I help people
gain greater insight
into strategy
I help people in organisations and communities gain greater insight into their strategy, culture and business logic.
I do this by distilling complicated, complex and difficult-to-communicate business topics into communication/images that enable engagement. The images create a concrete, shared platform for dialogue. The conversations they facilitate can be internal, within an individual, or shared with other people.
It is in the dialogue that deeper understanding and true insights are born.
Action, I believe, follows insight.
My working principles
Meaning
Impact
Honesty
Meaning
The project builds opportunities for learning and insights.
The insights can be expected to produce meaningful value for the organisation as well as the people within the organisation.
Yes, let’s go!
Impact
The work has the potential to influence, challenge and change the way people think and act.
The change in thinking can be verified by people acting differently.
Yes, yes, yes!
Honesty
Honesty brings wonderful simplicity to an otherwise complex world. I say what I mean, and I do what I say, and I expect no less from my clients. Hidden agendas are heavy to carry; let’s make our joint journey a light one.
I approach concepting work through:
Richness
Does making a complex issue look simple make it easier to understand? Sometimes, to a degree.
But every bit of simplification removes a handle that someone might have needed, and used, to open the door to their own insight.
I strongly believe that a degree of richness—a richness of detail, color and emotion—is helpful in creating insights and connections.
Digging deeper
Have you ever wanted something different and yet asked for the thing you already know?
We tend to want things that we are aware of, and have words for. But is what you know to ask for the thing your organisation and your people need?
I promise not to just take your word for what you want, but push a little bit further to see if we can’t find a fresh creative concept that is uniquely fitting for you and the culture of your organisation. This, for me, is the real concepting work.
Annika Varjonen
How I got here
My career as a strategy visualiser started in 1996 with a question: How come organisations spend millions in advertising, openly admitting that they are speaking to the emotions and subconscious of the consumers, but resort to using dull powerpoints and dense documents to communicate to their own employees?
As if people in their roles as consumers were somehow radically different from when they are inside an organisation. As if upon entering the workplace they had an instant emotions-bypass and started operating on pure logic alone.
This led me to wonder:
What if, instead of just the traditional powerpointing and word.doc-flurries, organisations started talking to their employees in a more human way, using pictures and stories? How much more leverage would we be able to find in engaging the whole of the human being? How much would we gain in trust, if our communication aimed to build dialogue and not deliver demands?
Before establishing Visual Impact Helsinki Ltd in 1996, I studied Industrial Design at the University of Art and Design and worked at Writers’ Studio as an advertising copywriter/art director. In 2000-2001, I worked as a change management consultant at Accenture.
I’ve worked with a wide range of industries, but mostly with international high-tech companies. I’ve worked on all sorts of topics, and the body of my work has been on strategy development & communication, leadership development and scenario planning. My working languages are Finnish and English, and my not-so-secret love is to work with engineers.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by complex issues, human capacity for making connections, and the joy of working with good people and exciting ideas. I love to travel on tangents and explore the synchronicities along the way.
I have always seen curiosity as a great blessing and gift. You know the worn-out saying of curiosity killing the cat? I’m convinced curiosity had nothing to do with it: someone ran over the cat with their car and didn’t dare confess.
There are many things to love in the life outside of work, too: reading (books, printed on paper), the sea, the forest, my garden. The sound of silence in nature. My people, family and friends. Getting sweaty and sandy on the beach volleyball court keeps me in shape both mentally and physically.