CLIENT
Genelec is a globally recognised Finnish manufacturer of active loudspeakers, built over more than four decades around a strong culture of exploration, excellence and care.
As the company grew internationally and welcomed a new generation of employees, it faced a question familiar to many successful organisations: how to evolve without losing the culture that had contributed to its success.
Co-founders was invited to help Genelec understand what was essential in its culture and find a way to carry that legacy forward with a changing organisation.
CHALLENGE
Genelec’s strong culture was an important source of identity and continuity. Many employees had worked at the company for decades and shared a deep understanding of its values, history and ways of working.
For newer employees, much of that understanding was harder to access. At the same time, preserving the culture could not mean simply preserving existing ways of working as the company continued to grow and change.
The central question became:
How could Genelec carry the essence of its culture forward without turning its legacy into something fixed?
PROCESS
We began by listening to leaders and employees across countries and generations, exploring Genelec’s history, the legacy of its founder Ilpo Martikainen and the experiences through which its culture had developed.
Rather than starting by defining a set of values, we looked for the deeper patterns that people associated with being part of Genelec: exploration, the pursuit of excellence, creating something beautiful and long-lasting, and a profound care for people and the environment.
Together with Genelec’s people, we then explored how these qualities could remain alive and relevant for a new generation of employees. This led to an unusual solution: instead of documenting the culture in a conventional playbook, we created something people could actively make their own.
WHAT CHANGED
The result was Työkirja 43, inspired by the 42 workbooks in which Genelec founder Ilpo Martikainen collected his ideas, observations and sketches throughout his career.
Rather than describing Genelec’s culture as a finished legacy, Työkirja 43 invites employees to continue writing it. People can reflect, sketch, collect ideas and share their thinking alongside stories and insights from colleagues.
The workbook created a tangible way to pass cultural understanding between generations while giving new employees permission to contribute to what Genelec’s culture could become next. It supports onboarding, cultural dialogue and the continued development of the company’s identity as Genelec grows.
“This project strengthened our insights of the culture by hearing and reading how people feel about the company. As now there are so many new people on board, I think it is very important that they have this physical book where their colleagues have shared their thoughts, because it is a way to pass it forward and keep the culture alive.”
Maria Martikainen, Co-owner and Enterprise Culture Developer, Genelec
