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.

Her published books are:

- Teachings of the Witch Lady (NOITANAISEN ILOSANOMA), 2022
- My Life And My Country (ELÄMÄNI JA ISÄNMAANI), 2017
- Long Live Seniors – 100 years and beyond! (ELÄKÖÖN 100 VUOTTA!), 2010
- 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 Marketplace
  (RAUTAROUVA/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.

 

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Lenita Airisto has chaired the economy panel at the Suomi Areena discussion forum for many years. Interview on the Huomenta Suomi, (Good Morning Finland) TV- show on Finland’s MTV3.

Juha-Veli Jokinen, a journalist with the Aamulehti newspaper, asks Lenita Airisto what kind of an impact she feels the politicised media of the 1970s had on the aesthetic values of citizens and how they dressed, and on the clothing industry.

 

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. When the United Nation's International Women's Day celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011, Finland's leading newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published a list of the best 100 women in Finland to honour the occasion. "We have sought to identify women who have been exceptionally successful in their careers and so served as examples, in addition to women who have worked in their lives to help others." Lenita Airisto was ranked among the 100 best women. And when the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper asked its readers in 2013. Who are Finland’s national treasures? Lenita Airisto ended up in the top 50, between Permanent State Secretary, Ministry Of Finance, Raimo Sailas and rock musician Andy McCoy. This reflects her impact as an author and a lecturer.

 

MY LIFE AND MY COUNTRY
Witnessing Finland’s 100 years

Finland’s success story is unrivalled. I don’t know of any other country that would have in a hundred years risen from oppression to become the world’s best independent country to live in. Finland’s story is also a thriller. The country has maintained its freedom and sovereignty, even though it has often required proceeding on a razor’s edge. Defending their country’s independence has required tremendous sacrifices from Finns. – This book and the lecture based on it is Finnish history through my own experiences. It is my life story the way I have lived it.

Finland has been built by its citizens, and I have had the opportunity to take part in this work. I am proud to be Finnish. Finland’s reputation in the world has provided a good basis for my international business.

There has been no need to conceal or feel ashamed of Finland’s history. Instead, it has provided a valuable reference point. I am deeply grateful to the previous generations for this.

Right from the start of the book, I tell my story on three different levels: Changes on the world political and economic stage; their impact on Finland; my parents, our family and me in the whirlwinds of history.

This multimedia lecture will take you on the journey of my life.

It will not be a smooth ride, since we will at times leap back and forth a few decades. When one explores one’s own past, surprising views open up to the landscapes of memory, and they must be included in the story.

What about Finland’s future? In an ever more global world, Finns will thrive and succeed through their education and abilities. When we communicate with people from other countries and different cultures, we learn most about ourselves. At some point we will find: Together as different people, we are more.

The lecture includes unique pictures and videos from a hundred years of history.

Independent Finland’s first appearance on Europe’s Map

Brutal dictators Stalin and Hitler quenching their thirst for power

Second World War – a period of havoc, horror and death

The Iron Curtain divides Europe – Finland’s place is in the free world

Communism shows its true face in Eastern Europe

Brezhnev’s chilling kiss, the treacherous embrace of socialism and useful idiots

Sea and air traffic & telecommunications connect Finland with the world

In the whirlwinds of history

The massive challenges of the new century

The best country in the world is FINLAND!

Interview with Tapani Ruokanen on the Winter War.

Author interview with Bazar

 

Long Live Seniors – 100 years and beyond!

This lecture shows how an invincible synergy is born when energetic young people are given the opportunity to collaborate with knowledgeable and capable seniors - seniors whose seasoned experience helps them to overcome even the most complex challenges.

Ageism is a fundamentally primitive reaction. Seniors over 60 that are in top mental and physical form are a new phenomenon in the history of mankind. Already in 2009 there were more people over 65 than under 15 in Finland, and the number of seniors continues to rise. People in their sixties are aging differently than their parents did in their day. They are not yet ready to surrender their vibrant work community for stodgy retirement clubs, where conversations tend to centre on golf or aches and pains.

Combining the strong experience of seniors with the vision of young people can create an invincible synergy that is ripe with innovation!

Watch the video

 

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.

Watch the video

 

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

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!

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.

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!

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

THE WILL TO WIN

How is the will to win born? The desire to be the winner, the one who makes it – the belief in oneself rather than in miracles?

This lecture tracks the new developments, opportunities and methods which lead to success in times of structural economic change. It describes how hierarchies are giving way to networks and how growth, development and innovation can be nurtured in fast-moving and knowledgeable small and medium-sized enterprises.

The lecture draws upon research and interview material from the USA, Germany, Russia, the Baltic states and Finland.

- Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Economics at Harvard University: “The world shouldn’t be left to go its own way, it’s too dangerous. The world needs leadership.”

- Irina Hakamada is a Russian politician and economics expert; excerpt from her feminist manifesto: “The political kitchen can’t make it without the lady of the house!”

- Sirkka Hämäläinen, top expert on the Finnish financial system and Director of the Bank of Finland in the 1990s: “The Finnish economy can be made to grow only with hard-earned money, not by taking on debt or printing money.”

- Jeffrey Timmons, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Harvard Business School, crystallizes it: “Intelligence isn’t enough, there has to be knowledge too.”

The real capital is between our ears.