Alf Rehn

Speaker Subjects

• The Frivolous Economy – Creating Wealth through the Completely Pointless
• After Innovation – The Post-Original Economy and the Business of Tomorrow
• Business is a Child’s Play! – Children and Tweens as Core Consumers
• Simpler – Why the Strategic Management of the Future will be about Less rather than More
• Tomorrow’s Consumer – Why Platforms will Matter More than Products
• Creativity for Heretics – When Improper Thinking is Your Best Asset
• The Weirdness and the Wonder of the New Consumers
• Haute Management, or Spicing Up Your Leadership
• The Disruptive Innovation of the Creative Economy
• Strategy in a Social Age

Professor Alf Rehn is one of the most interesting new voices in business thought today. A well-regarded academic, he combines rigorous analysis with a creative and often surprising outlook on life, bringing in things like popular culture and philosophical theory into his analyses of modern business and contemporary economy.

As a business thinker, Alf has been called an “enfant terrible of organization studies”, while the venerable The Times called him a “star of the future”. The 2009 Thinkers 50, the listing of the world's top 50 business thinkers, included him on their Guru Radar, ranking him #13 among the Up and Coming Business Thinkers.

Alf works frequently as a speaker at various events, ranging from keynoting major conferences or events for global corporations, to giving interactive sessions and workshops for smaller groups. He has talked for audiences from six people to more than a thousand. He usually talks on topics such as creativity, innovation, strategy and consumer behavior, and has talked at spas, in converted barns, after saunas, and was once booked by a star of musical theater and an astronaut.

As a speaker and consultant, Alf has worked with major business conferences, global industry, finance and insurance companies, CIO's, pharmaceuticals and the high-tech industry, as well as mentored a series of start-ups. In doing so he has talked about things as far apart as discussing novel ways to develop city economies, economy as entertainment, cannibalism as strategy and going beyond creativity. In addition, he has appeared on TV talking about things such as business language, boredom in organizations, extreme wealth and new business models.

Alf's approach to management and business is highly creative and often turns taken-for-granted notions on their head. Rather than presenting the same buzzword everyone else does, he challenges our thinking by arguing for things like taking frivolity seriously, that innovation has become boring, that brands are uninteresting and that real business wisdom can be found in comic books. At times provocative and always engaging, he represents a fresh new way of thinking about business.

Born in Finland, but raised in more than a dozen places, Alf stopped for long enough to get a MSc in business studies despite spending most of his time reading philosophy, sociology and cultural studies, and later – even more improbably – got a doctorate in technology (Industrial Management) while reading and writing about anthropology and behavioral sciences. His thesis on gift economies and new organizational forms discussed piracy and collaboration long before it became fashionable, and got him enthusiastic about looking for the bleeding edge of economic developments. Despite this, he got a chair in management at the advanced age of 31 years old and is still one of the youngest full professors in Scandinavia.

Currently, Alf holds a chair of management and organization at Åbo Akademi University in Finland, a professorship of innovation and entrepreneurship at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, and is recognized as one of Europe's top young management scholars.

Alf has published and edited a wide range of books, articles, columns and thought papers. His latest book, Dangerous Ideas, takes an alternative view on creativity and business. It is a book on getting thinking out of its comfort zone, by any means necessary. It discusses taboos, disgust and unsuitable thinking. Click on the link to the right to learn more about Dangerous Ideas.

Testimonials
“Many thanks indeed for your contribution to our conference. Your presentation made a considerable impact. It was very well received. The following days a lot of reference was made both to yours and Rob’s presentation, this probably was the most positive of all”
Henrik Tirsgaard, Head of Geoscience Maersk Olie & Gas AS