The serial entrepreneur and CEO of the media group – City Digital –  is one of the candidates for the “Future CEO of the Year” award

Ilkka O. Lavas began his career at the age of 17 as a one-man website entrepreneur. Today, Lavas is in charge of a whole digital world ecosystem, the most famous of which – City Digital – is growing in fast speed.

“I’m really touched that I was selected as a candidate for the Future CEO of the Year award. It is a great honour to be nominated amongst such outstanding competition”, commented Lavas about his candidacy.

According to the criteria for the Future CEO of the Year award, it is given to the CEO who motivates people to act in a common direction and who creates growth while inspiring staff. “During my career, I have received a lot of encouragement from inspirational people, so now I want to share it with others. I believe that courage, innovation, a positive attitude, and an inspiring vision are the driving forces of the work community.”

Lavas started his business from zero and, step-by-step, grew his cluster of businesses into a digital media ecosystem that employs more than one hundred people. Throughout his career, he has met challenges and successes. “As a CEO I get to spar, create new and change existing, business models, but I have also experienced cut-backs. Regardless, every challenge can show you a new direction.”

City Digital sheds its skin

A great example of this is City Digital – an iconic brand that is known primarily by ‘City Magazine’ that shed its skin in Lavas’ hands. City Digital quickly became the fastest growing digital media group in Finland. “We have managed to build completely new business models, processes and constructs during the digital era of City Digital. By doing this, we´ve been able to find a totally new direction for the business.”

The hard work has paid off as City Digital was rated the second fastest growing Finnish company in the Deloitte Fast Growth 50 competition last year, competing against media, technology and telecommunications companies across Europe.

Vote here: http://seedi.fi/futureceo/#future-ceo-valinta

Ilkka O. Lavas has been invited as a speaker for Digital Innovators Summit Berlin.

Lessons learned in this keynote:
– Lean Startup Methods (the model and case example City Media)
– The Lean Startup Build-Measure-Learn for testing ideas (success case examples)
– 3 Success factors for Startup business (and best practices for
corporate-startups)

Check out: http://www.innovators-summit.com

There are enermous amounts of business opportunities in the world. Beijing is the Capital of China. China is huge economic giant in world economy. Beijing is nice city and it is still developing. Lots of possibilities to develop in restaurant field, in construction business, in traffic and in cleantech. And yes, Chinese people want to develop and invest for better future!

Nice Architechture, maybe they use our ArchiCad.

Nice Architechture, maybe they use our ArchiCad

Business man Ilkka Lavas in Beijing, the Capital City of China.

Prepared and Ready for serious business meetings in China.

Old and New Beijing China. World is not ready yet. We still have opportunities to be better.

Nice Ferrari in Beijing China.

Explore China and notice the enermous possibility for new business opportunities.

Have a Successful Life!

Ilkka O. Lavas
Serial Entrepreneur