Manifesto. We talk about Aral’s view on the evolution of computing, current business models of cloud services and venture capital. We cover the Ethical Design Manifesto and its implications on the software we build. Sponsor link: Kisko Labs: http://www.kiskolabs.com Links for the episode: Aral Balkan on Twitter Indie Sami's blog post: My strategy for increased privacy Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043 Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen

An interview with Jim Benson, the creator of Personal Kanban and Lean Coffee. We delve into Personal Kanban, which is an approach to dealing with the overload of stuff you need to deal with. We dig into into its two simple rules, visualizing work and limiting work in progress. We then walk through Lean Coffee, which is a simple and effective way to run your meetings. In the end we discuss Jim’s lessons on collaboration from his years in working to improve it in organizations. Sponsor link: Kisko Labs: https://www.kiskolabs.com Links for the episode: Jim Benson on Twitter Personal Kanban website Personal Kanban on Amazon Pomodoro Technique Lean Coffee website Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043 Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen Sami's website: http://www.sa

On this episode I’m interviewing Simon Wardley and we’re talking about Wardley maps, which are Simon’s method for co-creating strategy with visual and context-specific maps. Sponsor link: Siqni: http://www.siqni.fi Links for the episode: Example of a Wardley map Simon Wardley on Medium Simon Wardley on Twitter The Toaster Project Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043 Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com

My guest for this episode is Will Evans. He’s the Chief Design Officer at PraxisFlow. We talk about New York, entrepreneurship, company culture and major transformation programs. Sponsor link: Siqni: http://www.siqni.fi Links for the episode: Will Evans on Twitter PraxisFlow Interview with Dave Snowden Interview with Jabe Bloom Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043 Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen Sami's website: http://www.samihonkonen.com Sami's blog: http://blog.samihonkonen.com

Today my guest is Stephen Bungay. Stephen is the author of The Art of Action, a book on strategy execution under uncertainty. The book draws from lessons learned in military organizations where they’ve had to deal with complex situations 200 years before businesses needed to. I personally always cringe a little when I hear people talking about military leadership in the context of knowledge work, but Stephen knows where to draw the line of applicability, and that’s actually one of the topics we discuss. We also talk about why our plans don’t always lead to the outcomes we want or why our plans don’t always lead to the actions we want. And what to do about it. Sponsor link: Siqni: http://www.siqni.fi Links for the episode: Sami's blog post: Starting a new company Tomorrow Labs website Stephen Bungay's website "The Art of Action" on Amazon "The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain" on Amazon "Alaimein" on Amazon Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://e

The interview you’re about to hear was recorded in Paris, France. I interviewed Dominique Turcq. Dominique is a French consultant and researcher who wants to help companies get ready for the future. We talk about upcoming technologies, endless beta culture, individual evaluation systems, his lessons from McKinsey, and many other topics. We also cover his book, Augmented Management, which looks at the trends companies should be aware of and the skills that individuals should develop to be better equipped to deal with the future. Sponsor link: Enersoft: http://www.enersoft.fi Links for the episode: Dominique Turcq on Twitter Augmented Management Book: Augmented Management Everything You Need to Know About CRISPR, the New Tool that Edits DNA Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043 Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com Sami H

For this episode my guest is Alf Rehn, a professor of management from the Åbo Academi University. When appointed, Alf was the youngest chair in Finland. Now after more than ten years on the job he has gained a wealth of knowledge especially on the topic of innovation. In addition to his academic endeavours Alf sits on boards of several companies, for example Veikkaus, the Finnish gambling monopoly. Alf thinks we’re spending our innovation resources on the wrong things. We’re inventing gadgets when we should be solving poverty. In his opinion, we need better discourse on innovation. During the interview Alf also shares some of the things that he has seen that can make a company more innovative. In addition to innovation we discuss management. I was trying to get him to dis the bureaucracy at the university, but I failed to do so. Alf is definitely not a fan of bureauaracy, but he sees plenty of benefits arising from the traditional uninnovate parts of organizations. Sponsor link: Enersoft: http://www.enersoft

In 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto released bitcoin, a peer-to-peer digital currency. Bitcoin is based on the concept of a blockchain. The blockchain makes bitcoin decentralized. So that means money moves from one account to another without banks in between. Now that’s huge. Regardless of whether you see bitcoin as a viable currency the technology underneath it is impressive to say the least. My guest today is Martti Malmi who was the first after Satoshi to start working on bitcoin. He’s also the co-founder of MONI, a fintech startup and he runs his own global address service called identi.fi. In this episode you you’ll learn about decentralization, blockchain, smart contracts and you’ll know if there’s any merit to the hype. Sponsor link: Enersoft: http://www.enersoft.fi Links for the episode: Martti Malmi on Twitter MONI Identi.fi Ethereum Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itun

Today’s guest is Esko Kilpi. During previous interviews at least three of the guests have asked me if I know Esko since we’re both from Finland. Esko has created quite a following for himself through his blog posts and his talks on the future of work. We discuss how value is nowadays created in networks through interaction. How the experience and the context are key elements in value creation. And how selling should not be seen as a single transaction, but as a continuous mutual learning process. We then explore how these concepts should be reflected in our organizations. Links for the episode: Esko Kilpi on Twitter Esko Kilpi on Medium Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043 Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen Sami's blog: http://www.samihonkonen.com

Today’s guest is Jabe Bloom. A few years ago, he walked in to the Carnegie Mellon University library, approached the Design section and picked up a book starting with the letter A. His plan is to keep reading until he gets to Z. His definition of design is “the intentional formation of a purposeful system”. He says science has no intention towards the future, but design does. Links for the episode: Jabe on Twitter PraxisFlow Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/podcast/boss-level/id1041885043 Website: http://www.bosslevelpodcast.com Sami Honkonen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamiHonkonen Sami's blog: http://www.samihonkonen.com

Today’s guest is Lori Schwanbeck. Among other things she’s one of the teachers of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, which started out as Google’s internal program to teach mindfulness. So the topic for this episode is mindfulness. Why has Google embraced it? How are they embracing it? What’s the research behind mindfulness? What is mindfulness and how can I get started? Links for the episode: Lori on Twitter Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute Pomodoro technique Headspace Calm Sami's band Embreach: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7C78Ej3IXZox3POA1urXJ1 iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-world-that-we-have-lost/id1107414863 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/embreach/sets/the-world-that-we-have-lost/ Bandcamp: https://embreach.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-that-we-have-lost Album release gig: https://www.facebook.com/events/786814521423531/ Music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-dmqGmkNaA Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: ht

Today’s topic is product management and lean startup. My guest is Melissa Perri. When I asked around for tips on who to interview while in New York her name came up frequently. I’ve met her at several conferences and knew her to be an expert on product management. I was sure we’d have a fun chat so I reached out and she agreed to sit down for an interview! We talk about how to get from business requirements, which often aren’t really requirements at all, to validated learning. We discuss validation, experiments, user research, a weekly cadence and how top management and product management should work together. Links for the episode: melissaperri.com @lissijean Håkan Forss and the Toyota Kata metaprocess Sponsor links: Vijay Govindarajan's Three Box Strategy Model Nordic Business Forum Nordic Business Forum SWEDEN Links for the podcast: Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/P0dpf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bosslevelpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosslevelpod iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/pod