Teemu Hostikka, who reaches an audience of millions, has a short work week and appreciates boredom: \”If the calendar is full, you won’t get anything creative done\”
For the Eränkävijät director, band time was a school of teamwork, the lessons of which helped him become a successful media entrepreneur. The seventh season of the favorite series starts in October.
On the other hand, the statement would be completely correct, because Hostikka has progressed from a high-profile musician and album cover designer through Oulu Kärppi’s match videos to an internationally awarded TV producer by being in the right place at the right time.
In those places, however, Hostikka has worked tirelessly, managed to gather the right team around him and channeled his enthusiasm and creativity into products that almost every Finn knows.
– I have always been able to work with people much more talented than myself. I can say that I was the worst player in the band, but I did the most songs and the others could play them better than me. Maybe it’s the same today, Hostikka reflects.
Boredom gives way to creativity
At first, Hostikka only employed herself. Now, NTRNZ Media’s core team consists of twenty permanent employees at the Oulu head office – or wherever everyone thinks is best to work – and a close group of freelancers.
The office space in the old station building is more like a home than a workplace, and it suits professionals doing creative work well. The tapping of keyboards echoes on large-patterned wallpapers and half-panel walls.
– Here is a nice symbiosis of very modern industry and state-of-the-art technology and traditional old architecture. At the same time, when data is moving with the optical fiber, the workroom is heated with the stove.
The mood is quite relaxed anyway. Hostikka strives to have a four-day work week, although she admits that it has slipped from time to time. He also offers the opportunity for free working time to his subordinates.
– If you fill up the calendar for the whole week, you won’t get anything creative done. All creativity springs from a certain kind of boredom. If it’s even a quarter of a day boring, then something new and cool will be born, Hostikka reasons.
The eternal autumn of the coastal city drove to Lapland
The interview day is Friday. The director-producer often spends it somewhere else than at the office, for example paddling in the Oulujoki estuary.
All hobbies are somehow connected to nature, and following nature hobbies, Hostikka moved to her current place of residence in Kittilä Rauhala some time ago.
– There are clearly four seasons. In the coastal cities there is such an eternal autumn, it rained for a very long time. There it might pass in a week.
