Monthly Archives: January 2020

Feature at Ekonomi magazine

Finnish magazine Ekonomi made an interview feature about how it is to work and live in France.

In it, I discuss the notable differences between France and Finland, touching on the role of social relations, language, hierarchy and leadership in organisations, and also the quality and attitude to life.

Access the original article by Mikko Huotari here.

Why teach ethnography to managers?

Read my co-authored press article with Lionel Sitz for The Conversation (English) & Survey Magazine (French):

In management circles and beyond, companies are rushing to integrate, adapt and exploit big data in their organisations. Following example by Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, Zappos, and Walmart, companies are building big-data solutions to profile customers and to enhance marketing effectiveness via recommendation algorithms seeking to predict what customers are likely to be interested in buying each moment. Business schools, too, are quick to restructure their offering around big data and analytics – it seems as if nothing more is needed. Yet little is said about the kind of understanding and reflexivity that is needed when working with such voluminous data. We believe that important lesson can be learned from ethnographic research, which should be taught to managers obsessed with big data.