I am a strategist, advisor, and fractional strategy lead for organizations in transition. For over 20 years, I have helped businesses, institutions, and brands adapt and grow by combining business intelligence with social sciences, cultural studies, and design inquiry.

  • A systems view maps the deep structures and dynamics.

    Business intelligence traces the economic logic of possibility.

    Social sciences uncover how people and institutions act and adapt.

    Cultural studies expose the meanings and narratives that bind worlds together.

    Design inquiry turns insight into models, form, and concrete ways of acting.

Interdisciplinary Sensemaking

  • Every transformation looks different. Sometimes you need a sharp outside mind. Sometimes a steady sparring partner. Sometimes a strategist inside the room, shaping decisions week by week.

    Consultant: Shorter, focused engagements to clarify direction, reframe narratives, design strategy systems, or unlock a specific challenge such as growth, positioning, partnerships, or new business models.

    Advisor: Ongoing strategic sparring for leadership teams navigating complexity, sense-making emerging change, and translating ambiguity into confident action.

    Fractional Strategy Director / Strategist: Embedded senior-level strategy expertise and leadership during periods of transition. This model brings continuity, institutional memory, and daily strategic presence without committing to a permanent role too early.

Ways to Work Together

  • The day mode explains, measures, and structures. It works through numbers, models, and logic to define the visible reality and make deliberate choices within it.

    The night mode senses atmospheres and emerging meanings. It attends to how people actually behave, how cultures shift, and how the future begins to take form before it can be fully described.

    Both are essential in complex and fast-shifting worlds. Depending on the strategic question, they interweave throughout the work, informing how insights are gathered, futures reimagined, narratives reframed, and possibilities redefined.

    Read more about Day/Night Strategy here.

Day/Night Strategy

I move between the technology, cultural, and creative worlds, working with leading art institutions, tech companies, lifestyle brands, and public organizations. A selection of clients below.

MUSEUMS AND ART INSTITUTIONS

TECH AND LIFESTYLE COMPANIES

PUBLIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS

Some of the questions I have helped answer to redefine categories, open futures, and invite new ways of thinking.

How does an ART MUSEUM evolve its OFFERINGS for a new building?
What is the PURPOSE of a CONSUMER TECH BRAND today?
What defines the next-era BUSINESS MODEL of a MUSIC HALL?
How can a MUSEUM act as a MEDIA PLATFORM?
How does a DESIGN BRAND grow by enabling BETTER WAYS OF LIVING?
How can an ART BIENNIAL create new PARTNERSHIPS and FUNDING LOGICS?
What is a credible PATH TO SUSTAINABILITY for an ART UNIVERSITY?
What role can a TECH COMPANY play in IMPROVING LIFE at scale?
How does a LIFESTYLE BRAND stay relevant in CULTURAL FLUX?
What are the FUTURE DIRECTIONS for PUBLIC INVESTMENT in the creative sectors?

Ville Tikka

Black and white portrait of a man with short hair, wearing a leather bomber jacket, looking at the camera.

Ville is a strategist and advisor to leadership, strategy, and creative teams across sectors ranging from art and culture to technology, lifestyle, and the public sphere. His work focuses on helping organizations dance with complexity, design adaptive strategies, and build meaningful futures.

Before consulting, Ville led strategic innovation and foresight projects as a Senior Futures Specialist at Nokia Design’s Insight & Innovation unit. Working from New York, London, and Helsinki, he collaborated with global business, design, and brand teams across five continents.

Ville has written extensively on the future of cultural institutions, strategic and circular design, and business transformation. His practice also extends into curating, exploring AI ethics, and developing world-building frameworks emerging from web3 culture.

He holds an MA in Psychology and Media Studies from the University of Turku and has pursued PhD studies at Aalto University’s School of Arts, Design and Architecture.